The new legal regime of international adoption

Abstract

In Spain the number of international adoptions outweighs dearly the number of domestic adoptions, being these a very old-rooted concept which has been currently influenced by numerous factors which have led it to become the target of the law-maker. Thus, international adoptions are the objec- tive of a consecutive and laboured amendment whose main axes can be found nowadays in the Spanish Civil Code and the Acts LOPJ, LEC, LAI, legislation from the Autonomous Communities and the act Ley 26/2015 de 28 de julio, which modifies the children and adolescents protection scheme. All of which seasoned with the basic principles of the Convention of the United Nations on the children rights 1989 and the Hague Convention on children protection and cooperation with regard to international adoption, 1993.

Therefore, the aim of this study is to focus our attention on the Spanish legislation considering two aspects. On the one hand, to point out the legal paths to establish an international adoption and to highlight the roles and functions of the various administrative and judicial authorities. On the other hand, in a practical and synthetic way, to investigate the necessary requirements, without forgetting that we are in front of extraordinarily legal matters, but above all, extraordinarily human matters.