Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses how Dutch family judges conceptualise the role of religion, culture, and ethnicity in their work, and how they take children's cultural and religious backgrounds into account in their decision-making.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will focus on the role of conceptualisations of culture and religion in Dutch family law cases. Family and children's judges need to take decisions on a wide range of topics, dealing with issues ranging from divorce or paternity to child welfare and sometimes even youth criminal cases. Based on interviews with children's and family judges, lawyers, and child welfare professionals I will discuss how Dutch courts deal with court cases on children from migrant and non-migrant minorities, how they take families' ethnic or religious backgrounds into account when taking decisions, and what meanings they ascribe to religion or culture in these cases.

Most decision-making in family cases relies on the open concept "the best interest of the child", which leaves space for different kinds of norms on what good parenting is and should be. In the paper, I will analyse how judges conceptualise the role of religion, culture, and ethnicity in their work, and how they take children's cultural and religious backgrounds into account in their decision-making.

Many judges in this study aimed for a "colour-blind" approach, often avoiding to discuss culture, ethnicity, or religion in their hearings, unless parties involved in the case made explicit claims. Furthermore, judges specialising with different types of family cases seemed to differ in how they perceived the relevance of families' backgrounds in their work.