Paper short abstract:

Family judges' interventions may significantly influence the course of family life. In this paper I present the analysis of the family judges' opinions on the situation of children who were made available for adoption by unrelated families, as well as on the role of the judge in this process.

Paper long abstract:

I present the analysis of the family judges' opinions on the situation of children who were made available for adoption in unrelated families, as well as on the role of the judge in this process. In Poland, the model of adoption-from-care prevails.

Family judges are the group whose interventions may significantly influence the shape and course of family life. This paper aims to present and analyze the perspective of people who are “translating law into practice” (Verzelloni 2012) in the area of family life.

In the accounts of the judges I spoke with, there were key moments, turning points in the history of families. They expressed a clear tension between reluctance to radical interventions, justified by the desire to protect the existing family relationships, and the conviction of the need to intervene in the name of compliance with legal norms and the need to protect the child. Adoption decision, on the contrary, was regarded unquestionably as positive. The judges' narratives often included ambiguous terms, such as intuition, empathy. Actions and decisions, framed in a hierarchical, codified system, were, interestingly enough, associated with a large dose of arbitrariness, vagueness and uncertainty. In my presentation, I will present the tensions, discontinuities and paradoxes resulting from the expectations, often contradictory, towards judges and various limitations in the way they operate, intervening in the lives of families.