Common core or enhanced cooperation in European family law?

Family Law is a critical field, so that any tentative harmonisation process would seem in vain even within Europe. Nonetheless, many recent developments in family law in Europe are due to the concurring action of EU law, CJEU’s jurisprudence, and the ECtHR’s case law. The two European Courts seem to have pushed an evolutionary approach in the treatment of internal and cross-border family law cases, in the framework of the protection of the EU right to the free movement and of the right to family life. The present paper aims at discussing if there is a current convergence in the notion of family in Europe and within the EU, and to what extent future developments are possible.