Recognition of a status acquired abroad

the Baltic States

Abstract

This report addresses questions of civil status recognition in Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. All three states restored their independence in the early 90-ties, and since then, they have been developing their legal systems, including – private international law. With time, the relevance of private international law increases, mainly due to the increased migration. However, the doctrine of Baltic private international remains limited. This report presents main legal developments and growing case-law related to recognition of civil status. The ECHR and CJEU case law influenced to some extent, the Lithuanian courts’ case law regarding names and same-sex couples. Latvian courts continue to refuse recognition of non-Latvian spelling of names, and Estonian authorities are the most flexible in this regard. Both Lithuania and Latvia used the protection of the national language as the justification to deny granting the recognition of names acquired abroad. It occurs that all the states do not focus on developing methodologies for recognizing the civil status acquired abroad.