Gestación por sustitución y Derecho Internacional Privado: consideraciones en torno a la resolución de la Dirección General de los Registros y del Notariado de 18 de febrero de 2009

Abstract

The Resolución of the Dirección General de los Registros y del Notariado of February 18, 2009 faces the question of the access to the Civil Spanish Civil Registry of a birth certificate issued by the Californian authorities admitting two minors born in California as sons of two Spanish males. The woman who gave birth was a surrogate mother. The Spanish DGRN examines the whole methodological resources of Private International Law and places the problem in the field of extraterritorial effects of foreign decisions and not in the field of the Conflict-Of-Laws. Therefore, those effects have to be decided in accordance with Article 81 of the Spanish Reglamento del Registro Civil. In addition to that, the Dirección General de los Registros y del Notariado refuses any evasion of the Law and any Bad Forum Shopping in the case. Eventually, the Californian birth certificate is registered in the Spanish civil Registry because it is the best way to improve the welfare of the particular children and there is no damage to the Spanish ordre public (public policy of the Forum). Hence these minors will have the same filiation in California and in Spain and also their identity will be the same in these two countries.