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THE RIGHT TO A NAME BETWEEN THE PERSONAL IDENTITY AND THE BELONGING TO A FAMILY
Abstract
The right to a name is a fundamental element of the single's personality. It is an expression of his/her identity, which reflects a single individual in the familiar and social context. In many legal systems the right to a name is considered to be just an aspect of the more complex right to identity, which represents one of the personality's right. Nevertheless, it must be pointed out that the name has a double dimension. Precisely, the internal dimension of the name guarantees the manifestation of personal identity, independently from the necessity to demonstrate a link with a precise family. To the contrary, the external dimension of the name has a very important function, which is to guarantee a certain connection between an individual and his/her family and/or with the society. The purpose of this dimension is connected with public needs of citizens' identification. This paper will mostly deal with the specific function of the right to a name to connect the single man with his/her family; in other words, to guarantee the belonging to a family and subsequently to look after the family's unity. In this regard, the number of European judicial decisions is constantly growing. The fact that both the Court of Justice of the EU in Luxembourg and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg have recently dealt with different forms of violation of the right to a name (especially in the family context) is very significant. Frequently it seems like a choice between the identity and the identification (rectius between internal and external dimension) of a subject without considering that these are two complementary (and not antithetic) aspects of the name. Three different aspects will be tackled in this paper. In the first place it will dealt with the relation among the private and the public dimension of the right to a name; analyzing the reasons of the supremacy of the private law aspects due to the principle of the self-determination. Secondly, the most frequent violations of the right to a name connected with the family law will be explored. In this regard, the right to a name is protected under the article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights. The reference to the right to respect for private and family life underlines the fact that the name has not only a function of personal identification, but also a function of reunification with a family. Every time the right to a name is related to family relationships there are many involved subjects, whose individual rights have to be protected in respect of an equal balancing between single man's and family's interests. Finally, the role of the European Courts and their impact to the national laws of some European countries (i.e. Croatia, Italy, Spain, Germany) will be analyzed in order to find possible tendencies of Europeanization in the discipline of the right to a name.
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