Abstract EN:

Compared to the so-called national adoption, international adoption leads to very special problems. The supreme court of appeal (the French "Cour de Cassation"), in two late rulings, endeavours to rule international adoption according to the law of the adoptant rather than the personal law of the child. This jurisprudence which ains at enabling French families to adopt children from different nationalities goes against foreign legislations. These legislations tend to ignore or even ban adoption or to know only some forms of adoption (simple adoption against total adoption). Hence, the problems caused when French families want to adopt children from foreign countries according to the French law or when the adoption was wade under foreign legislation. Therefore, we may rightly ask if, in the first case, it is possible to adopt children from countries despite foreign legislation, even if it means that foreign countries may not acknowledge the adoption. Last but not least, in the second case, is it possible that the French legislation gives full value to foreign legislation as far as adoption is concerned, as all the families who want to adopt currently require ?