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Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

Abstract

This Article explores and assesses the Russian discontinuance of intercountry adoptions to the United States, in light of international and regional child rights laws and the broader political context. Part II describes the history of Russia-U.S. adoptions up to and including the 2012 adoption ban. Part III sets forth international laws and principles relevant to Russia's adoption laws and practices. Part IV assesses Russia's ban on adoptions to America in light of domestic and international law and politics. It is argued, as a corrective to a common assumption in existing scholarship that children have a right to be adopted, that Russia's long-term aim of eradicating the need for intercountry adoption is legitimate. Russia has the prerogative to strive to meet her children's best interests domestically and international law places no obligation on states to partake in the institution of international adoption. However, the Adoption Ban undoubtedly represents a largely politically-motivated response to the Magnitsky Act. Further, an American-targeted Adoption Ban is a disproportionate and cumbersome means of achieving in-country child welfare. The subordination of the best interests of the child to state-centric political considerations is problematic, in terms of the short-term interests of Russian children currently without parental care. Russia should be encouraged to reconsider the Adoption Ban and to pursue the dual goals of (i) eradicating the need for intercountry adoption and (ii), in the interim, allowing intercountry adoption to the U.S. to continue, in accordance with the subsidiarity principle, where it can best serve the welfare needs of children without families.

Disciplines

Law | Law and Politics

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