Civil liability arising from a failure to properly exercise parental authority

The Master thesis analyses civil liability after suspending parental authority by a court judgement. The analysis is based on the suspension of parental authority approach, indicating the extent of consequences in each case. Increasing numbers of under-aged mothers and families at social risk in Lithuania, as well as other factors lead to increasing numbers of cases on suspension of parental authority. However, specific institutes of Family Law in Lithuania have not been widely examined yet. For this reason, questions that have been analysed in this Master thesis undoubtedly have both theoretical and practical value. In order to effectively explore the subject, the first part is dedicated to analysing basic principles of parental authority that are established in legislative and in case law. This section also identifies ways of suspension of parental responsibility which will later on be the ground for examining separate consequences. Specific consequences, qualifying the extent of each one according to the approach of suspension of parental responsibility is analysed in the second part of the Master thesis. Also, it should be noted, that not only the institute of parental responsibility, but also other related institutes, such as guardianship, adoption and child support, as far as the consequences of suspension of parental responsibility are applied, are examined in this part. Finally, the analysis of government officials’ and institutions’ that play significant role in child protection from harmful environment, as long as initiating children separation from their parents and other related issues, is submitted in the third part. The major attention in Master thesis is paid not only to the Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania or other legal acts, but also to the law interpretation and application in the case law. The position of European Court of Human Rights on some of the legal issues is also presented in this Master thesis. The purpose for this is to evaluate how the Strasbourgh authorities would assess the regulation of some particular questions