Speaker:
Dr Jens M. Scherpe, M.A. (Cantab), MJur (Oxon)
University Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Cambridge
Visiting Professor, University oif Hong Kong and University of Leuven
Fellow, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Honorary Fellow, St. John’s College, University of Hong Kong
Academic Door Tenant, Queen Elizabeth Building, Temple, London

His major publications include major comparative family law studies on marital agreements and private autonomy (2012), the legal status of cohabitants (2005) and the legal status or transsexual and transgender persons (2004 and forthcoming in 2015) as well as a four volume book set on European Family Law (forthcoming in 2015).

Abstract:
Family law for a long time focused on marriage and children born to the married couple. But today marriages often end in divorce and many children are born out of wedlock; categories of gender are not as fixed as they used to be and persons who are legally male (or have no legal gender) can give birth to children; and children are not necessarily genetically related to their birthparents or indeed may even have three genetic parents, and even more social parents. The law needs to react to societal changes and medical advances such as ART and surrogacy as a matter of urgency.