33 MARCKX v. BELGIUM JUDGMENT PARTLY DISSENTING OPINION OF JUDGE THÓR VILHJÁLMSSON PARTLY DISSENTING OPINION OF JUDGE THÓR VILHJÁLMSSON 1. As the operative provisions of the judgment show, it was deemed necessary to vote on no less than seventeen items at issue in this case. On seven of these items, I found myself in the minority. In this separate and partly dissenting opinion I have grouped these items as appropriate. 2. The application of Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention, taken alone, to the manner of establishing Alexandra Marckx’s maternal affiliation This problem is dealt with under items 2 and 4 of the operative provisions of the judgment. As can be seen from paragraph 36 of the judgment, the recognition procedure available to Paula Marckx, the first applicant, who wished to establish the maternal affiliation of her daughter Alexandra, the second applicant, was strikingly simple. In fact it was so simple that I fail to see how the necessity to follow this procedure can in itself constitute a violation of the Convention with respect to the first applicant. The fact that, under Belgian law, an unmarried mother who is contemplating formal recognition of her child is faced with an alternative is a separate question. It concerns the financial relations between mother and child. Admittedly, the existence of the alternative may cause the mother to hesitate and the final outcome may be that no recognition is effected. As stated in paragraph 5 of this separate opinion, I have come to the conclusion that the financial implications of family life are outside the scope of Article 8 (art. 8). Accordingly, I find the problem of the alternative facing the mother, which is explained in detail in paragraph 36 of the judgment, not to be relevant to the question now under consideration. I therefore find that there was no violation of Article 8 (art. 8), taken alone, with respect to the first applicant. It is difficult to disagree with the majority of the Court when it states, in paragraph 37 of the judgment, that it was not a simple matter for the child Alexandra to establish her maternal affiliation under Belgian law. In this respect, it is not decisive that the mother in fact recognised her child when she was only 13 days old. Nevertheless, I am unable to agree with the majority which finds here a violation of Article 8 (art. 8) taken alone. Even if Belgian law had recognised maternal affiliation on the basis of the birth alone, that would in itself have been of limited value to Alexandra if her mother had, contrary to the facts of the case, not been willing to secure for her a family life, as protected by Article 8 (art. 8). Every mother can in fact decide, by the manner in which she cares for her child, whether it has such a family life with her or not. No legal rules can secure for a child a worthwhile family life if his mother is not willing to provide it. A mother may even make arrangements that both in fact and in law put an end to the family life which she and her child may have had together. This is so, for