Art. 23 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and art. 8 and 12 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) contain the most important provisions on marriage and family. An official interpretation of the ICCPR text is provided by the UN Human Rights Committee in the General Comment n. 19: Art. 23 (The Family). For the ECtHR case-law, see Council of Europe. European Court of Human Rights (2021). Guide on art. 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence) and Guide on art. 12 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Right to marry). An analysis of the ECrtHR case-law with a specific focus on RMs is provided by Clark B. (2017). Treading a Tightrope: The Fragility of Family and Religious Minority Rights in the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, in Child & Family Law Quarterly, v. 29, 1.

The international reference text on  parent-child relationships is the Convention on the Rights of the Child. A detailed examination of this convention is contained in UNICEF, Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Geneva 2007. Many General Comments of the Committee on the Rights of the Children (CRC) include a section on the preservation of religious and cultural values and traditions as part of the child identity. The rights of the child are also taken into consideration in art. 24 of ICCPR: on this article see General Comment n. 17: Art. 24 (Rights of the Child). For a description of the ECrtHR case-law see Council of Europe. European Court of Human Rights (2021). Guide on art. 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Freedom of thought, conscience and religion), pp. 41-46.

About medical treatments of children, the reference text is the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (Oviedo convention), which deals with the rights of minors at art. 6. Specifically on the questions connected to the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ refusal of blood transfusions see Loix S., Henin P., Descamps O.S., Reusens I. (2019). Jehovah's Witnesses and transfusion: where do we stand in Europe? 

Information about how divorce, annulment of marriage, inheritance and dowry are regulated in the law of some EU states are available in the section “Family matters & inheritance” of the European e-Justice Portal 

A presentation of the legal regulation of marriage and family which is in force in some EU states can be found in Pintens, W. (ed.). IEL International Encyclopaedia of Law. Family and Succession Law, Wolters Kluwer. 

A section on religion and family law in each EU state is contained in Robbers G., Cole Durham W. (eds.). Encyclopedia of law and religion, Brill .

For an overview of the interplay between religion on the one hand and marriage and family on the other  see

Mair J., Örücü E. (eds.) (2011). The place of religion in family law: a comparative search, Cambridge, Intersentia

Mair J., The impact of religion on European family law, in Scherpe J. M. (ed.) (2016). European Family Law, vol. I, Glasgow, Edward Elgar Publishing

Shah P., Foblets M.-C. (eds.) (2014). Family, religion and law. Cultural Encounters in Europe, Abingdon, Routledge

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