Glossary: the words you meet all over this site

The site's vocabulary, explained once and for all

Each term is defined in the sense in which this site uses it. The dotted links you meet in the articles point here.

Entries are in alphabetical order. Each term is also linked automatically from the pages where it first appears.

Assisted reproduction: The set of techniques allowing conception outside natural conditions: ovulation induction, insemination, in vitro fertilisation, gamete donation and storage.
Child maintenance: The contribution to a child's upkeep and education owed by the parent with whom the child does not habitually live. It is revised when income or arrangements change.
Community of acquests: The most common statutory regime in continental Europe: each keeps what they owned before the marriage and what they inherit, everything else is shared.
Defamation: An allegation of a specific fact that damages a person's reputation. It differs from insult, which alleges no fact, and the time limits for suing are usually very short.
EU directive: An act of the Union that fixes a result to be achieved and leaves states to choose the means. It must be transposed, which is why differences remain.
EU regulation: An act of the Union that applies directly in every member state without transposition. The GDPR and the Succession Regulation are the best-known examples.
Exequatur: The procedure by which a court makes a foreign judgment enforceable at home. It has been abolished between EU member states for most family judgments.
Family mediation: A process in which a neutral third party helps a couple build their own agreement. Cheaper than contested proceedings, it produces agreements that last better.
Financial provision on divorce: A payment compensating the disparity in living standards that the break-up creates. It is distinct from child maintenance.
Forced heirship: The share of an estate that the law reserves for children — sometimes the spouse — and that a will cannot take away. Civil-law countries have it; common-law countries prefer a claim before the court.
Free portion: What remains of an estate after the reserved shares, and which may be freely given by will or lifetime gift.
Full adoption: Adoption that entirely replaces the original parentage: new birth record, new surname, severance of original ties. It is irrevocable.
GDPR: The General Data Protection Regulation, applicable across the Union since 2018. It creates directly enforceable rights: access, rectification, erasure, portability and objection.
Habitual residence: The place where a person has established the permanent or habitual centre of their interests. In the European Union it determines the law applicable to succession and divorce, ahead of nationality.
Holograph will: A will written, dated and signed entirely in the testator's own hand. Free and revocable at any time, it is also the leading cause of disputes because it is badly drafted or never found.
ICSI: A form of IVF in which a single sperm is injected into the egg. Designed for male infertility, it does not improve results where the sperm is normal.
Identity theft: Using another person's identity to pass yourself off as them. The fake profile is the commonest online form, and punishment is a matter of national law.
Image rights: The right to object to your picture being published without permission. It is not harmonised in Europe: France protects it strongly, several states not at all.
In vitro fertilisation: A technique in which eggs and sperm are brought together in the laboratory and an embryo is transferred to the uterus. The reference method since 1978.
Joint ownership in undivided shares: Where several people own the same property without physically separated shares. Every significant decision needs their agreement, which blocks many estates.
Kafala: The legal guardianship of a child practised in Muslim-law countries. It entrusts maintenance and upbringing without creating parentage or inheritance rights, which is why it does not automatically convert into adoption in Europe.
Legal parentage: The legal link between a child and their parents. It is established by birth, acknowledgement, court order or adoption, and it governs nationality, name and inheritance.
Life interest: The right to use property and take its income without owning it. A surviving spouse often takes a life interest in the home while the children take the reversion.
Limitation period: The time after which a claim can no longer be brought. It varies greatly by subject, and discovering it too late is irreversible.
Matrimonial property regime: The set of rules governing ownership of the spouses' property during the marriage and its division on dissolution. It can be chosen by contract; otherwise the law imposes one.
Mental load: The invisible work of anticipating and organising domestic life, distinct from carrying out the tasks. Its unequal distribution is the leading source of conflict after a birth.
Ovarian reserve: The remaining stock of eggs, estimated by anti-Müllerian hormone and antral follicle count. It falls with age and determines the response to stimulation.
Parental responsibility: The rights and duties of parents towards their child. It usually remains joint after a separation and is distinct from where the child lives.
Postnatal depression: A depressive episode in the year after a birth, in fathers as well as mothers. It is common, it is treatable, and it has nothing to do with lacking love for the child.
PrEP: Preventive treatment taken before exposure to HIV by an HIV-negative person. Taken correctly, it reduces the risk of sexual transmission by more than 95 %.
Right to erasure: The right to have personal data deleted where it is no longer necessary. Often called the right to be forgotten, it is the basis for asking for a profile or photograph to be removed.
Separation of property: A regime in which each spouse remains the sole owner of what they acquire. It protects against business debts and disadvantages whichever spouse reduced their working hours.
Simple adoption: Adoption that adds a parental link without erasing the first. The child keeps rights in the family of origin and the adoption can be revoked for serious cause.
STI: Sexually transmitted infection. Many are symptom-free, which makes testing more reliable than symptoms for knowing where you stand.
Succession agreement: An agreement made during a person's lifetime about their future estate, long prohibited and now permitted in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Belgium under strict formalities.
Transposition: The process by which a state writes the content of a directive into its own law. Late or incorrect transposition makes the state liable.
Undetectable viral load: A level of HIV in the blood too low to measure, achieved through treatment. A person with an undetectable viral load does not transmit the virus sexually.
Vitrification: Ultra-rapid freezing of eggs or embryos that prevents ice crystals forming. Survival rates exceed 90 %.