Parental authority: What is a common act?

Service-Public replies:

In case ofjoint exercise of parental authority, a parent may do, alone, a customary act.

The usual act has no definition in the law. In practice, it was the judges who determined the criteria for this act. It is a daily act, without gravity, which does not commit the child’s future or his or her fundamental rights or which is part of an earlier uncontested practice.

When he does a customary act, the parent with parental authority is presumed to have the agreement of the other.

In particular, the following shall be regarded as usual acts:

• In the field of administration : the application for an NIC or passport, the issuing of diplomas, the departure from the national territory where a judge has not prohibited it, etc.
• In the field of education : re-enrollment in the same school, justifications for occasional absences from school, day trips, etc.
• In the field of health : affiliation to Social Security, compulsory care (such as certain vaccinations imposed by law), routine care such as superficial injuries, minor infections, routine dental care, usual care for all children (such as treatment of ordinary childhood illnesses) or continuation of treatment or care for recurrent illness, circumcision as a matter of medical necessity, access to the minor’s medical file for information necessary for the day-to-day medical follow-up of the child, punctual and limited sessions with a psychologist for the purpose of preventing mental health, tattoos and piercings, etc.
• In the field of right to imagee : capturing the image of the child for limited non-commercial and non-morality distribution (such as participation in an amateur film by a municipal association with very limited distribution).

Mr. Dubois can therefore apply alone for a passport for his child without consulting the mother. The latter may hold the child’s NIC and the father may hold his passport. Parents then have to provide each other with the titles so that the child can travel depending on the intended destination.