Samenvatting

On March the first 2009 the compulsory parenting plan was introduced in Dutch law. The plan is a binding agreement between parents on the consequences of the divorce for their children. During the parliamentary debate, the compulsory character of the parenting plan was frequently criticised. The author scrutinises the relevant case law on the parenting plan over the last two and a half years to examine how it operates in practice. Questions about accessibility of the judicial procedure, the minimum requirements and the completion if the parents do not come to an agreement are discussed. The author concludes that considering the judicial decisions and the small amount of publicised case law the compulsory parenting plan does not seem to cause many problems or delays in the divorce proceedings. More research is necessary to determine whether the parenting plan is able to fulfill its goal to reduce the amount of conflicts between parents after a divorce.