Nearly half of all children born in Jersey last year were officially labelled as “illegitimate”, it has emerged – but a legal reform now aims to end the use of the term entirely.
Home Affairs Minister Mary Le Hegarat this week proposed the Draft Civil Status (Abolition of Legitimacy) Law, which seeks to abolish the “outdated” concept of legitimacy in law.
If approved, it would mean that a child’s legal status would no longer depend on whether their parents are married.
Currently, only children whose parents are married and in a mixed-sex relationship are recognised as “legitimate” at birth.
Last year, just 53% of Jersey births fell into this category.
This means almost half of children born in the island in 2024 were assigned a legal status that the Government has described as “outdated”, “discriminatory” and incompatible with “modern families or attitudes”.
Deputy Le Hegarat’s proposals come as part of a wider package of reforms to modernise family law and ensure equal recognition of all parental relationships – including same-sex couples and those using fertility treatments.
The law is designed to work alongside the Children and Civil Status (Amendments) (Jersey) Law 2024, which introduces new routes for recognising same-sex parents on birth certificates.
Without abolishing legitimacy, children born to same-sex married couples would still be recorded as illegitimate.
The Minister’s proposal cites the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the European Convention on Human Rights, both of which support the principle of non-discrimination on the basis of birth.
Legitimacy is now seen as “a historical legacy,” the report says – noting that Jersey is following the lead of Scotland, which abolished the status in 2006 with “little comment or impact.”
The draft law does include a few exceptions: it will not apply to hereditary titles, coats of arms, or manorial rights, where the distinction may still matter under customary law.
It will also not apply retrospectively to trusts, wills, or estates established before the law comes into force to avoid legal uncertainty and potential inheritance disputes.
The reforms also pave the way for a more inclusive birth registration process.
Parents in same-sex and civil partnerships will be able to re-register a child’s birth to reflect their legal union.
A new process is also being introduced to correct historical errors, where a mother’s husband was wrongly presumed to be a child’s father under old paternity laws.
In cases where a parent dies before the birth of a child, new provisions will allow the deceased parent’s name to still be included on the birth certificate.
The States Assembly is set to debate the legislation on 8 July 2025, with plans to bring it into force alongside other civil status reforms in autumn 2025.