French Civil Code
In forceThe court shall declare a child taken into care by a person, establishment or departmental child welfare service to be abandoned if the child is in the situation referred to in Article 381-1 during the year preceding the submission of the application for a judicial declaration of parental abandonment. The application for a declaration of parental neglect must be submitted, on expiry of the one-year period provided for in article 381-1, by the person, establishment or departmental child welfare service that took in the child, after appropriate measures to support the parents have been proposed to them. The application may also be made by the public prosecutor acting ex officio or, where applicable, on the proposal of the children's judge.
Mere retraction of consent to adoption, a request for news or an expressed but unfulfilled intention to take the child back do not constitute a sufficient act to reject ipso jure an application for a declaration of parental abandonment and do not interrupt the time limit mentioned in the first paragraph of this article.
Parental neglect shall not be declared if, during the period mentioned in the first paragraph, a member of the family has applied to take charge of the child and if this application is deemed to be in the child's best interests.
Parental neglect may be declared in respect of both parents or only one.
When it declares the child abandoned, the court delegates parental authority over the child by the same decision to the person, establishment or departmental child welfare service that has taken in the child or to whom the child has been entrusted.
Third-party proceedings are only admissible in the event of fraud or mistaken identity of the child.
