Facts
The case concerns a Swiss married couple, B.A. and A.A. (formerly A.F.), who are resident in Switzerland. The married couple agreed with a reproductive center in Georgia on medical services and concluded a surrogacy contract with the unmarried D.D. as the surrogate mother and E.E. as the egg donor. On July 19, 2019, the birth certificate for the girl C. was issued in Georgia, with A.A. registered as the father and B.A. as the mother.
A.A. and B.A. reported the birth of C. to the Regional Civil Registry Office T., which forwarded the request for registration in the civil status register and subsequent registration to the Department of Economics and Interior (DVI) of the Canton of Aargau. The DVI rejected the request and ordered that C. be registered as the biological child of D.D. with the surname D. and the nationality "unclear" or, upon appropriate proof, with Georgian nationality.
A.A., B.A., C. and D.D. appealed against this registration order to the High Court of the Canton of Aargau. The High Court partially upheld the appeal and ordered that C. be registered with the father A.A. and the surname A. as well as Swiss nationality.
The Federal Department of Justice and Police (FDJP), acting through the Federal Office of Justice (FOJ), appealed in civil matters against the High Court's decision and demanded confirmation of the DVI's order.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court upholds the appeal of the FOJ.
The Federal Supreme Court states that the Georgian birth certificate does not constitute a decision within the meaning of Art. 70 PILA, but merely a registration of the parent-child relationship between the intended parents and the child, which arose by operation of Georgian law. Since the child's habitual residence at the…