175.Anyone who is living in England or Wales (or who has been habitually resident there for at least a year) can seek a declaration from the High Court or a county court that:
	a named person is or was his parent; or
	he is legitimate; or
	he has or has not become a legitimated person (that is, in the same position as being born legitimate).
176.Declarations may be sought, for example, to acquire nationality or citizenship, to establish rights of inheritance or to amend a birth certification. Only the “child” in question (who may in fact be an adult) is entitled to apply for such a declaration. Both the child’s parents, if they are still alive, must be joined as respondents to the proceedings.
177.Section 56 of the Family Law Reform Act 1986 (as substituted by section 22 of the Family Law Reform Act 1987) provides for the declaration. The Family Proceedings Rules provide that both parents must be respondents.
178.A “section 56” declaration is binding on the Crown and on all other persons. The declaration is without limit in time in the UK whether for the purpose of legal proceedings or for any other purpose. The legislation makes no provision for a declaration from the court that a named person is not the child’s parent.
179.This section replaces part of the existing section 56 of the Family Law Act 1986, and also amends sections 58 and 60 of that Act. The section provides for any person to apply to a civil court for a declaration as to whether or not a person named in the application is or was the parent of another person so named. The intention of the new section is to provide a single procedure for obtaining a declaration of parentage to replace the two free-standing provisions contained in the 1986 Act and in section 27 of the Child Support Act 1991 (which is modified to take account of the new procedure), and to widen the power to make such declarations.
180.Subsection (2) inserts a new section 55A in the 1986 Act which allows for an application for a declaration that a person is or is not the parent of another person.
Part 1: Child Support. Commentary on Sections Parentage Section 83: Declarations of status