24 MENNESSON v. FRANCE JUDGMENT suggest that they are at risk of being separated by the authorities on account of their situation under French law (see, mutatis mutandis, Shavdarov, cited above, §§ 49-50 and 56). 93. The Court also observes that in dismissing the grounds of appeal submitted by the applicants under the Convention, the Court of Cassation observed that annulling registration of the details of the third and fourth applicants’ birth certificates in the French register of births, marriages and deaths did not prevent them from living with the first and second applicants in France (see paragraph 27 above). Referring to the importance it had attached in Wagner and J.M.W.L. (cited above, § 135) to carrying out an actual examination of the situation, the Court concludes that in the present case the French courts did duly carry out such an examination, since they considered in the above-mentioned terms, implicitly but necessarily, that the practical difficulties that the applicants might encounter in their family life on account of not obtaining recognition under French law of the legal parent-child relationship established between them abroad would not exceed the limits required by compliance with Article 8 of the Convention. 94. Accordingly, in the light of the practical consequences for their family life of the lack of recognition under French law of the legal parentchild relationship between the first and second applicants and the third and fourth applicants and having regard to the margin of appreciation afforded to the respondent State, the Court considers that the situation brought about by the Court of Cassation’s conclusion in the present case strikes a fair balance between the interests of the applicants and those of the State in so far as their right to respect for family life is concerned. 95. It remains to be determined whether the same is true regarding the right of the third and fourth applicants to respect for their private life. (γ) Right of the third and fourth applicants to respect for their private life 96. As the Court has observed, respect for private life requires that everyone should be able to establish details of their identity as individual human beings, which includes the legal parent-child relationship ...; an essential aspect of the identity of individuals is at stake where the legal parent-child relationship is concerned (see paragraph 80 above). As domestic law currently stands, the third and fourth applicants are in a position of legal uncertainty. While it is true that a legal parent-child relationship with the first and second applicants is acknowledged by the French courts in so far as it has been established under Californian law, the refusal to grant any effect to the US judgment and to record the details of the birth certificates accordingly shows that the relationship is not recognised under the French legal system. In other words, although aware that the children have been identified in another country as the children of the first and second applicants, France nonetheless denies them that status