MENNESSON v. FRANCE JUDGMENT 25 under French law. The Court considers that a contradiction of that nature undermines the children’s identity within French society. 97. Whilst Article 8 of the Convention does not guarantee a right to acquire a particular nationality, the fact remains that nationality is an element of a person’s identity (see Genovese v. Malta, no. 53124/09, § 33, 11 October 2011). As the Court has already pointed out, although their biological father is French the third and fourth applicants face a worrying uncertainty as to the possibility of obtaining recognition of French nationality under Article 18 of the Civil Code ... That uncertainty is liable to have negative repercussions on the definition of their personal identity. 98. The Court also observes that the fact that the third and fourth applicants are not identified under French law as the children of the first and second applicants has consequences for their inheritance rights. It notes that the Government deny this, but observes that the Conseil d’État has ruled that in the absence of recognition in France of a legal parent-child relationship established abroad with regard to the intended mother, a child born abroad as the result of a surrogacy agreement cannot inherit under the mother’s estate unless the latter has named the child as a legatee, the death duties then being calculated in the same way as for a third party ..., that is, less favourably. The same situation arises in the context of inheritance under the intended father’s estate, even if he is the biological father as in this case. This is also a component of their identity in relation to their parentage of which children born as the result of a surrogacy agreement performed abroad are deprived. 99. The Court can accept that France may wish to deter its nationals from going abroad to take advantage of methods of assisted reproduction that are prohibited on its own territory (see paragraph 62 above). Having regard to the foregoing, however, the effects of non-recognition in French law of the legal parent-child relationship between children thus conceived and the intended parents are not limited to the parents alone, who have chosen a particular method of assisted reproduction prohibited by the French authorities. They also affect the children themselves, whose right to respect for their private life – which implies that everyone must be able to establish the substance of his or her identity, including the legal parent-child relationship – is substantially affected. Accordingly, a serious question arises as to the compatibility of that situation with the children’s best interests, respect for which must guide any decision in their regard. 100. This analysis takes on a special dimension where, as in the present case, one of the intended parents is also the child’s biological parent. Having regard to the importance of biological parentage as a component of identity (see, for example, Jäggi [v. Switzerland, no. 58757/00], § 37[, ECHR 2006-X]), it cannot be said to be in the interests of the child to deprive him or her of a legal relationship of this nature where the biological reality of that relationship has been established and the child and parent