- Everything (335)
- Model letter (0)
- Practice note (1)
- Precedent (0)
- Uploads (0)
- Tools (0)
- Article (0)
- Case note (90)
- News (2)
- Polls (0)
- CPD course (0)
- CPD diploma (0)
- Training note (0)
- Webinar (1)
- Downloads (0)
- Form (0)
- Judgment (241)
- Practice direction (0)
- Rule (0)
- SI (0)
- Statute (0)
- International regs (0)
- Parents and two children, S and M, lived in Australia. After the marriage broke down, parents agreed to live in the US. Mother took S to the US, father took M for a holiday in Thailand, then went to the UK with her. He then refused to move to the US with M, saying that if there was an order made under the Hague Convention, that she should return to Australia with him. The court ruled that it would be utterly absurd and wholly contrary to the interests of M for the court to direct that she be returned to Australia, where there were no family members or family home, where the father would have no employment and, most importantly, the mother and S would not be there. The court was in no doubt that the Convention, properly interpreted, enabled them to order that M should be returned to the US. Judgment, 11/10/2013, free
- Another contempt of court case where the F had been committed to prison on several occasions for repeatedly failing to disclose the whereabouts of his daughter. The issue here was whether a further prison sentence would run the risk of being classed as excessive punishment. The court imposed three further concurrent terms of six months’ imprisonment each, to be served consecutively. Judgment, 04/10/2013, free
- The 4 children and M were Spanish nationals, F was English. M took the children back to Spain. After a few months they came back to the UK with F who did not return them to Spain. An order was made for their return which was resisted especially by the older child. The order in her case was overturned but the case of the other 3 children was remitted to the High Court. Discussion of the joinder of the children as parties. Judgment, 03/10/2013, free
- A Hague Convention case where the M asserted that the child did not have to be returned to F in her habitual residence, which was Latvia, because the F was not her biological father. The judge had ordered the instruction of an expert in Latvian law to ascertain whether or not a non-biological father had custody rights in Latvia, and at the same time permitted the M to carry out a paternity test. It was ruled that the paternity test was premature and that part of the judge's order was discharged. Judgment, 18/09/2013, free
- F's application for return orders in a case where the M argued it would be impossible for her to comply because of the likely obdurate refusal of the children to co-operate. The return orders were made which included additional provisions to minimise the chance of M being able escape the consequences of the order. Judgment, 06/09/2013, free
- Application by the Solicitor General to commit the M to prison for failing to comply with an order to return the children to F on a specific date and time. The President found that matters beyond the M's control had meant that the order could not be complied with, and further that, even if there had been a breach, that breach had not continued because the order did not require her to do anything at any time thereafter, nor did it spell out what was to be done if, for any reason, there had not been compliance by the specified time. Judgment, 22/08/2013, free
- Application to strike out the F's committal application issued against members of the M's family who had given undertakings that they would assist in the search for the child who had been abducted by the M. Judgment, 18/07/2013, free
- Judgment, 14/06/2013, free
- Another case involving a Nigerian couple who brought a child to the UK after participating in a bogus pregnancy and delivery. The circumstances to be examined included the extent to which the couple was complicit in the removal of the child from Nigeria and the extent to which they knew the child was not their own. Judgment, 17/05/2013, free
- Refusal of F's application for summary return of child wrongfully removed from the USA by M on the bases of i) the child's objections and ii) he had attained an age and degree of maturity at which it was appropriate for the court to take account of his views. Judgment, 22/04/2013, free