David Hodson on International Family Law: English conference leads the way for international children

Last week the Centre for Family Law and Practice London Metropolitan University held perhaps the most important international family law conference ever to take place in England. It covered three interlinked subjects of Child Abduction Relocation and Forced Marriages. It was attended by over 150 of the world's leading international family lawyers and judges mediators academics researchers policy makers Central Authority representatives and others working on behalf of international children.

Prof William Duncan Deputy Secretary General of the Hague Conference gave the 2010 International Family Law Lecture and spoke about the many challenges facing the Child Abduction Convention in the coming decade and the possibility of a Protocol to the Convention probably at the 6th Hague Conference in 2011. One tension is the commitment to return the child yet the ever increasing importance of listening to the voice of the child and what to do when the "voice" goes against what would otherwise be a return. The Convention...

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