Family Law

The House of Lords gave its decision in the case of Re D (A Child: Abduction Righs of Custody) on 16 November 2006, see Cases below. The issue was, did the rights possessed under the law of the home country (in this case Romania) by the parent who did not have day-to-day care of the child amount to rights of custody or did they not? The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction 1980 did not intend that mere rights of access should entitle a parent to demand the summary return of a child. The Romanian court in this case had decided that the father did not have a right of veto or rights of custody and that therefore the child's removal by the mother to the UK had not been wrongful. The House of Lords agreed, saying that in allegations of international child abduction the English court would normally be bound by the decision of the court of the requesting State as to the legality of the child's removal from that State.