Dr Marilyn Freeman & Anne-Marie Hutchinson OBE: The Voice of the Child in International Child Abduction

Dr Marilyn Freeman Reader in Family and Child Law London Metropolitan University and Anne-Marie Hutchinson OBE Dawson Cornwell

This article is based on an address to the International Society of Family Law's Regional Conference University of Chester July 2007.

This article considers the issue of the voice of the child in international child abduction both in the context of the empirical research that the first author undertook on behalf of the reunite Research Unit as part of the project investigating the effects of international child abduction (M Freeman for the reunite Research Unit International Child Abduction The Effects (reunite 2006) the Effects Report) as well as in relation to recent judicial developments relating to the question of separate representation of children in abduction proceedings. Issues of public policy which arise and the incongruities that exist between the position in this area and other areas of child law are also addressed. Without rehearsing the entire contents of the Effects Report some of the findings of that research provide a platform from which we can explore the...

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