Prof Nigel Lowe: The Current Experiences and Difficulties of Applying Brussels II Revised

Nigel Lowe Professor of Law and Director of the Centre for International Family Law Studies Cardiff Law School Cardiff University

This article is based on a paper presented to the Anglophone/Francophone Family Law Conference Edinburgh June 2007.

At the inaugural Anglophone-Francophone Judicial Family Law Conference held in June 2001 at Dartington I presented a paper outlining the various new Conventions governing child law expressing general concern at the proliferation of international instruments. I was particularly critical of the then unrevised Brussels II Regulation and was not altogether sure about the French proposal to amend it on access. Since then following a battle royal a revised Regulation was agreed upon and has been in force since March 2005. Although I still hold to the view that so far as child abduction is concerned it would have been preferable if the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction 1980 (the Hague Convention) had been so amended if only to avoid the complication of one rule applying within Member States (except Denmark) and another to non-exclusive EU abduction cases I want to...

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