Rowing Back from Re G? Natural Parents in the Supreme Court

ANDREW BAINHAM, Fellow of Christ's College Cambridge

In Re B (A Child) [2009] UKSC 5, [2010] 1 FLR (forthcoming) the new Supreme Court had its first opportunity to consider the claims of natural parents as against others in disputes over the welfare of a child. In this case the argument concerned the residence of a boy ‘Harry' approaching 4 years old at the time of the Supreme Court's decision. Lord Kerr, delivering the single judgement of the Court, said that the speech of Baroness Hale of Richmond in Re G (Children) [2006] UKHL 43, [2006] 2 FLR 629 might have been the final word on the subject but that ‘misunderstandings about the true import of that decision and the applicable principles persist.'

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