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08 July 2010 / Clare Renton
Issue: 7425 / Categories: Features , Family
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Rethinking relocation

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Clare Renton supports calls for international consensus on relocation

Lord Justice Thorpe last week pointed out that in placing great weight on the reasonable wishes of the relocating custodial patent the English court was holding a line of English authority which had evolved over 40 years. He went on to say that the approach in England was not shared by a number of overseas courts and called for an International Convention to formulate a uniform approach. The full text of Thorpe LJ’s speech can be found at www.judiciary.gov.uk.

In March 50 judges and experts met in Washington at a conference organised by the Hague Conference on Private International Law and the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children to agree guidelines in respect of international family relocation, including factors relevant to decisions. The Washington Declaration on International Family Relocation emerged. All agreed that in all applications concerning international relocation the best interests of the child should be the paramount (primary) consideration. Therefore, determinations should be made without any presumptions for or against relocation.

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