The parents of S were Israeli citizens living in Israel. They had equal parental rights and responsibilities under Israeli law. They brought their two children to England intending to reside here for one year and then return to Israel. The father returned to Israel early and commenced proceedings for divorce. The mother remained in England with the children and had obtained ex parte interim prohibited steps and residence orders under the 1989 Act. The father then issued return proceedings under the Convention.
Held: The father’s application succeeded. Among other things, the parents had agreed to live in England for a year. The breakdown of the relationship did not entitle the father unilaterally to resile from that agreement and the children should remain in England for that period. However, since the mother had announced an intention not to return at all, she could no longer rely on the father’s agreement to the limited period of removal as protecting her against an application under the Convention.
Wall J
Gazette 06-Oct-1993, [1994] Fam 70
Children Act 1989, Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction 1980
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – A v A and another (Children) (Children: Habitual Residence) (Reunite International Child Abduction Centre intervening) SC 9-Sep-2013
Acquisition of Habitual Residence
Habitual residence can in principle be lost and another habitual residence acquired on the same day.
Held: The provisions giving the courts of a member state jurisdiction also apply where there is an alternative jurisdiction in a non-member . .
Approved – in Re M (Abduction: Habitual Residence) CA 1996
The court accepted a proposition that one parent with parental responsibility could not achieve a change in the child’s habitual residence without the consent of the other parent with parental responsibility. . .
Cited – Re C (Children) SC 14-Feb-2018
‘This appeal concerns the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. It raises general questions relating to:
(1) the place which the habitual residence of the child occupies in the scheme of that Convention, and . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Children
Updated: 23 December 2021; Ref: scu.588977