Risk of Child Abduction to Jordan Requires Continuing Supervised Visitation

Blog Relying on my expert testimony as to the great difficulty of returning abducted children from the country of Jordan, and in light of other serious risk factors of potential international child abduction, the Chancery Court of Harrison County, Mississippi has refused to permit unsupervised visitation by a Jordanian father employed in the Jordanian diplomatic […]

Divorce in Bulgaria

Blog Statutory Regimes and Prenuptial Agreements Prenuptial and postnuptial agreements may be entered into under Bulgarian law. In the absence of such an agreement, the statutory matrimonial property regime applies, meaning joint ownership of all assets acquired during the marriage, regardless of the name under which they are held, but only if they were acquired […]

Section 498A Divides the Supreme Court of India

Blog A vigorous dispute that affects non-resident Indians throughout the world is playing out within the Supreme Court of India itself about a notorious provision in India’s Penal Law. Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code was enacted in 1983 to protect abused wives. It makes it criminal for a husband and his relatives to […]

Notes on International Child Abduction and Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyz Republic)

Blog Kyrgyzstan does not comply with international norms concerning the return of internationally abducted children. The primary method of obtaining the return of an internationally-abducted child is by means of an application under the Hague Abduction Convention. It is the public policy of the United States that all countries should adhere to the Hague Convention […]

Supreme Court of Japan and the Hague Abduction Convention

Blog The recent decision of the Supreme Court of Japan, in the Hague Abduction Convention case between James Cook and Hitomi Arimitsu – which upheld the Osaka High Court’s revocation of its prior order that four children wrongfully retained in Japan should be returned to their habitual residence in the United States – vividly highlights […]

International Child Relocation

Blog International child relocation applications are governed by the same legal principles that apply in domestic relocation applications. However, while international applications cover the same ground as applications to move with a child to another location in the same state or to another U.S. state, they also typically raise significant additional issues that are not […]

Unconscionability and Prenuptial Agreements in New York

Blog In New York there is a strong public policy favoring individuals ordering and deciding their own interests through contractual arrangements, including by prenuptial agreements. Accordingly, duly executed prenuptial agreements are accorded the same presumption of legality as any other contract. Thus, under New York law, a prenuptial agreement is presumed to be valid unless the party challenging the agreement meets […]

Lebanon: A Safe Haven for International Child Abduction

Blog It is generally impossible to secure the return of internationally abducted children from Lebanon through normal means, particularly when retained by a Lebanese parent. Lebanon is not a party to the Hague Abduction Convention. There are no bilateral treaties with Lebanon on international child abduction. There is no extradition treaty between Lebanon and the […]

Important Case on UCCJEA Enforcement of Foreign Custody Orders

Blog The Indiana Court of Appeals has rendered a detailed analysis of the “escape clause” in the UCCJEA concerning the enforceability of foreign countries’ custody orders.Coulibaly v. Stevance, 85 N.E. 3d 911 (Ind. Ct. App. 2017). After a hearing, a court in Mali, West Africa, had awarded custody of the parties’ children to the father.  Prior […]

Poland’s Further Violation of Obligation to Return Abducted Child

Blog In the case of Oller Kamińska v. Poland, determined on January 18, 2018, [2018] ECHR 70, the European Court of Human Rights (First Section), sitting as a Chamber, has ruled that the Polish authorities violated their obligations to return an abducted child under the Hague Convention and the Brussels II bis Regulation. The Court held that the Polish authorities had failed […]