The Terrifying Reality of International Custody Disputes
Blog By Chen Ximeng 3/27/16It’s been 15 years, but Susan Blumberg-Kason still remembers vividly the sleepless nights after her now-ex-husband, Cai Jun, first threatened to take their infant son Jack back to China. Blumberg-Kason, an American, first met Cai in Hong Kong while both were attending graduate school. After a whirlwind courtship, the two married […]
Malaysia and International Child Abduction
Blog Malaysia is not a party to the Hague Abduction Convention. Malaysia has refused to adopt the treaty, on the ground that it would purportedly contradict Shariah law, since that law bases child custody decisions to a substantial extent on religious, age and gender factors. Given that the Convention has now been signed by more […]
How to Win a Hague Convention Child Abduction Case
Blog Author of The Hague Abduction Convention: Practical Issues and Procedures for Family Lawyers, published by the American Bar Association. Here are some tips for attorneys and clients faced with instituting or defending child abduction proceedings under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, whether in the United States or internationally. In […]
Relocation to Japan Denied: Expert Testimony as to Japanese Child Custody
Blog A California court (Superior Court of California, County of San Diego, Case No. DN179669) has applied my expert testimony concerning Japanese child custody law in refusing to order the relocation of a child to Japan. The Court ruled that, although the “Burgess and LaMusga factors” weighed in favor of permitting the relocation, the enforcement issues as to […]
How to Prepare for an International Divorce
Blog Are you someone who always runs at the last minute to catch a plane? Or do you prefer to arrive at the airport ten minutes early and relax? This is a question that marketing gurus ask so as to illustrate the benefits of sensible planning in business. In my area — international family law […]
Violent Threats to Parent Establishes Grave Risk to Child under Hague Abduction Convention
Blog Jeremy D. Morley (Author, The Hague Abduction Convention: Practical Issues and Procedures for Family Lawyers, published by ABA) In a significant ruling, the Eleventh Circuit has ruled that a pattern of threats and violence directed against a child’s parent but not specifically at a child, posed a grave risk of harm to the child warranting […]
Unjustifiable Conduct, International Child Custody & the UCCJEA
Blog Interesting and difficult jurisdictional questions frequently arise when a parent unilaterally removes a child from another country into the United States. How long has the child been absent from the jurisdiction in which the left-behind parent seeks to have the case heard? Was the child “kidnapped” or was the parent within his or her […]
ABA: International Law 2016 Spring Meeting
Blog I will be speaking at the ABA Section of International Law Spring meeting in New York on April 14, 2016 at the session entitled, “Till Death Do Us Part…or not? International Issues in Marriage, Divorce, and Custody.”
No Family Law in Saudi Arabia
Blog One might think that the dangers of marrying Saudi nationals and living in Saudi Arabia would by now have been sufficiently well publicized as to cause Western nationals, especially Western women, to steer clear of living in Saudi Arabia with a Saudi spouse. Unfortunately many still fail to heed the warnings and they contact […]
Habitual Residence: Implied or Inferred Conditions
Blog Determining the child’s “habitual residence” is a threshold issue in any case brought pursuant to the Hague Convention. It is often outcome-determinative because, if the court concludes that the country from which the child was removed was not the country of the child’s habitual residence, the Convention will not apply and the petition must […]