For richer and poorer

Blog The current issue of The Economist has an interesting article on international divorce law, the introduction to which is as follows: MARRIAGE may be about love, but divorce is a business. For global couples—born in different countries, married in a third, now working somewhere else and with children, pensions and other assets sprinkled over […]

The Grave Risk of Harm Defense in Hague Child Abduction Cases

Blog A major debate is under way as to the future of the “grave risk of harm defense” in Hague Convention international child abduction cases. The move is spearheaded by those who believe that the Hague Convention discriminates against expatriate mothers who are victims of domestic violence and who return to their countries of origin […]

Lawsuits against airlines who allow international child abduction

Blog The abduction of children from the United States is facilitated by the lack of exit controls at U.S. borders. A lawsuit just filed in Massachusetts against Continental Airlines may help shift at least some of the responsibility onto the airlines. The plaintiff claims that Continental should not have allowed his ex-wife to fly to […]

New article on Japan and International Child Abduction

Blog The current issue of Metropolis Tokyo has an update on Japan’s practices that favor international child abduction. The article is based in significant part on my input. Part of the article reads as follows: “As we reported 12 months ago, no Japanese court has ever caused a child abducted to Japan by a Japanese parent to […]

Equitable Tolling, Concealment and the One-Year, Well-Settled Provision in Article 12 of the Hague Child Abduction Convention

Blog The Southern District of Texas has clarified the issue of whether a parent’s concealment of a child should affect the judicial application of the one-year provision in Article 12 of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Driessche v. Ohio-Esezeoboh, 2006 Lexis 92943 (S.D.Tex. Dec. 2006). The United States has developed a uniquely American approach […]

Foreigner in U.S. on Visitor’s Visa Does Not Fulfill Nevada’s Divorce Residency Requirement

Blog A Canadian wife who had lived in Nevada for 3½ years on a visitor’s visa could not get divorced in Nevada. So held the Nevada Supreme Court (Rozsnyai v. Svacek, 272 Neb. 567 (Nov. 2006)). Nevada law requires that either spouse have at least one year’s genuine residency instate in order for Nevada to have divorce jurisdiction. The Court ruled that where […]

Australia – Child Relocation

Blog Reviewing Australia’s Family Law Amendment (Shared Parental Responsibility) Act 2006 leads to great concern that international (and domestic) relocation cases in Australia might become extremely difficult to win. The Act creates a presumption that it is in a child’s best interests for each parent to have equal shared parental responsibility. It requires the presumption to be applied unless […]

Japan’s International Child Abduction Policy

Blog By Kirsten Brown (AXcess News) Washington – Four fathers quietly filed into a theater to watch “Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story,” a documentary about North Korea’s kidnapping of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s. If the names Walter Benda, Patrick Braden, Chris Kenyon and Paul Toland don’t sound Japanese, it’s because they’re not. […]

Mirror International Prenuptial Agreements

Blog We frequently recommend mirror prenuptial agreements for people with international domiciles, citizenship or businesses. Love doesn’t always last but the consequences of failed marriages can endure for a lifetime. The problems can be multiplied when the people and/or the assets are international. In the context of international prenuptial agreements, a mirror agreement is one […]

Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support

Blog Delegates from sixty-eight States and the European Community have finalized the Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and other Forms of Family Maintenance at the 21st Diplomatic Session of the Hague Conference on Private International Law. Basically, the states that ratify the convention agree to assist citizens from other states who have […]