Japanese Child Abduction Developments

Blog Public knowledge is beginning to grow concerning Japan’s status as one of the world’s worst havens for international parental child abduction. The problem is tolerated by the Japanese Government because the abductors are almost exclusively Japanese nationals. In fact the Japanese Government is often a knowing participant in such abductions. Japanese consulates issue passports […]

Switzerland’s Pattern of Noncompliance with Hague Abduction Convention

Blog The U.S. State Department has published its 2009 Report on Compliance with the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction: The Department continues to list only one country, Honduras, as being “Noncompliant” with the Convention. Its list of “Countries Demonstrating Patterns of Noncompliance” lists seven such countries as compared to nine […]

U.S. Supremes Likely to Review Judge Sotomayor’s Ruling

Blog It is increasingly likely that the United States Supreme Court will take its first case concerning the interpretation of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. The case is Abbott v. Abbott, and the U. S. Solicitor General has recommended that the Court grant the certiorari petition. Interestingly enough the Court […]

Thai administrative divorce in U.S. causes major headaches

Blog The article below describes a case in which a Thai marriage was purportedly dissolved at a Thai consulate in the U.S. Decades later the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services asserted that the divorce would not be recognized in the United States and demanded that the parties be deported. Although this case ultimately had a happy […]

England: Electronic Tagging to Prevent Re-Abduction of Child

Blog As a means of preventing international child abduction, the English High Court has issued a consent judgment requiring that a mother be “electronically tagged” before being allowed to visit her child. Re A (A Minor) March 17, 2009. The mother had wrongfully removed her child from England to her (unnamed) country of origin on two separate occasions. […]

Exit Controls

Blog Like the United States, England has no exit controls. This means that one parent (or conceivably even a stranger) can take a child out of the country without the consent of the other parent. The police forces in Humberside, England have announced their intention to crack down on this problem. It is a model […]

English court won’t allow economic collapse to reopen divorce case financial component

Blog The global economic collapse has had divorced clients running to their lawyers seeking to rewrite divorce settlements or overturn divorce judgments that were made when assets value were far higher. An English appeal court has just issued a key ruling on the issue of whether a court’s final judgment dividing divorcing parties’ assets can […]

Hague Abduction Convention and Immigration Status

Blog The Ninth Circuit has rendered an important decision on the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Mendoza v. Miranda, (March 18, 2009). Article 12 of the Convention provides an affirmative defense to a Hague return application if the abducting parent can show that the petition for return was filed more than a […]

India’s Notorious Section 498A: Divorce Law as Criminal Law

Blog India’s amendments to its Criminal Procedure Code are now effective. They may ameliorate some of the harshest aspects of India’s infamous Section 498A. The newly- enacted provisions take away the powers of the police to arrest in cases of alleged offenses which carry a maximum sentence up to seven years of imprisonment. Such offenses […]

Divorce, Bigamy & Naturalization

Blog Problems arising from void or voidable marriages often do not create issues until many years after the fact and in quite expected ways. Such was the experience of one Kanadi Mohamed Ali, an Israeli citizen whose conviction for knowingly making a false statement under oath relating to naturalization, citizenship, or registry of aliens in […]