This blog…

We intend to use the ‘blog’ section of the website to provide more detailed examinations of particular areas of law. It is within this section that ‘guest’ posts are most likely to appear.

At present, we have a number of ideas being prepared for use in this section. Over the summer, two decisions were handed down in relation to rights of custody. The first, AA v BB & Ors [2022] EWHC 2322 (Fam) considered circumstances in which a foreign court (there, the courts of Oklahoma) would be considered to have and to be exercising rights of custody for the purposes of the 1980 Hague Convention. The second, B v L (Removal to Poland: Unmarried Father: Rights of Custody: Declarations) [2022] EWHC 2215 (Fam), involved an unmarried father who was held to have inchoate rights of custody. That case also considered rights of custody in the court. Issues of inchoate rights of custody tend to be difficult. There is an obvious temptation to extend the protection of the 1980 Hague Convention to people who seem to deserve it, notwithstanding that its application is limited by its own terms to people who have and are exercising rights of custody. That imperative has led the English courts to extend its scope by allowing people (typically but not always unmarried fathers) to rely on inchoate rights, or rights held by other institutions or bodies. There is still a question as to whether any country that does not rely upon a common law system would recognise those rights. Our first full blog post is likely to focus upon the concept of inchoate rights, with particular consideration of the aforementioned judgments.