P v P (Diplomatic immunity: Jurisdiction)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 11 March 1998 |
| Date | 11 March 1998 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
Court of Appeal
Before Lord Woolf, Master of the Rolls, Lord Justice Butler-Sloss and Lord Justice Simon Brown
Children - declaration would delay foreign case - contrary to interests of child
The granting of a declaration under section 8 of the Child Abduction and Custody Act 1985 that a child had been wrongfully removed from the United Kingdom would be contrary to the interests of that child if it would not provide any assistance to a foreign court dealing with Hague Convention proceedings for the child's return but would delay those proceedings.
The Court of Appeal so held in dismissing an appeal by the mother against the decision of Sir Stephen Brown, President of the Family Division (The Times March 2) that the court had no jurisdiction over her application for a declaration under section 8 of the 1985 Act that the removal of their two children by the father, a United States diplomat, was a wrongful removal within the meaning of article 3 of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction 1980, set out in Schedule 1 to the 1985 Act.
The President had held, on a preliminary issue, that the removal of the children at the end of a diplomatic posting was not covered by diplomatic immunity. However, state immunity precluded the court from exercising jurisdiction as the father was acting in compliance with a direct order of his government when he left with the children.
Mr Peter Duffy, QC and Mr Henry Setright for the mother; Mr Christopher Greenwood for the father and the US government; Mr David Lloyd Jones as amicus curiae.
THE MASTER OF THE ROLLS said that the case raised difficult and interesting issues. However, the court was mindful of the fact that there were two...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Justice for the collective: the limits of the human rights class action.
...Officials to Impose Sanctions on Swiss Banks, Sept. 1, N.Y. TIMES, July 3, 1998, at A3; Reject Bank Merger, New York Tells Fed, N.Y. TIMES, Mar. 25, 1998, at B1; Press Release, New York State Banking Board Approves Application Which Furthers Merger Plan of Two Swiss Banks, June 4, 1998, (46......
-
What to do with the sheep in wolf's clothing: the role of rhetoric and reality about youth offenders in the constructive dismantling of the juvenile justice system.
...wounding 10 others. See Brenda Warner Rotzoll, Kids Ambush Kids, Four Arkansas Girls Die, Renewing Concern for School Safety, CHI. SUN-TIMES, Mar. 25, 1998, at 1 (describing the attack at an Arkansas middle school). Two months later, in Springfield, Oregon, a 15-year-old boy killed his pare......
-
For the Record.
...of a Nightmare of Death", New York Times, March 9, 1998; and Tracy Wilkinson, "Kosovo's Rebels Are Armed and Ready", Los Angeles Times, March 25, 1998. 2 Paul Watson, "Rebels Moving in on Kosovo as Serbian Forces Pull Back", Los Angeles Times, October 18, 1998. 3 Jane Perlez, "Kosovo Albani......