Re W (Minors) (Child abduction: Unmarried father) ; Re B (A Minor) (Child abduction: Unmarried father)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 25 March 1998 |
| Date | 25 March 1998 |
| Court | Family Division |
Family Division
Before Mrs Justice Hale
Children - child abduction - limited rights of unmarried fathers
The removal of children by their mother from their habitual residence within in the jurisdiction was prima facie wrongful within article 3 of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction 1980 where the father had parental responsibility, or there was a court order in force prohibiting removal, or there were relevant proceedings pending in a court in England and Wales.
But absent those conditions, there was nothing in English domestic law to prevent a mother with sole parental responsibility from removing her children from the jurisdiction.
Mrs Justice Hale so held in the Family Division in a reserved judgment handed down in chambers but reported with leave on condition that the parties were not identified, when (i) granting the unmarried father's application, in the first case, under article 15 of the Hague Convention, as set out in Schedule 1 to the Child Abduction and Custody Act 1985, for a declaration that the removal of the children involved had been wrongful within the meaning of article 3 of the Convention and (ii) when refusing to grant such a declaration to the unmarried father in the second case.
Mr Ian Karsten, QC and Mrs Deborah Taylor for the fathers in both cases; the mother in the first case did...
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D (A Child) (Abduction: Rights of custody); Re
... ... case is, and has always been, whether the father had rights of custody within the meaning of ... states, as Hale J observed in In re W (Minors) (Abduction: Father's Rights) [1999] Fam 1 , 9 ... parents and increasing numbers of unmarried parents) each have all the rights and ... of custody" by this House in In re H (A Minor)(Abduction: Rights of Custody) [2000] 2 AC 291 ... ...
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Attorney General (Central Authority) v Young (nee New) 2001 Civil Jur. No. 90
...access rights)UNKELR[1997] 3 FCR 450, [1998] Fam 49 and Re W (a minor) (unmarried father), Re B (a minor) (unmarried father)UNK[1998] 2 FCR 549 with which I agree. In the latter she said (at 562): “Thus a deliberate distinction is drawn between rights of custody and rights of access … Right......
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A v H (Registrar General for England and Wales and another intervening)
...where M lived. He therefore had no inchoate rights of custody; Re W (a minor) (unmarried father), Re B (a minor) (unmarried father)[1998] 2 FCR 549 (3) The statutory scheme neither interfered, nor was incompatible, with the father or M’s human rights. But for the mistaken issue of the birth......
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Re P (A Child) (Abduction: Acquiescence)
...Can SC. V-B (minors) (abduction: rights of custody), Re[1999] 2 FCR 371, [1999] 2 FLR 192, CA. W, Re; Re B (a minor) (unmarried father) [1998] 2 FCR 549; sub nom Re W (minors) (abduction: father’s rights) [1999] Fam 1, [1999] 3 WLR 1372, [1998] 2 FLR AppealThe father appealed from the decis......