International Children Abduction
If your children are likely to face international abduction from one of the parents without consent of the other parents, you can file an urgent application in the High Court to prevent that happening and safeguard your children. The following rules cover the procedure and jurisdictional issues of such application.
Civil Procedural Rules, Practice Directions state as follows:
The nature of inherent jurisdiction proceedings
1.1
It is the duty of the court under its inherent jurisdiction to ensure that a child who is the subject of proceedings is protected and properly taken care of. The court may in exercising its inherent jurisdiction make any order or determine any issue in respect of a child unless limited by case law or statute. Case law establishes that such proceedings should only be commenced exceptionally where it is clear that the issues concerning the child should not be resolved under the Children Act 1989, for example, for reasons of urgency, of complexity or of the need for particular judicial expertise in the determination of a cross-border issue. For a review of the relevant case law and principles, see In the matter of NY (A Child) [2019] UKSC 49.
1.2
The court may under its inherent jurisdiction, in addition to all of the orders which can be made in family proceedings, make a wide range of injunctions for the child’s protection of which the following are the most common –
(a) orders to restrain publicity;
(b) orders to prevent an undesirable association;
(c) orders relating to medical treatment;
(d) orders to protect abducted children, or children where the case has another substantial foreign element; and
(e) orders for the return of children to and from another state.
Further reading can be found below:
https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/family/practice_directions/pd_part_12d
Full Practice Directions
