International child relocation after relationship breakdown

This chapter examines the legal treatment of parental disputes in relation to international relocation of their children. The discussion includes both ex ante relocation disputes, in which one parent requests permission from the court to move abroad with the child, and ex post facto relocation disputes, in which one parent has unilaterally relocated with the child and the other parent then seeks return of the child under the Hague Abduction Convention. After a brief discussion of the relevant social science and empirical research, the chapter presents the various approaches taken by different legal systems to ex ante relocation disputes and analyses the main factors relevant to these decisions. The chapter then proceeds to make comparisons between ex ante relocation disputes and ex post facto relocation (abduction) cases and discusses the insights which can be gained from a comparison between the way in which the law addresses these two types of case.