European Union – Family proceedings. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling, deciding that art 23(a) of the Council Regulation (EC) No 2201/2003 should be interpreted as meaning that, in the absence of a manifest breach, having regard to the best interests of the child, of a rule of law regarded as essential in the legal order of a member state or of a right recognised as being fundamental within that legal order, that provision did not allow a court of that member state which considered that it had jurisdiction to rule on the custody of a child to refuse to recognise a judgment of a court of another member state which had ruled on the custody of that child.