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Minor – Removal outside jurisdiction. A child, aged nine, had been cared for all his life by his grandparents in Lithuania, while his mother lived in Northern Ireland. The mother returned to Lithuania and snatched the child from the grandmother and returned to Northern Ireland. The High Court in Northern Ireland refused the grandparents' application for a declaration that the child had been wrongfully retained in Northern Ireland. The Court of Appeal dismissed the grandparents appeal. The Supreme Court, in allowing the appeal, held that, art 3 of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction 1980 was to be interpreted to include a strictly limited category of inchoate rights of custody. On the facts, the grandmother's status had constituted 'rights of custody' in relation to the child, for the purpose of the Convention and Council Regulation (EC) 2201/2003.
Minor – Removal outside jurisdiction. A child, aged nine, had been cared for all his life by his grandparents in Lithuania, while his mother lived in Northern Ireland. The mother returned to Lithuania and snatched the child from the grandmother and returned to Northern Ireland. The High Court in Northern Ireland refused the grandparents' application for a declaration that the child had been wrongfully retained in Northern Ireland. The Court of Appeal dismissed the grandparents appeal. The Supreme Court, in allowing the appeal, held that, art 3 of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction 1980 was to be interpreted to include a strictly limited category of inchoate rights of custody. On the facts, the grandmother's status had constituted 'rights of custody' in relation to the child, for the purpose of the Convention and Council Regulation (EC) 2201/2003.
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Join us on Saturday 21 November 2026 at Leeds Beckett University and see for yourself why the North continues to be an exceptional place to build a career at the Bar
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