Re I-L (Children) (1996 Hague Child Protection Convention:Inherent Jurisdiction) [2019] – Family Law Week case summary

A Court of Appeal judgment by Moylan LJ setting aside a High Court decision made under the inherent jurisdiction, which had ordered the return to Russia of two children (both under 5) of an English husband and Russian wife. The decision to set aside was based largely on the intersection between the 1996 Hague Child Protection Convention, Article 11, and the inherent jurisdiction. The Court of Appeal upheld, however, the High Court's decisions that (a) the children were habitually resident in Russia and (b) that the father had not wrongfully retained the children.