Why Worry About International Family Law?

I will be attending the annual meeting of the International Academy of Family Lawyers in Reykjavik this week, where I will be meeting and learning from leading family lawyers throughout the world.

Almost every area of family law can have an international aspect to it, including: the financial awards that can be made upon divorce; disputes about which parent a child should live with and whether a parent should be allowed to move to another country with a child; international child abduction; surrogacy; adoption; and pre-nuptial agreements, particularly where the husband or wife are if differing nationalities or are likely to spend time in different countries now or in the future.

International family lawyers have a detailed knowledge of the various international laws, treaties and conventions that regulate matters such as how to enforce foreign family law orders from another country, or the competition between two countries' legal systems as to which should rule in the event of a dispute between husband and wife. We also need a working knowledge of the idiosyncrasies of different countries' legal systems and practices that can catch out the unwary client, particularly as the...