The Hague Convention on International Child Abduction. By Paul R. Beaumont and Peter E. Mceleavy. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. PP. XXX, 332. ISBN 0-19-826064-4

• Author: Daniel C. Turack
• Pages: 765-767

Page 765

The primary aim of the book, as reflected in the structure adopted by the authors, is to present a comprehensive and critical analysis of how the 1980 Hague Convention on the civil aspects of international child abduction has been operating to June 1, 1998, for the most part. Before the Convention entered into force, resolution of international child abduction cases represented an intractable problem of family law as these abductions proliferated with the rise and simplification of international travel. The Convention introduced a mechanism for the summary return of wrongfully removed and retained children. In practice, the Convention has generated an enormous amount of case law, which the authors bring to the reader's attention. Interestingly, the authors' assessment is presented in a wider context as they identify issues that have a resonance beyond the confines of the law. Although the primary emphasis of the national case law focus is on that of England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, the jurisprudence generated by Australian, Canadian, French, New Zealand, and United States courts, on selected topics, is also investigated and included.

Professor Beaumont and Dr. McEleavy consider this convention to be the most successful international family law instrument to have been completed under the auspices of the Hague Conference on Private International Law. In looking at the structure of the book, it commences with a review of sociological literature on international child abductions along with an appraisal of available statistical data, followed by a review of the established pattern adopted by the Hague Convention in developing international instruments which leads us through the evolutionary path that culminated in the Child Abduction Convention.

Although the primary and subsidiary aims of the Convention are discussed, " [i]t is the interests of children collectively that the Convention seeks to further by returning wrongfully removed and retained children to their home environment."¹ All aspects of the nature and quality of wrongful removal and retention precede amplification of the rights of custody. Discussion tries to answer the question of whether thePage 766 safeguarding of a breached custodial right represents an appropriate basis for protecting abducted children. Differing theories which exist in relation to "removal" are explored to show how they affect the operation of the Convention.

As the Convention does...