International Families and Litigation

• Author: Stephen Cullen
• Pages: 26-29

26 FAMILY ADVOCATE www.shopaba.org

This scenario may sound like a bar examination

question. But it is a scenario that frequently plays out

in the United States and around the world.

If you represent Hamish, you might seize on home state

jurisdiction in accordance with the Uniform Child Custody

Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA) and le for

custody in state court. If you represent Siobhan, you might

immediately submit your 1980 Hague Convention (Con-

vention) application to the Irish Central Authority, have it

transmitted to the U.S. Department of State, and le your

Petition for Return of your twins in federal court. Let’s

examine each side and see what may happen next.

e UCCJEA was a game-changer because it created

priority jurisdiction for a child’s home state. e home state

concept, unique to the United States, relates to the notion

that the place where the child has resided for the six months

prior to the ling of the custody case has jurisdiction over the

child. Prior to the UCCJEA, interstate and international

Hamish is Scottish. He is a famous Scottish curling player.

Siobhan is Irish. She is a famous Irish barrister. Hamish and

Siobhan are married and have lived in Dublin, Ireland, for the

last four years. ey have twins who are three years old. Hamish

traveled to Rising Sun, Maryland, just short of six months ago

with the twins to give Siobhan a break while she handles a

lengthy human rights case in the European Court of Human

Rights in Strasbourg, and to be the temporary coach for the

Maryland state curling team. Hamish, to his surprise, has now

been oered the full-time coaching job to train the U.S. Olympic

Curling Team at its Maryland facility. e twins attend daycare

in Maryland. You have your law oce on Main Street, Bel Air,

Maryland. Hamish has a consultation with you and tells you he

has been working in Rising Sun for just shy of the last six months

and cannot go back to Siobhan after he returns to Ireland.

Hamish wants you to le for divorce from Siobhan. Hamish also

wants you to le for custody of the twins.

International

Families and

Litigation

By STEPHEN CULLEN

Published in Family Advocate, Volume 43, Number 2, Fall 2020. © 2020 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof

may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.