What the Trial Judge Needs to Know about the Convention of 23 November 2007 on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jfcj.12106
• Published date: 01 March 2018
• Date: 01 March 2018

What the Trial Judge Needs to Know about the

Convention of 23 November 2007 on the

International Recovery of Child Support and

Other Forms of Family Maintenance

By Robert E. Keith

ABSTRACT

Since the 1950s, there have been several international multi-lateral treaties for

recognition and enforcement of child and spousal support orders. They operated, pri-

marily, in civil law countries where “creditor-based jurisdiction” allowed establish-

ment of an order in the country of habitual residence of the child or the custodial

parent. The United States, requiring “minimum contacts” with the debtor to estab-

lish personal jurisdiction, could not be a party to such agreements. For nearly fifty

years the U.S., and a few states, sought to fill the need for international reciprocity

by negotiating individual country-to-country or state-to-country arrangements.

With ratification of the 2007 Family Maintenance Convention, the United States

was finally able to join in a multi-lateral treaty. The treaty took effect in the United

States on January 1, 2017, establishing procedures for international recognition,

enforcement and modification of family support orders with 35 other countries

already party to the Convention (including the entire European Union). The grand

bargain struck during the negotiations between 2003 and 2007 was that the U.S.

would honor a foreign order if, under the facts presented, there were sufficient mini-

mum contacts with the debtor that would have supported personal jurisdiction if the

order had been entered in any state in the U.S. If unable to recognize a foreign order,

the U.S. agreed to take steps to issue a new one. The treaty establishes administrative

procedures that, in many respects, are nearly identical to interstate enforcement of

domestic support orders in this country. But there are also aspects of the treaty that

are entirely new and warrant explanation for family and juvenile court judges. This

Robert E. Keith is the Associate General Counsel for the Children, Families and Aging Division of

the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the General Counsel. From 2003–2007, Mr.

Keith was a Member of the U.S. Delegation to The Hague to negotiate a new multi-lateral Family Mainte-

nance treaty, and served on the Drafting Committee for the new Convention. During 2007 and 2008 Mr.

Keith represented HHS as an expert advisor with the Uniform Law Commission’s committee to propose

amendments to the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act necessary for the U.S. to implement the new

treaty. A significant portion of his current work involves assisting HHS in disseminating information and

conducting training for judges, attorneys and caseworks to facilitate implementation of the 2007 Conven-

tion, which came into force in the United States on January 1, 2017.

Juvenile and Family Court Journal 69, No. 1

©2018 National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges

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