it’ s a sMaLL worLd after aLL
Marital & Family law Section Chair: MarkF. Baseman – Felix & Baseman, LLC
The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction controls the law involved when one parent leaves the home state as defined by the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act( UCCJEA) and refuses to return a child from a foreign country that’ s a signatory to that specific Hague Convention. Articles have illustrated the concepts of The Hague Convention in an instance where Florida was the child’ s home state upon removal to the foreign country. What happens when a child is removed by a parent from a foreign country to Florida, and what law applies to that custody decision?
Custody decrees of foreign countries are enforceable in Florida
even if that country isn’ t a signatory to the Hague Convention. The UCCJEA makes the custody determination of a foreign country fully enforceable because Florida courts must“ treat a foreign country as if it were a state of the United States for purposes of applying” the UCCJEA in Chapter 61, Florida Statutes. 1
Modification of a foreign custody Order has its own jurisdictional requirements before a Florida court is permitted to grant any such relief. 2 For modifications, merely alleging that a party and the minor children lived in Florida for a period of at least six( 6) months
the children’ s mere residency in florida does not confer subject matter jurisdiction on the florida court to modify a foreign custody order.
before filing a petition— or even expressly claiming Florida is the children’ s home state at the time of filing— is insufficient and potentially irrelevant.
The UCCJEA provides,“ a court of this state may not modify a child custody determination made by a court of another state” unless a Florida court has jurisdiction to make an initial determination 3 and either( 1) the foreign court determines it no longer has exclusive, continuing jurisdiction or a Florida court would be a more convenient forum 4; or( 2) a Florida
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