Families Across Borders | law, policy, news and views
Expatriate Americans
A piece in today’s New York Times by Brian Knowlton reports that a growing number of overseas Americans are renouncing their citizenship. See “More American Expatriates Give Up Citizenship.” Although the numbers are a small fraction of the estimated 5.2 million U.S. citizens living abroad, the number of renunciations increased from 235 in 2008 to [...]
Update: Russian Adoptions
According to a notice posted this week on the State Department’s adoption website (www.adoption.state.gov): “We have received no official notification that adoptions of Russian orphans by Americans have been suspended, but it is clear the recent controversy has slowed down adoptions in some parts of the country. “Volcanic ash prevented the U.S. delegation from traveling [...]
Russia Suspends U.S. Adoptions
The Russian Foreign Ministry has announced a suspension of all U.S. adoptions of Russian children. According to the Joint Council on International Adoption Services, ”a delegation from the U.S. Department of State, lead by Ambassador Michael Kirby, will travel to Moscow and conduct meetings with Russian officials on April 20, 2010.” For media accounts of this [...]
EU Ratifies Protocol to Child Support Convention
At the annual Council on General Affairs of the Hague Conference on Private International Law, the European Union signed and ratified the Hague Protocol of 23 November 2007 on the Law Applicable to Maintenance Obligations. Based on the declarations made by the European Community at the time of signing, the protocol will not take effect in Denmark or [...]
Controversy in Russia on U.S. Adoptions
Intercountry adoption was already controversial in Russia, but the issues were heightened by the case this week of a 7-year-old adopted Russian child who was sent back to Russia alone by his adoptive mother in Tennessee. Clifford J. Levy reports in the New York Times that the Russian government has proposed suspending all adoptions by Americans; see “Russia [...]
Hague Judicial Network
The International Hague Network of Judges now includes almost fifty members from more than 35 different countries. Four judges in the U.S. are members of thenetwork, including Judge Peter J. Messite of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Justice James Garbolino of the Superior Court of California, Circuit Judge Judith L. Kreeger [...]
Conflict Between Civil and Religious Courts in Malaysian Custody Case
As Liz Gooch reports in the New York Times, in a piece titled ”Malaysian Custody Dispute Lost Between Courts,” Malaysia has a two-tier judicial system, with Islamic Shariahcourts handling family law disputes involving Muslim families and secular civil courts hearing non-Muslim cases. this leads to jurisdictional conflict when families include both Muslim and non-Muslim members, or in cases in [...]
