This CLE is designed to teach attorneys how to represent clients in federal and state court using the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and the implementing legislation, known as the International Child Abduction Remedies Act. Litigation under this treaty and its implementing legislation is a variant of civil litigation that is unique and outside the normal experience of even veteran family law attorneys and federal litigators, as well as many federal and state court judges. A whole set of special rules have been fashioned by the treaty, the implementing legislation and court decision, all designed to carry out the purpose of the treaty and to put the United States in sync with its treaty partners in dealing with the emotional and highly charged issues surrounding international parental kidnapping.

Cases that are litigated in the United States always involve the left behind parent or guardian as the petitioner with the respondent being the other parent or another person located in the United States. The treaty and the implementing legislation calls for expedited handling of these cases, hopefully avoiding undue expense and resulting in quick resolution.

This CLE is of being offered to educate and in the hope that the attorneys who have an interest in handling one or more of these cases will join the list of attorneys whose names are provided by the State Department to parents outside the United States seeking legal counsel to recover their children.