© 2001 by Oxford University Press
Friends at Odds – Construing Habitual Residence for Children in Sweden and The Unite States
1 The Faculty of Law, Stockholm University, Sweden
The paper compares the protection of children against international abduction in Sweden and the United States. Its focus is the construing of habitual residence under the Convention on the Civil Aspects of Wrongful Abduction or Retainment of Children, The Hague, 25 October 1980. It is argued that, notwithstanding the severe criticism of the United States against Sweden for misconstruing the Convention, habitual residence is construed on similar grounds by Swedish and American courts.
Regarding parental responsibility and jurisdiction on a more general level, it is suggested that the European Union, with the Council Regulation (EC) No 1347/2000 of 29 May 2000 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in matrimonial matters and in matters of paternal responsibility for children of both spouses, has chosen a different solution than the United States for allocation of jurisdiction in cases of custody of children. It is further suggested that the Convention on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition Enforcement and Co-operation in respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children, The Hague October 1996, is closer to the principle of exclusive continuing jurisdiction which dominates American child law than the Convention on the Civil Aspects of Wrongful Abduction or Retainment of Children, The Hague, 25 October 1980, which is more in line with European, including Swedish, rules on jurisdiction which prioritize the courts of the child's place of abode.