United States Supreme Court

In a petition seeking an order requiring petitioner's son's return to Chile under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (Convention) and the implementing statute, the International Child Abduction Remedies Act (ICARA), the Fifth Circuit's affirmance of the district court's denial of the petition is reversed where petitioner had a right of custody under the Convention by reason of that parent's ne exeat right under Chilean law, because: 1) Chilean law determined the content of petitioner's right, while the Convention's text and structure resolved whether that right was a right of custody; 2) that the child was wrongfully removed from Chile in violation of a right of custody was shown by the Convention's text, by the U.S. State Department's views, by contracting states' court decisions, and by the Convention's purposes; and 3) while a parent possessing a ne exeat right had a right of custody and could seek a return remedy, return could not automatically be ordered if the abducting parent could establish the applicability of a Convention exception.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/17/2010
• Published 05/17/2010

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• United States Supreme Court

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