Adriana de Ruiter

Lawyer and Collaborative lawyer

at Tulp Abogados

+ 34 91 159 26 36

Madrid

Spain

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Adriana started her career as a lawyer in Madrid in 2002, after graduation in Law from the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Universidad Carlos III and a postgraduate in Migration law at ICADE, in Madrid, and a specialisation in international law at the University Nacional Autónoma de México.

After working in different companies and areas, she started her own office, dedicated to migration law. Almost without realising, she was introduced into international family law, as the clients asked for advice in their family matters. International family law turned out to be very interesting and fascinating area.

Adriana speaks Dutch, Spanish, English and French.

Subsidized legal aid is possible

Relevant experiences and positions

Adriana is founder of Tulp Abogados and expert in resolving economic and family conflicts in an international context, in- and out of court. She is also specialised in International Parental Child Abduction. She is chair of the Board of ASIME, the Spanish Association for International Child Abduction. She cooperates with Universities and publish articles on International Family law in legal magazines

Since a couple of years, she is also focusing on ADR methods, especially Collaborative law, to seek other ways than the way to court to solve the family problem.

Some personal questions

When did you first handle a child abduction case?

In 2012. I was called by a father whose son had been abducted by the mother. It was a very complicated case with different countries involved, but finally we reached an agreement between parents, partly thanks to the implication of the lawyer of the abducting mother.

What makes a child abduction case different from other cases?

In a normal family conflict, there is not just one possible solution, there are always different ways to solve the problems. All of them, or at least, most of them, can be acceptable for the involved persons. But in international cases, and especially in international child abduction cases, it’s much more complicated to find an acceptable solution for all involved parties.

What do you think is important to do or not do as an attorney in child abduction cases?

If you are defending the abducting parent, and you lose in all instances, you should convince the client to accept it and cooperate in the returning of the child, avoiding execution with the police involved.

If you are on the winning side, either as the abducting parent or the left behind parent, you should be flexible and cooperative with the other parent about execution of the judgment as well as with other matters, as the visiting rights and alimony orders.

What would you like to say to judges who handle these cases?

The return orders should include detailed orders about the execution: who is going to return the child and when is the child to be returned as well as maintain certain orders of contact with the abducting parent till new orders are taken by the country of habitual residence.

What do you think will change in the future in this area of law?

As the globalization and migration are only increasing, we should consider international rules for relocation of children. Nowadays relocation is not treated in international law, which makes it complicated for parents to foresee the possibilities of obtaining authorization for relocation. This increases the risk of child abduction, which is much more harmful for the child than a regulated relocation.

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