What does ‘habitual residence’ mean?
Habitual residence is an important concept in national legislation, in the EU Brussels II ter Regulation and in the Hague Child Abduction Convention.
The Child Abduction Convention does not define habitual residence. It is up to the judges in the different countries to interpret this.
The European Court of Justice has given the following interpretation:
A child’s habitual residence corresponds to the place where in fact the center of his life is located. The judge must determine where that center is located by reference to a series of corresponding factors.
It is the place that expresses a certain integration of the child in a social and family environment. To this end, the duration, regularity, circumstances and reasons for the stay in the territory of a State and for the family’s move to that State, the child’s nationality, the place where and the conditions under which the child attends school, language skills and the child’s family and social ties in that State must all be taken into account, among other things.
Read more about habitural residence. Among other things, you can read more about how you can deliver proof of what you believe is the habitural residence of your child in a court procedure.
Read more about International Child Abduction
Read more about child relocation
Visit the country page of you country to read about child relocation and child abduction: Choose a country
Read these blogs about habitual residence:
Habitual residence in appeal court (Canada)
Habitual residence of baby after 2 relocations (Canada)
The habitual residence of a baby (U.S.)
Visit the U.S. Government website about International Child Abduction
All blogs from The Author:
- The use of Foreign Experts in 1980 Hague Convention Cases
- Cross-Border Child Relocation Dispute: Strategic Legal Intervention Between Egypt and Vietnam
- Child Placement and Co-Parenting in Italy
- Getting a child from the jungle
- Dealing with international child abduction
- No return order due to ratified parental agreement
- Abducted in Italy
- Father’s Rights in International Law
- Care arrangement from Dubai
- Return order to Israel
- Permission not required
- Supporting families and colleagues through the CALA
- International Law in Domestic Courts: A Note on Child Litigation in the UK
- The wishes of a child in a Hague Convention procedure in Hungary
- The voice of the child in Hungarian abduction procedure
- Towards a Comprehensive Approach to International Child Abduction Situations
- Act of Fraudulent Commission of Reality
- Article 13b defence
- My child has been abducted to Brazil
- Return order not required
- Brazil’s new era in child abduction cases
- ASIME congress november 2023
- International Child Abduction and The Hague Convention
- International child abduction case leads to indirect recognition of LBGTQ+ families in Greece (?)
- What is the law with parental child abduction in the UK?