Urgent help when a child is taken across borders
If your child has been taken abroad without your consent, or kept in another country after an agreed visit, every day matters. We act in international child abduction cases under the 1980 Hague Convention and in cases involving countries outside it. Family law is all we do, and every one of our solicitors is a Law Society of Scotland accredited family law specialist.
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Speed protects your position. The Hague Convention is built around the prompt return of children to the country where they habitually live, and the longer a child remains in the new country, the more room there is for arguments that the child has become settled there. Contact us immediately: we will assess whether the Convention applies, secure evidence of your parental responsibilities and rights and of the child’s habitual residence, and begin the correct procedure without delay. Where the child’s whereabouts are unknown, we can seek court orders for the disclosure of information, and the police can be involved where a criminal offence may have been committed.
The legal framework
The 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction has force in Scotland through the Child Abduction and Custody Act 1985. It applies where a child under sixteen was habitually resident in one Convention country and has been wrongfully removed to, or wrongfully retained in, another Convention country in breach of rights of custody that were actually being exercised. The Convention does not decide who the child should live with in the long term. Its purpose is narrower and faster: to return the child to the country of habitual residence so that the courts there can decide questions of residence and contact. Article 11 of the Convention expects courts to act expeditiously, with six weeks the benchmark for a decision.
Habitual residence
A question of fact: where was the centre of the child’s life, looking at the stability and degree of the child’s integration in a social and family environment, not simply at the parents’ intentions.
Rights of custody
These include the rights a parent holds through parental responsibilities and rights under Scots law, rights arising by court order, and rights of veto over the child’s removal from the country.
Whether you hold rights of custody, and where the child was habitually resident on the date of removal or retention, are among the first things we will establish.
If your child has been brought to Scotland
Where a child has been wrongfully brought to or kept in Scotland from another Convention country, the remedy is a petition for the child’s return to the Court of Session in Edinburgh, which has exclusive jurisdiction in Scotland for Convention return petitions. These petitions are treated as urgent: first orders are typically sought within days, the court sets a tight timetable, evidence is usually given by affidavit rather than lengthy oral hearings, and the court will consider how the child’s views should be heard where age and maturity make that appropriate. We act both for parents seeking a child’s return and for parents opposing one.
The Convention’s starting point is return, but it recognises limited exceptions: that the petitioner was not actually exercising rights of custody, or consented to or later acquiesced in the removal or retention; that proceedings began more than a year after the wrongful removal or retention and the child is now settled in the new environment; that there is a grave risk that return would expose the child to physical or psychological harm or otherwise place the child in an intolerable situation; and that a child who has attained an age and degree of maturity at which it is appropriate to take account of their views objects to being returned. These exceptions are narrowly applied, the burden lies on the person opposing return, and even where an exception is established the court retains a discretion. Protective measures and undertakings — for example as to accommodation, non-molestation, or the withdrawal of criminal complaints — are often decisive in grave-risk cases.
RETURN ORDERED
HL v LL [2025] CSIH 32
The Inner House upheld an order returning a child to Switzerland, confirming the Convention’s presumption in favour of prompt return.
RETURN REFUSED
DBH, Petitioner [2025] CSOH 67
The Court of Session refused to order two children’s return to the United States, where the children objected, had become settled after more than eighteen months in Scotland, and return would have placed them in an intolerable situation.
Summaries of both decisions, prepared from the judgments, appear in our case updates.
If your child has been taken from Scotland
Where a child who lives in Scotland has been taken to, or kept in, another Convention country, an application for the child’s return is made through the Central Authority for Scotland, which sits within the Scottish Government, to the Central Authority of the country concerned. We prepare the application, assemble the evidence of your parental responsibilities and rights and of the child’s habitual residence in Scotland, and coordinate with the Central Authority and with lawyers abroad so that proceedings in the foreign court move as quickly as possible. In parallel, orders from the Scottish courts — for example declarators or section 11 orders — can support the foreign proceedings.
If the country is not a Convention country, the position is harder but not hopeless. The route depends on the country concerned and may involve proceedings in its own courts, orders from the Scottish courts, diplomatic and consular assistance, and in some cases the 1996 Hague Child Protection Convention. We will give you a realistic assessment at the outset, including costs and prospects, before significant money is spent.
Kept abroad after an agreed trip?
A scenario we advise on frequently: a holiday or family visit abroad is agreed for a fixed period, and the child is not returned at the end of it. Keeping a child abroad beyond the agreed period is wrongful retention, and the Convention treats it in the same way as wrongful removal. The clock runs from the date the retention became wrongful, so the same urgency applies. Keep evidence of what was agreed — messages, emails, tickets — and contact us as soon as the agreed return date passes.
Preventing an abduction
If you fear that a removal is imminent, the Scottish courts can act quickly, and in genuinely urgent cases orders can be sought the same day. The main tools are:
- Interim interdict prohibiting the removal of the child from Scotland or from the United Kingdom.
- Orders under section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, including residence orders and specific issue orders regulating where the child lives and whether the child may travel.
- Orders for the delivery of a child.
- Passport measures, including orders for the surrender of a child’s passport.
- Port alerts sought through the police where there is a real and imminent risk that a child under sixteen will be taken abroad, so that an alert is circulated at points of departure from the United Kingdom.
The criminal law also bears on this area. Under section 6 of the Child Abduction Act 1984 it can be a criminal offence for a person connected with a child under sixteen to take or send the child out of the United Kingdom without the appropriate consents, and Scots common law separately recognises the crime of plagium in relation to the taking of a young child. The existence of a potential criminal dimension can matter both for prevention and for the assistance the authorities will give in tracing a child.
How we work, and what it costs
Abduction work is urgent, cross-border, and fact-heavy, so it is charged at hourly rates in fair 3-minute billing units rather than at a fixed fee — a short call costs a fraction of the 6 or 10 minute blocks many firms use. We give you a clear costs picture at the outset and regular updates as the case proceeds, and we are candid about prospects before significant money is spent.
Every new client starts with a free 15-minute initial consultation, by telephone, video, or in person at any of our offices across the Central Belt. We work alongside trusted counsel and foreign lawyers where the case requires it, and we prepare cases on the basis of the court’s expectation of speed.
For the wider cross-border picture, including jurisdiction and the recognition of foreign orders, see our page on international divorce in Scotland, and for the law on where a child lives and how disputes are decided, see our child law pages.
Child abduction: frequently asked questions
How quickly must I act if my child has been abducted?
Immediately. Return proceedings are treated as urgent, and once proceedings begin more than a year after the removal or retention a settlement argument becomes available to the other parent. Contact us the day you learn of the removal or retention.
Does the Hague Convention apply to my case?
It applies where the child was habitually resident in one Convention country and has been wrongfully removed to or retained in another, in breach of rights of custody. Whether the country concerned is a Convention country, and whether you hold rights of custody, are the first things we will confirm with you.
The other parent has kept our child abroad after a holiday. Is that abduction?
It can be. Keeping a child abroad beyond the agreed period is wrongful retention, and the Convention treats it in the same way as wrongful removal. Keep the evidence of what was agreed and take advice as soon as the agreed return date passes.
I was never married to the other parent. Do I have rights?
In Scotland, an unmarried father has parental responsibilities and rights if he is registered on the child’s birth certificate on or after 4th May 2006, or has obtained them by agreement or by court order. Whether your rights amount to rights of custody for Convention purposes is one of the first things we will check.
Can the court refuse to return my child?
Yes, in limited circumstances: where the person seeking return was not exercising rights of custody or consented to or acquiesced in the move; where proceedings began more than a year after the wrongful removal or retention and the child is now settled; where there is a grave risk of harm or an intolerable situation; or where a sufficiently mature child objects. These exceptions are applied narrowly and every case turns on its evidence.
How long does a Hague Convention case take in Scotland?
The Convention expects a decision within six weeks, and the Court of Session runs these petitions on a fast timetable with evidence by affidavit. Complex cases can take longer, particularly where the child’s views are taken or protective measures are in issue, but these are among the quickest proceedings in Scottish family law.
Please note: Rooney Family Law does not offer Legal Aid. If you may qualify for Legal Aid, visit the Scottish Legal Aid Board website to check eligibility.
