Habitual residence in the context of international adoption

Ruth Cabeza examines the issues arising in the case of Enfield London Borough Council v K and another [2021] EWFC 26 [2021] All ER (D) 134 (Mar) for Lexis Nexis.

In Enfield London Borough Council v K, the court was concerned with a child who was in the care of a family friend in the US following the death of the child’s mother, as a prelude to an application under the Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Inter-country Adoption (the 1993 Hague Convention).

Complications arose due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in relation to the child’s immigration status, and following submissions by the local authority that the child was now resident in the US, the court was asked to determine the child’s habitual residence.

This article was first published by Lexis®PSL on 01 July 2021.

You can view the article by clicking here.

Ruth acted for the second Respondent, click here to read the full judgment.