U.S. Supreme Court Takes Up Issue of First Impression Involving International Abduction

The Washington Post's Robert Barnes reports on oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court on where custody proceedings should be held in international custody disputes. While the case is the third the justices have heard about the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction in four years, this current case involves an issue of first impression: "The Hague Convention says that if a motion is filed within 12 months of the abduction, the child must be returned to the country of origin. But after that, a judge may consider whether a child has become 'settled' in his or her new home, and whether it would not be in the child’s interest to be uprooted again for custody hearings. [Father Manuel Jose] Lozano couldn’t file the motion before the 12-month deadline because he didn’t know where his daughter was. He is asking the court to find that the 12-month period does not start until a parent locates the missing child."