PIL instrument(s)

Case number and/or case name

In re T (A Child) (Care Proceedings: Request to Assume Jurisdiction) [2013] EWCA Civ 895

Details of the court

England and Wales, Second Instance

Articles referred to by the court

Date of the judgement

11 June 2013

Appeal history

CJEU's case law cited by the court

Summary

Care proceedings were issued by the local authority on 25th May 2012. The care proceedings were in respect of a 10-month old child. Both parents were from Slovakia. The mother and the father came to England in February 2012. The child was born in April 2012. Care proceedings were issued in May 2012. The mother herself was 17 years old. Before she came to England, she had been placed in a children’s home where she escaped from. The Slovakian Central Authority made written submission, arguing that this is a case where Article 15 of Brussels IIa must be invoked. The Slovakian Central Authority was joined as a party. The English court established jurisdiction under Article 8 or 13 of Brussels IIa. On 13th March 2013, the High Court judge held that the requirements of Article 15 were satisfied, and as a result a transfer request should be issued. Although the High Court judge adopted a rather domestic approach for the interpretation of Article 15, the Court of Appeal held that the outcome is consistent with an autonomous interpretation of Article 15. Lord Justice Thorpe held that: “The construction of article 15 must be uniform throughout the courts of the member states. It cannot be dominated by a domestic law approach in cases brought under the domestic jurisdiction, whether it be statutory or inherent. The context of the issue before Wilson J and the law that he was applying are radically different to the determination of article 15, which was hardly in being when he was sitting in the domestic case. The article is transparently clear. The court cannot request a transfer unless so to do would be in the best interests of the child. As Munby J had pointed out in AB v JLB [2009] 1 FLR 517, this is one of the three cardinal questions that has to be considered in the construction of article 15(1).” [19]