As the world becomes smaller, family law is becoming truly global, giving rise to more and more questions for private international law. This book looks at the sensitive and complex question of child abduction, with a unique children's right perspective. Taking Islamic law as its case study, it delves into child abduction in key jurisdictions from Iran to Saudi Arabia and Libya to Pakistan. Rigorous doctrinal analysis is enhanced by empirical insights, namely interviews with abductees, parents and professionals. It is an excellent guide to a complicated field.

International Parental Child Abduction is a harsh action of one parent, who usually belongs to another country by nationality or residence. Post marital disputes, a normal phenomenon of family life, may be solved unilaterally by one parent disappearing with all or some of the kids and taking refuge in his or her homeland. With modern global openness Muslims, traveling to this country or other for various reasons, may get married to spouses from the countries they have visited or lived in. In most cases they choose to live in the husband's country. The reverse is also true.However, in the heat of possible family disputes, crossing the borders home with the children will satisfy the angered parent and appears like finding a lifebuoy in an angry ocean. The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction tries to bring the world family to agreement as to the appropriate and conformed solution of such unfair game by one parent towards both the other parent and the children. The merger of religion and law makes the position of Muslim countries towards this important treaty blurred.This Book tries to suggest feasible solutions.

"Jurisdictional Exceptionalisms examines the legal issues associated with a parent's forced removal of their children to reside in another country following relationship dissolution or divorce. Through an analysis of Public and Private International Laws, and Islamic law - historical and as implemented in contemporary Muslim Family Law States - the authors uncover distinct legal lexicons that centre children's interests in premodern Islamic legal doctrines, modern State practice, and multilateral conventions on children. While legal advocates and policy makers pursue global solutions to parental child abduction, this volume identifies fundamental obstacles, including the absence of shared understandings of jurisdiction. By examining the relevant law and practice, the study exposes the polarised politics embedded in the technical legal rules on jurisdiction. Presenting a new, innovative method in comparative legal history, the book examines the beliefs, values, histories, doctrines, institutions and practices of legal systems presumed to be in conflict with one another is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Islamic Law and History at the University of Toronto, where he directs the Institute of Islamic Studies. A Guggenheim Fellow and member of the College of the Royal Society of Canada, he has published widely in Islamic law and history is Professor of International and European Laws and Head of School in the School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University. His publications include Ethical Dimensions of the Foreign Policy of the European Union: A Legal Appraisal (Cambridge, 2008) and International Human Rights Law Documents (Cambridge, 2018)"--

This book is the first analysis of parental care regimes in Muslim jurisdictions, both in a comparative and country-specific sense. It contains the proceedings of a workshop on Parental Care and the Best Interests of the Child in Muslim Countries that the Max Planck Research Group “Changes in God’s Law: An Inner-Islamic Comparison of Family and Succession Law” hosted in Rabat, Morocco in April 2015. This workshop saw a total of 15 country reports presented on questions of custody, guardianship and their development within different Muslim jurisdictions (ranging from Indonesia to Morocco), a number of which are included in full in the book. Each of these country reports contains a historical perspective on the evolution of domestic rules regarding custody and guardianship, and on the introduction and development of the notion of the best interests of the child. Most importantly, the prevailing legal norms, both substantive and procedural, are explored and particular attention is given to legal practice and the role of the judiciary. In addition to a selection of country reports from the workshop, the volume includes two comparative analyses on questions of parental care in both public and private international law. With a high practical relevance for legal practitioners working in the area of cross-border custody disputes and the most up-to-date assessment of parental care regimes beyond a pure analysis of statutory law, this book combines a number of country reports authored by experts who have worked or are still based in the respective countries they are reporting on and thus contains in-depth discussions of legal practice and custody law in action. Nadjma Yassari is Director of the Research Group “Changes in God’s Law: An Inner-Islamic Comparison of Family and Succession Law” while Lena- Maria Möller and Imen Gallala-Arndt are Senior Research Fellows at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg and the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle respectively.