Many child custody cases here in New Jersey are quite complicated, but things become increasingly difficult when a custody dispute crosses state or international borders, as we have previously discussed. This is because family law is generally a state matter, but when multiple locales are involved it is not always clear which court has jurisdiction over a case.

A child custody matter that is currently underway in Tennessee illustrates some of the confusion and high stakes of international child custody disputes.

That case involves 13-year-old twin brothers who were born in the U.S. and are American citizens. Their father is American and their mother is a Romanian national with U.S. citizenship. The two married in Romania in 1996, and the twins were born in Texas before the family moved to Hungary in 2004. The family remained there until just last year.

Last summer, the boys traveled to Tennessee to visit their grandparents. During that time, the parents moved to Romania before the father went to Tennessee, reportedly to bring the boys back to Eastern Europe. However, he didn’t take the boys to their new home in Romania; instead, he kept them in the U.S. and filed for divorce and primary custody.

The father reportedly feared that his wife was going to divorce him in Romania and keep the children from him.

The mother has said that the boys must be returned to Eastern Europe under the Hague Convention, an international treaty that requires children who have been taken abroad to be returned to their country of habitual residence when a custody issue ensues.

Late last month, a federal judge was set to decide which country has jurisdiction to determine where the boys should reside.

This is a very complicated case, and there are a number of things that the court must address in order to determine whether the father is wrongfully retaining his children in the U.S. under the Hague Convention, or whether he has a right to continue the custody case here.

Source: The Tennessean, “International child custody trial begins in Nashville,” Sheila Burke, May 22, 2013