Brexit: the Brussels IIa regulation – cross-border child contact cases, and child abduction

On 27 October 2016, the UK Government announced it would opt into the European Commission’s proposal which repeals and replaces Brussels IIa, a decision which, as the Government noted, was “notwithstanding the result of the referendum on EU membership”.   

Brussels IIa is a regulation of the European Commission that considers matrimonial matters (which are touched on in this note) and parental responsibility issues (such as rights of custody and access) across borders, and supplements the Hague Convention on international child abduction.

The status of EU law – such as the Brussels IIa regulation – in the UK after Brexit is unclear; see the Library briefing paper, Brexit: how does the Article 50 process work?