CHILDREN

Custodial parent proposing to remove child permanently from jurisdiction childs welfare paramount no presumption in favour of proposal and no breach of other parents convention...Custodial parent proposing to remove child permanently from jurisdiction childs welfare paramount no presumption in favour of proposal and no breach of other parents convention rightsPayne v Payne: CA (Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss P, Thorpe and Robert Walker LJJ): 13 February 2001The mother applied under section13(1)(b) of the Children Act 1989 for leave to remove the child of the marriage, aged four, permanently from the jurisdiction by taking her to live in the mothers home country of New Zealand.

The judge refused the fathers application for a residence order and acceded to the mothers application.

The father appealed on the grounds that the judges application of the principle that the court should not interfere with the reasonable decision of the custodial parent was in breach of his rights under articles 6 and 8 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as enacted by the Human Rights Act 1998.

Philip Cayford (instructed by Miller Sands, Cambridge) for the father.

Joanna Hall (instructed by Hodge Jones & Allen) for the mother.Held, dismissing the appeal, that neither domestic case law nor legislation created a presumption in favour of the applicant parent, nor did the Convention affect the principles of domestic law to be applied in such cases; that although all relevant factors such as the reasonable proposals and motivation of a parent wishing to relocate, the effects on the child of seriously interfering with the life of a custodial parent and the denial of contact with the absent parent had to be considered and weighed in the balance, the welfare of the child was the paramount consideration; and that, since the judge had weighed all relevant factors carefully in the balance and clearly made the childs welfare the paramount consideration, there were no grounds to set aside the order.