When a child has been taken by one parent to another jurisdiction, if a Hague Child Custody case is opened, the court or administrative agency reviewing the case must determine if there was a “Wrongful Removal” of the child.

To decide if the parent who took the child did so in violation of a court order, the reviewing court, uses Article 14 of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and applies the law of the jurisdiction that is the Habitual Residence of the child, that is where has the child BEEN living, and what court orders are there that control their custody.

Article 14
In ascertaining whether there has been a wrongful removal or retention within the meaning of Article 3, the judicial or administrative authorities of the requested State may take notice directly of the law of, and of judicial or administrative decisions, formally recognised or not in the State of the habitual residence of the child, without recourse to the specific procedures for the proof of that law or for the recognition of foreign decisions which would otherwise be applicable.