The Court of Justice of the European Union and international abduction of children

The EU developed a complex set of rules for international abduction of children, which, albeit based on a formal reference to the 1980 Hague Abduction Convention, experimented with new solutions and acquired its own specificity. After nearly 20 years of this combined set of rules being applied under the guidance of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), it is suggested that some of the guidance offered to EU national courts may also be of some interest to third States. The chapter focuses on a few selected topics (e.g., the child’s habitual residence; termination of retained jurisdiction; provisional measures; hearing of the child; the child’s right to personal relations with both parents and adequate arrangements for the child’s safe return) where the impact of the CJEU has been stronger and where a welcome cross-fertilisation with the practice of third States could be possible.