INTRODUCTION

In most jurisdictions, the residence of a child is one of the main issues on which parents must agree jointly. Where this agreement is lacking, a court decision allowing relocation is usually needed to guarantee the lawfulness of the move. Although most jurisdictions resolve relocation disputes with reference to the child's best interests principle, the assessment of the child's best interests is a well-recognised challenge. While the principle is embedded in Article 3 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (the CRC) and considered to be one of the general principles underpinning the Convention, the most widely ratified human rights treaty in the world, it generates a significant variety of approaches in different contexts. This can also be said about child relocation. It is not the objective of this book to discuss the nature and content of the principle in detail, and many excellent commentaries on the topic can be found elsewhere. However, certain features of the debate are substantively and methodologically relevant for the broader analysis undertaken in this book. As the CRC's understanding of the principle underpins national family laws across the EU and many EU legal instruments, including the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFR) and the Brussels IIter Regulation, the pertinent features of the principle and methodologies for best interests assessments are discussed in reference to the CRC.