Sandra Davis' Week: Relocation – balancing interests

Contested international child relocation cases have profound effects on families.  The impact on a parent of being refused permission to relocate abroad can be just as harsh as the impact on the parent left behind if permission is granted. For children the impact is even greater. 

If permission to relocate overseas is granted their relationship with the parent left behind will to a greater or lesser degree become dislocated. If permission is refused a child will often grow up in the knowledge that their primary carer feels that they have been forced to remain living in this country against their wishes.

Given the competing tensions between one parent who wishes to relocate the other who opposes relocation and in the middle of both the child welfare issues that arise it is little wonder that the leading decision of the Court of Appeal in Payne v Payne [2001] Fam 475 is...

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