Japan has faced widespread scrutiny for failing to properly address international parental child abduction involving its citizens. This book examines how and why Japan has come to have this tarnished image, its response, and how it might manage these disputes in the future. In particular, the book explores how Japan engages with international legal frameworks to manage international parental child abduction and what this means, in reality, for Japanese people and others who come under its wide umbrella. A focus of this examination is how the key international treaty, the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, has fared since being introduced in Japan in 2014. Case studies of parental child abduction involving Japan are used throughout to illustrate the legal and social concepts discussed in the book. The struggles of both abducting and left-behind parents across fluid international borders reveal seismic social and philosophical shifts in Japan that continue to shape its legal landscape. This book will be a useful resource for students of Japanese Studies, Sociolegal Studies, Comparative Law and International Law.

As the world becomes smaller, family law is becoming truly global, giving rise to more and more questions for private international law. This book looks at the sensitive and complex question of child abduction, with a unique child rights perspective. Taking Islamic law as its case study, it delves into child abduction in key jurisdictions from Iran to Saudi Arabia and Libya to Pakistan. Rigorous doctrinal analysis is enhanced by empirical insights, namely interviews with abductees, parents and professionals. It is an excellent guide to a complicated field.

This book is concerned with the regulation of family relationships,in particular the issue of openness and contact in the many different family situations in which it may arise. The shift towards a presumption of contact, and its articulation within diverse fields of family law and practice raises a whole series of questions which this book seeks to explore. For example: Why has the contact presumption emerged? What is meant by contact, and with whom. What is the value and purpose of it? What makes it work or not work? What is the role of law and other forms of external intervention in promoting, regulating or facilitating contact and to what extent should 'familial' relationships be subject to state regulation? More broadly, what can we infer about current conceptualisations of family, parenting (and the relative importance of social and biological parenthood) and childhood from policy and practice towards contact? These and other questions were explored in a series of seminars organised by the Cambridge Socio-Legal Group in 2002. The book is the product of these seminars. Andrew Bainham, Belinda Brooks-Gordon, Ann Buchanan, Shelley Day Sclater, Judy Dunn, John Eekelaar, Bob Geldof, Jonathan Herring, Claire Hughes, Joan Hunt, Adrian James, Julie Jessop, Felicity Kaganas, Bridget Lindley, Mavis Maclean, Joanna Miles, Katrin Mueller-Johnson, Elsbeth Neil, Jan Pryor, Martin Richards, Bob Simpson, Donna Smith, Liz Trinder

For Americans who reside or plan to take up residence abroad, this guide addresses safety and security matters, and provides reference information on a host of issues ranging from health and terrorism to other emergencies.