DETERMINING JURISDICTION IN CHILD RETURN PROCEEDINGS UNDER THE 1980 HAGUE CONVENTION: EUROPEAN STANDARDS AND UKRAINIAN JUDICIAL PRACTICE

Background: Cross-border disputes concerning the removal or retention of children expose the decisive role of jurisdiction in the effective protection of children’s rights: procedural choices frequently predetermine substantive outcomes. This relevance has become particularly acute in relation to Ukrainian children following the large-scale displacement triggered by the Russian Federation’s armed aggression against Ukraine, which has multiplied transnational family conflicts and intensified jurisdictional uncertainty in child return proceedings.

Method: This article examines the jurisdictional architecture of the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction through the lens of Ukrainian legal practice. It analyses how the Convention’s jurisdictional logic, anchored in the notion of the child’s habitual residence, interacts with Ukrainian procedural regulation, primarily the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine, and assesses whether the existing framework ensures predictability, coherence, and effective access to justice in return cases.

The study focuses on the legal nature of return proceedings as an interim procedural remedy distinct from custody adjudication, the conceptual boundary between jurisdiction and judicial competence, and the practical challenges faced by national courts in cases involving parallel proceedings and competing jurisdictional claims. Drawing on doctrinal sources, Ukrainian case law, and European standards developed by the European Court of Human Rights, the article identifies recurrent methodological inconsistencies in determining habitual residence and in balancing security-related considerations with the Convention’s objectives of prompt return and prevention of forum shopping.

Results and Conclusions: By situating Ukrainian judicial practice within the broader European interpretative context, conclusions contribute to the development of a more consistent jurisdictional methodology for child return disputes, particularly in exceptional circumstances characterised by armed conflict and mass displacement.

Serhii Kravtsov*

Cand. of Science of Law (Equiv. PhD), Postdoctoral Researcher, Luxembourg Centre for European Law, University of Luxembourg; Department of Civil Justise, Arbitration and International Private Law, Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, Kharkiv, Ukraine

s.o.kravtsov@nlu.edu.ua 

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8270-193X

Corresponding author, responsible for writing the original draft, conceptualisation,

resources, project administration, and methodology

Viktoriia Panchenko

Cand. of Science (Equiv. of PhD in Law), Associate Professor, Department of Civil Justise, Arbitration and International Private Law, Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, Kharkiv, Ukraine

v.v.panchenko@nlu.edu.ua


https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9348-4547

Co-author, Conceptualisation, methodology, project administration, writing the original draft.

Iryna Cherevatenko

Cand. of Science (Equiv. of PhD in Law), Civil Justice and Advocacy Department, Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, Kharkiv, Ukraine

i.m.cherevatenko@nlu.edu.ua

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2937-1529

Co-author, Conceptualisation, methodology, project administration, writing the original draft

Liudmyla Leiba

PhD, Assoc. Prof., Department of Land Law and Agriculture Law, Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, Kharkiv, Ukraine

l.v.leyba@nlu.edu.ua

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1669-3409

Co-author, Conceptualisation, methodology, project administration, writing the original draft

Competing interests: Dr Serhii Kravtsov serves as a Section Editor for Access to Justice in Eastern Europe. To ensure a rigorous and unbiased peer-review process, he was not involved in the editorial handling, selection of reviewers, or the final decision-making regarding this manuscript. No other competing interests were disclosed.

Disclaimer: The authors declare that their opinions and views expressed in this manuscript are free of any impact from any organisations.

Rights and Permissions

Copyright: © 2026 Serhii Kravtsov, Viktoriia Panchenko, Iryna Cherevatenko, and Liudmyla Leiba. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Editors

Managing editor – Valentina Krivolapova. English Editor – Robert Reddin. Ukrainian language Editor – Liliіa Hartman.