Disputes

over and about children are some of the hardest issues in the transnational

context. The questions that authorities are asked to resolve in these cases,

e.g., what particular custodial arrangements would be in the best interests of

a particular child, should a parent be permitted to relocate with a child, when

and how should a parent be permitted to exercise rights of access, do not turn

on the kinds of fact/law determinations that characterise other types of

litigation. Nor is a judicial proceeding, with its formal rules, likely to

produce an accurate snapshot of the real family dynamic. Resolution of these

matters is part of a value-laden decision-making process that necessarily

brings into play differences in culture, attitudes, and moral standards. The

role of culture and values and stereotypes is magnified even more dramatically

in the transboundary context. 

Disputes over children presuppose answering the

question about