The Practical Handbook on EU Family Law is a free, practice-oriented resource designed to make complex cross-border family law clearer, more accessible, and easier to apply in real cases.

Part 2 follows the progression of an actual return case rather than the order of the Convention’s provisions. It begins with identifying the applicable legal framework and determining whether a removal or retention falls within the Convention, then follows the litigation positions of the applicant and respondent through the exceptions to return, evidence, child participation, domestic violence, protective measures, parallel proceedings and agreements, before turning to the return decision, appeals, enforcement, further abduction and post-decision proceedings.

At the centre of the book is comparative case law. The handbook contains 481 case notes, drawing on national decisions from 23 jurisdictions: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States,  together with judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights. The cases include first-instance as well as appellate and supreme-court decisions and are used to show how apparently abstract Convention rules operate when applied to particular facts, evidence and procedural choices.

The comparative approach reveals a complicated picture: similar questions recur across legal systems, but outcomes remain highly sensitive to the facts, the evidence available and the stage at which an argument arises. The handbook therefore pairs concise legal propositions with factual case examples, enabling readers to move from a practical problem to the relevant legal question and then to the underlying authority.

Particular attention is given to issues that can determine litigation: the proof and classification of custody rights, actual exercise, consent and acquiescence, the one-year period and settlement, grave risk and intolerable situations, child objections, burdens of proof, foreign-law evidence, hearing the child, domestic violence, adequate arrangements and protective measures, the relationship between return and parental-responsibility proceedings, the contents of the return order, appeals, enforcement and the Brussels IIb overriding mechanism. The interaction between the 1980 Hague Convention, Brussels IIb and the 1996 Hague Child Protection Convention is addressed throughout.

Designed principally for lawyers and judges working with international child abduction cases in Europe, the handbook is intended as a working reference. Its case summaries are not substitutes for the judgments themselves: wherever possible, the electronic edition links directly to the underlying judicial decision so that readers can examine the factual context and reasoning for themselves.

The handbook is also available for download on ResearchGate and SSRN.

This handbook has no institutional sponsor, funding body or publisher behind it. It is a personal contribution to a field that deserves it — researched, written and published independently, and offered free to the people working in it.

Part 1 and Part 2

Part 1 explains the key concepts and terminology of EU family law. Part 2 puts those concepts to work in one of its most demanding areas: international child abduction litigation. The two volumes are designed to complement each other, while remaining fully usable on their own.

See also my 2026 research project  "Domestic Violence in Dutch Return Proceedings".

Handbook-Based Training for Judges, Lawyers & Court Staff

Customised training sessions based on the content of the handbook are offered for legal professionals, court staff, and translators who work with EU family law in cross-border cases. The training can be delivered in person or online, and is tailored to the participants’ experience level and needs.