Family Law

Child Arrangements Cases

Re C (Internal Relocation) [2015] EWCA Civ 1305

Key Point

• There is one governing principle for relocation cases, internal or external: the child’s welfare is paramount (s.1(1) Children Act 1989).

Facts

• Parents separated.
• Mother applied to relocate within England with the child.
• Recorder allowed the mother to relocate, finding it in the child’s best interests.
• Father appealed, arguing the recorder had wrongly applied a test which, he argued, favoured internal relocation except in ‘exceptional circumstances’. He claimed this unduly limited his ability to resist relocation.

Issue

• Had the judge actually applied the test the father claimed, authorising relocation except in ‘exceptional circumstances’? If so, did such a test exist.
  • This was largely based on discussion of the relevance of dicta in Re E (Residence: Imposition of Conditions) [1997], which suggested internal relocation could only be prevented in exceptional circumstances.
• If so, was such a test compatible with the previous case law (most notably K v K) which places the focus solely on the paramountcy principle?