A Local Authority v AG [2020] EWFC 18 & [2020] EWHC 1346 & Barnet London Borough Council v AG and other [2021] EWHC 1253 (Fam)

Damian Woodward-Carlton QC, Jennifer Youngs and Katherine Archer are published in the March 2022 edition of Family Law Journal, discussing the cases of A Local Authority v AG [2020] EWFC 18 & [2020] EWHC 1346 and Barnet London Borough Council v AG and other [2021] EWHC 1253 (Fam). These cases - in which members of 42 Bedford Row were instructed for both parents - address the court’s approach to care proceedings when parents, and their children, are asserted to be immune from the court’s jurisdiction by virtue of their diplomatic status.

The article explores the interaction of seemingly conflicting principles of international and domestic law, Mostyn J’s ultimate determination that no family court in England and Wales has jurisdiction to hear claims under the Children Act 1989 in respect of the children of serving diplomatic agents, and the later decision by Sir Andrew McFarlane and Sir Duncan Ouseley that there should be no declaration of incompatibility made in respect of the Diplomatic Privileges Act 1964.

Download the article here.

Read the judgment here.