Scope
1. This Regulation applies in civil matters of:
(a)
divorce, legal separation or marriage annulment;
(b)
the attribution, exercise, delegation, restriction or termination of parental responsibility.
2. The matters referred to in point (b) of paragraph 1 may, in particular, include:
(a)
rights of custody and rights of access;
(b)
guardianship, curatorship and similar institutions;
(c)
the designation and functions of any person or body having charge of the person or property of a child, or representing or assisting a child;
(d)
the placement of a child in institutional or foster care;
(e)
measures for the protection of the child relating to the administration, conservation or disposal of the property of a child.
3. Chapters III and VI of this Regulation apply where the wrongful removal or retention of a child concerns more than one Member State, complementing the 1980 Hague Convention. Chapter IV of this Regulation applies to decisions ordering the return of a child to another Member State pursuant to the 1980 Hague Convention which have to be enforced in a Member State other than the Member State where the decision was given.
4. This Regulation does not apply to:
(a)
the establishment or the contesting of a parent-child relationship;
(b)
decisions on adoption, measures preparatory to adoption, or the annulment or revocation of adoption;
(c)
the name and forenames of a child;
(d)
emancipation;
(e)
maintenance obligations;
(f)
trusts or succession;
(g)
measures taken as a result of criminal law offences committed by children.
Definitions
1. For the purposes of this Regulation 'decision' means a decision of a court of a Member State, including a decree, order or judgment, granting divorce, legal separation, or annulment of a marriage, or concerning matters of parental responsibility.
For the purposes of Chapter IV, 'decision' includes:
(a)
a decision given in one Member State and ordering the return of a child to another Member State pursuant to the 1980 Hague Convention which has to be enforced in a Member State other than the Member State where the decision was given;
(b)
provisional, including protective, measures ordered by a court which by virtue of this Regulation has jurisdiction as to the substance of the matter or measures ordered in accordance with Article 27(5) in conjunction with Article 15;
For the purposes of Chapter IV, 'decision' does not include provisional, including protective, measures ordered by such a court without the respondent being summoned to appear, unless the decision containing the measure is served on the respondent prior to enforcement.
2. For the purposes of this Regulation the following definitions also apply:
(1)
'court' means any authority in any Member State with jurisdiction in the matters falling within the scope of this Regulation;
(2)
'authentic instrument' means a document which has been formally drawn up or registered as an authentic instrument in any Member State in the matters falling within the scope of this Regulation and the authenticity of which:
(a)
relates to the signature and the content of the instrument; and
(b)
has been established by a public authority or other authority empowered for that purpose. The Member States shall communicate those authorities to the Commission in accordance with Article 103;
(3)
'agreement' means, for the purposes of Chapter IV, a document which is not an authentic instrument, has been concluded by the parties in the matters falling within the scope of this Regulation and has been registered by a public authority as communicated to the Commission by a Member State in accordance with Article 103 for that purpose;
(4)
'Member State of origin' means the Member State in which the decision has been given, the authentic instrument has been formally drawn up or registered, or the agreement has been registered;
(5)
'Member State of enforcement' means the Member State in which enforcement of the decision, authentic instrument or agreement is sought;
(6)
'child' means any person below the age of 18 years;
(7)
'parental responsibility' means all rights and duties relating to the person or the property of a child which are given to a natural or legal person by a decision, by operation of law or by an agreement having legal effect, including rights of custody and rights of access;
(8)
'holder of parental responsibility' means any person, institution or other body having parental responsibility for a child;
(9)
'rights of custody' includes rights and duties relating to the care of the person of a child and in particular the right to determine the place of residence of a child;
(10)
'rights of access' means rights of access to a child, including the right to take a child to a place other than his or her habitual residence for a limited period of time;
(11)
'wrongful removal or retention' means the removal or retention of a child where:
(a)
such removal or retention is in breach of rights of custody acquired by decision, by operation of law or by an agreement having legal effect under the law of the Member State where the child was habitually resident immediately before the removal or retention; and
(b)
at the time of removal or retention, the rights of custody were actually exercised, either jointly or alone, or would have been so exercised but for the removal or retention.
3. For the purposes of Articles 3, 6, 10, 12, 13, 51, 59, 75, 94 and 102 the concept of 'domicile' replaces the concept of 'nationality' for Ireland and the United Kingdom, and it has the same meaning as under each of the legal systems of those Member States.
