A new ECJ judgment about the concept of habitual residence in the framework of Regulation 2201/2003: judgment 17 October 2018, UD v. XB, C. 393/18

Abstract

This judgment refers to the interpretation of Article 8 of Regulation 2201/2003. The request for the preliminary ruling was made by an English court in a proceeding between UD and XB, mother and father of an infant, born in Bangladesh. The English court questioned whether physical presence was an intrinsic element of the concept of habitual residence, as the girl had never been in The United Kingdom. This question was made in a very particular context, as the child was born in Bangladesh because the mother, supposedly, was being kept through coercion in that country by the father.