International family justice

The Office of the Head of International Family Justice was created as a consequence of Lord Justice Thorpe’s appointment in January 2005 as Head of International Family Justice for England and Wales, by the Lord Chief Justice, then Lord Woolf, and the Lord Chancellor.

The office deals with a range of legal queries and correspondence from both internal and external sources (judges, practitioners and other officials in the field of international family law) including direct correspondence with foreign judges.

The office:

• advises on legal issues related, but not limited, to international child abduction and relocation, including specific issues arising under Brussels II Revised and the 1980 Hague Convention. In this respect, it liaises regularly with our European Judicial Network and Hague Network judicial contacts, for the purposes of assisting, where we can, in the smooth-running of these complex cross-border cases
• provides assistance in responding to developments in European and international family law and policy and in managing arrangements for international conferences
• provides assistance, where it can, to domestic and foreign judges and practitioners dealing with non-Hague abduction and other family law matters
• liaises with MoJ, FCO, International Child Abduction and Contact Unit, as well as European and International bodies

Victoria Miller joined the International Family Justice Office in August 2010 as Lawyer to Lord Justice Thorpe. She took over from Louise McKechnie. Administration support is provided by the Executive Assistant, Karen Wheller.

The office can be contacted by telephoning: 0207 947 7906 or by writing to: victoria.miller@judiciary.gsi.gov.uk