ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the source, nature and effect of modern international influences upon the role of the welfare principle in the civil law as it relates to children in the UK. In the international arena, as in the local, the development of the law relating to the welfare interests of children has not been determined exclusively by either judicial or legislative initiative nor, in the latter case, solely by changes implemented through provisions specific to children. In 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations unanimously adopted the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and the European Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Decisions Concerning Custody of Children 1983 governs the problem of international child abductions. The severity of court directed restrictions on the liberty of UK children have also given rise to concern in Europe.
