International family law in the United Kingdom beyond Brexit: Focus on matrimonial matters and future interpretation of habitual residence of the child.

The consequences of Brexit for international family law in the United Kingdom (“the UK”) have been significant: from the loss of the Council Regulation (EC) No 2201/2003 of 27 November 2003 concerning jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in matrimonial matters and the matters of parental responsibility, repealing Regulation (EC) No 1347/2000 (“Regulation No 2201/2003”)1to potential dillemas over the interpretation of key private international law concepts that had been expounded by the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) for the purposes of the EU private international law Regulations over the past decades and embedded in the UK domestic law.2 The loss of the EU private international law regime will be felt more in some areas than in others, with the sphere of matrimonial matters being perhaps most substantially affected. Another issue that merits thorough analysis is the likely interpretation of the concept of habitual residence of a child by the UK courts post-Brexit, for the purposes of parental responsibility and parental child abduction cases. Accordingly, the core of this article is divided into two parts – the first part addresses the legal landscape in the UK post-Brexit applicable to jurisdiction and recognition and enforcement in matrimonial matters, and the second part assesses the likelihood of diverging jurisprudence post-Brexit through the lens of habitual residence of the child. This is followed by a concluding section that brings together the key points made throughout the analysis