The Hague Convention Project

The Access to Justice Institute (AtJI) began the Hague Convention Project in 2004. Through this project, law students have done a number of things. First, they helped to organize a Continuing Legal Education on the Hague Convention which brought lawyers, judges, students and faculty members together to learn about and discuss the Hague Convention and its impact on survivors of domestic violence. Second, law students assisted with drafting a chapter on the Hague Convention in the Washington Domestic Violence Manual for Judges. And third, law students created a searchable database of U.S.-based Hague cases involving domestic violence, bibliographies of relevant secondary sources pertaining to the Hague Convention (books, articles, essays, CLE materials, etc.), and a collection of additional resources for practitioners in order to assist those navigating these difficult cases.

To ensure that the information collected for the database continues to be useful, AtJI is passing on the collected resources and information to the Hague Domestic Violence Project (HDVP). The HDVP is conducting a study which aims to better understand the experiences of women who have come into the United States with their children after leaving an abusive relationship and who then become involved in a legal dispute under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abduction.

For referrals and/or consultation on a case involving the Hague Convention and domestic violence, you can contact Sara Ainsworth, Senior Legal and Legislative Counsel at Northwest Women’s Law Center, at sains@nwwlc.org.