Abstract
International child abduction is a problem, seen as growing, and increasingly as an activity that should be ruthlessly stigmatized and, if possible, eliminated from practice. The objectives of reducing, stigmatizing and ultimately eliminating international child abduction are served by a variety of measures within the framework of the Hague Conference on Private International Law and the European Union, including the creation of some sort of rapid response system. In the context of the operation of this combined system, in November 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union received a preliminary question from the UK High Court of Justice (England & Wales), Family Division, in relation to doubts arising in the course of newly instituted court proceedings concerning jurisdiction in parental matters in situations of child abduction to a third, non-EU country. The issue is important as it relates to the possibility of initiating proceedings in the country from which the child has been abducted when the country to which the child has travelled is not in the EU.