When an unmarried couple separated, the mother left the Member State of the last habitual residence of the family (Ireland), taking the common children, for whom she had sole parental responsibility, with her to UK. In the course of proceedings instituted by the father in Ireland to enforce the return of the children, the Irish Supreme Court referred to CJ.

 

 

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, must be interpreted as not precluding a Member State from providing by its law that the acquisition of rights of custody by a child’s father, where he is not married to the child’s mother, is dependent on the father’s obtaining a judgment from a national court with jurisdiction awarding such rights to him, on the basis of which the removal of the child by its mother or the retention of that child may be considered wrongful, within the meaning of Article 2(11) of that regulation.