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Jeremy D. Morley has been well recognized as an expert
on the international aspects of the family law of China.
-His opinions are based on the knowledge and extensive
experience that has gained concerning Chinese family law matters from handling
numerous cases concerning China. He has consulted with many clients whose
country of origin or current or prior residency is China or whose spouse or
(former) partner is a Chinese citizen or resident. Such consultations have usually concerned
international family law issues that have related to China, most particularly
including international child custody and international child abduction. They
have frequently required him to consult with lawyers in China and to conduct
extensive research as to the family laws of China. He has provided expert
reports and testimony concerning the laws and practices of China as to
international child custody matters.
-May 3, 2017: Both sides in a California case
stipulated today to the submission to the court of my expert report on the risks
of child visitation to China.
-From a Global Times article on The terrifying reality of international custody disputes:
“According to Jeremy D. Morley, a New York-based
family lawyer and author of The Hague Abduction Convention: Practical Issues
and Procedures for the Family Lawyer, this is one reason which makes China an
inviting destination for international childhood abduction.
‘There is often a legal vacuum that encourages
one parent to take children away from the other, and to deprive the children of
access to the other parent," Morley says. "It not only hurts foreign
parents [if the Chinese partner takes the child to China], it also hurts
Chinese parents living in China because if the other parent takes their child
to a foreign country from China, the courts in that foreign country are unable
to order the child's return to China under the terms of the convention.’"
-From a court ruling of the DeKalb, Georgia County
Superior Court:
“I also have to balance that with the facts provided
by Mr. Morley--who the Court gives great weight to his testimony—that China has
not signed or become a part of the Hague Act, and therefore sending the child,
a United States citizen to China, would strip this court of jurisdiction and
would prevent this court from protecting one of its citizens. The Court, therefore, would lack the power to
act, lack the power to protect, and that is certainly not in the child’s best
interests…The fact is if the child does go to China, and if the mother
indicated that she did not want the child to return to America, then from what
the Court has heard from Mr. Morley, whom the Court has given great weight, the
child may not be returned to the United States.
China has an unreliable system, and the Court has to take that into
consideration.”
