The Australian Broadcasting Corporation published a story last week on the Hague Child Abduction Convention. The headline gives a sense of the gist of the story: “Mothers forced to stay in same country as abuser or risk persecution under the Hague Convention.” The Convention, according to one quoted expert, is a “good law gone bad.” What’s the problem? According to the story, Australian immigration law provides that foreign women who marry Australian men and then leave them “may not be entitled to government support in Australia.” So they may want to return to their own countries, where they may be entitled to support; but if they take their children with them, the husband may have the right, under the Convention, to require the mother…

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