The International Hague Network of Judges now includes almost fifty members from more than 35 different countries.  Four judges  in the U.S. are members of thenetwork, including Judge Peter J. Messite of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Justice James Garbolino of the Superior Court of California, Circuit Judge Judith L. Kreeger of the 11th Judicial Circuit in Florida, and Judge Mary Sheffield of the Circuit Court in Missouri.  A list of all the current members is available here; articles that describe the work of the Hague Judicial Network are collected in this issue of the Judges’ Newsletter published by the Hague Conference in 2009.

An important purpose of the Judicial Network is to facilitate judicial communication in cases under the Child Abduction Convention.  The U.S. participants, who were requested to serve in this capacity by the U.S. Central Authority in the State Department, meet regularly by conference call and have responded to requests for assistance from foreign judges in Hague abduction cases.  They also met with colleagues from other countres at the recent International Judicial Conference  in Washington DC mentioned in a previous post.