The Court’s Power to Protect a Dual Pakistani-British Minor at Risk of Forced Marriage Abroad

by Iulia Mirzac

Question(s) at stake

Whether it fell within the court’s jurisdiction to make a minor with both Pakistani and British nationality a ward of court to enable her to travel to the UK from Pakistan, where she was believed to be at risk of being forced into a marriage.

Outcome of the ruling

Given the exceptional circumstances of the case and the risk of harm posed by forced marriage, the court’s inherent jurisdiction and the parens patriae principles were extended to protect a British minor abroad by way of making her a ward of court.

Country:

United Kingdom

Official citation

RB v FB and MA (Forced Marriage: Wardship: Jurisdiction) [2008] EWHC 1436 (Fam)

Topic(s)

Personal Status, Family and Inheritance

Keywords:

Best interests of the child Forced marriage Right to marry and to found a family

Tag(s):

Bibliographic information

Mirzac, Iulia (2023): The Court’s Power to Protect a Dual Pakistani-British Minor at Risk of Forced Marriage Abroad, Department of Law and Anthropology, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle (Saale), Germany, CUREDI041UK023, https://doi.org/10.48509/CUREDI041UK023.

Access case report

View case report in the CUREDI database

About the authors

Iulia Mirzac (Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham)

Doctoral Candidate at the University of Birmingham carrying out ESRC-funded research on judicial interpretations of undefined concepts within the UK anti-trafficking framework in England and Wales. Teaching Associate on the 'Decolonising Legal Methods' module at Birmingham Law School. Research Consultant at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, providing legal commentaries of asylum decisions based on gender-based violence published under the Institute's CUREDI database.