Page 7 of Grave Danger

Jack’s flight landed at Reagan National on Tuesday morning. Washington, DC, was ablaze with autumn color. Crisp air and cloudless blue skies greeted him as he stepped out of the taxi. It was the kind of October day that made south Floridians—stuck in heat and humidity until Halloween—wonder if life really was better north of the Mason-Dixon. Jack would reserve judgment until January. He entered the chrome-and-glass office building and was in the office of Myra Weiss before noon.

Myra was a partner at one of Washington’s elite law firms, just a stone’s throw from the White House. Her corner office on the twelfth floor offered what Big Law referred to as a “power vista,” which Jack admired from a tufted leather armchair. Myra seemed immune to it, seated with her back to a floor-to-ceiling window that showcased Lafayette Square, the familiar Pennsylvania Avenue view of the White House, and, in the distance, the Washington Monument.

Myra was about ten years older than Jack, closer in age to him than to his father, but Jack had always thought of her as part of her former boss’s generation. According to her bio on the American Bar Association website, she’d made it her mission as chair of the ABA’s International Section to ensure that women sued in the United States under the Hague Convention had proper legal representation. Her firm handled as many as it could. For the rest, she recruited talented lawyers from all over the country to take cases on a pro bono basis.

“Do you have any experience with cases under the Hague Convention?” asked Myra.

“Not specifically. But I’ve had tons of trials with transnational implications, mostly under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.”

“You’ll take a mandatory training class,” she said. “I look for highly skilled trial lawyers, not walking encyclopedias. You do at least know what the Hague Conventionis, right?”

“A multilateral treaty,” said Jack. “Something like a hundred signatory countries.”

“Most important for our purposes, the convention governs court proceedings in which a parent alleges that his child was abducted by the other parent and removed from the usual country of residence.”

“You sayhischild. I assume it works both ways. The mother or the father can sue under the Hague Convention if their spouse abducts the child.”

“True. But my interest in these cases is narrower. All too often, the ‘kidnapper’ is a woman—a wife and mother fleeing an abusive husband. The Hague Convention provides a legal basis for the father to bring suit in the United States and secure the child’s return to him in his home country.”

“I presume it also provides some protection for the abused mother and her child,” said Jack.

“Yes.Someprotection. These cases are very difficult for a mother to win.”

“How so?”

“The Hague Convention strongly disfavors kidnapping under any circumstances. Even proof that the mother was the victim of domestic abuse is not enough for her to win. She must prove that returning the child to the father under the Hague Convention would placethe child—not the mother—in grave danger of ‘physical or psychological harm.’”

“Sounds like a pretty nebulous standard,” said Jack.

“You’ll learn all about it in your training. For now, let’s focus more specifically on the case that was filed in Miami.John Doe v. Jane Doe.”

“I presume John Doe is the father.”

“Yes. Farid Bazzi. He is Iranian and lives in Tehran. The mother is also Iranian but has lived in Miami with their daughter, Yasmin, for almost a year.”

“That explains the Miami connection. But I’m still confused how this lawsuit is even in a US court. My understanding is that Iran is not a signatory to the Hague Convention.”

“That’s correct.”

“So technically there is no legal basis for Farid to seek the return of the child to Iran.”

“It’s not that cut-and-dried.”

“The law rarely is,” said Jack.

“That goes double for international law. The Bazzi family moved to the UK when Yasmin was a newborn and stayed there until she was four. Yasmin lived less than a year in Iran before her mother took her to the United States. The UK is a signatory to the convention.”

“But Farid wants the child returned to Iran, not the UK, right?”

“Of course he does,” said Myra. “But Farid’s lawyer pulled a clever legal move. Under the convention, a child can be returned only to his or her ‘habitual place of residence.’ Farid’s lawyer is arguing that Yasmin’s ‘habitual place of residence’ is the UK, where the family lived for most of her life.”

“That’s pure legal gamesmanship,” said Jack. “The minute Yasmin sets foot in the UK, Farid will take her to Iran. Yasmin and her mother will never see each other again.”

“You’re a quick study, Jack. That’s exactly the problem.”

His father’s words echoed in Jack’s mind:The stakes are higher than in any criminal case.Jack’s friends at the Freedom Institute might take issue. The case ofDoe v. Doewasn’t life-or-death. But Jack took his father’s meaning. Jack had never known his biological mother; she’d died in childbirth. Jack understood better than anyone that, for six-year-old Yasmin and her mother, the stakes could not be higher.

“Tell me more about Yasmin’s mother,” said Jack. “My father described her as a ‘political hot potato.’”