Press Releases
Visit of Mr. Justice MacDonald, Deputy Head of International Family Justice for England and Wales to Japan
November 2, 2026
From October 25 to 31, Mr. Justice Alistair MacDonald, Deputy Head of International Family Justice for England and Wales, visited Japan under the Strategic Practitioner Invitation Program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Mr. Justice MacDonald is an authority on family law in England and Wales and the 1980 Hague Convention, and is also a member of the International Hague Network of Judges, which facilitates international cooperation among the judges who handle Hague Convention cases.
- During his stay, Mr. Justice MacDonald visited the Supreme Court, the Tokyo Family Court, the Ministry of Justice of Japan, and a child contact support organization, and exchanged opinions with Japanese officials and stakeholders.
- On October 27, Mr. Justice MacDonald gave a lecture titled "Operating the 1980 Hague Convention in a Changing World" at a Hague Convention seminar for Japanese legal professionals hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. The lecture covered the foundational principles of the 1980 Hague Convention, as well as how the Convention should operate and the challenges it faces in response to trends in the international community and changing environments. More than 50 people, including judges, Japanese government officials, legal scholars specializing in the 1980 Hague Convention, and lawyers handling Hague Convention cases, participated in the seminar, as well as more than 20 online participants, and an active question-and-answer session was held after the lecture.
- On October 30, Mr. Justice MacDonald also gave a lecture on the basic principles of the 1980 Hague Convention at a seminar held at Doshisha University. Around 50 legal scholars and law students from Doshisha University, Kyoto University, the University of Osaka, and Nagoya University participated in this seminar.
- This visit provided an opportunity to deepen the understanding of the Japanese implementation of the 1980 Hague Convention among legal professionals in the UK and to further strengthen Japan-UK cooperative relations regarding the rule of law, including the 1980 Hague Convention.