SB 603 - This act repeals Missouri's Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act and adopts the current version of the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act. The act does not govern adoption proceedings, proceedings pertaining to the authorization of emergency medical care for a child, or proceedings governed by the Indian Child Welfare Act. Courts are required to treat a foreign country as a state of the United States for purposes of applying the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, except where the child custody law of the foreign country violates fundamental human rights principles. The act gives limited immunity from service of process to parties participating in proceedings under the act who otherwise are not subject to personal jurisdiction in this state.

Any court of this state that has made a child custody determination pursuant to the Act has exclusive continuing jurisdiction over the determination under certain conditions, and the court is granted temporary emergency jurisdiction to make a child custody determination regarding a child present in this state when such a determination is necessary due to abandonment or abuse. The act itemizes relevant factors which a court may consider before making a determination whether it is an inconvenient forum.

In the enforcement provisions, the act enforces child custody determinations and orders for the return of a child pursuant to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. The act also authorizes a court of this state, without modification, jurisdiction to temporarily enforce visitation ordered by a court in another state, and authorizes registration of a child custody determination issued by a court in another state in the same manner as foreign judgments are registered. Information which must be included in a petition for enforcement of a child custody determination is specified in the act, as well as the procedure for acting upon the child custody determination enforcement petition.

The act authorizes the issuance of a warrant to take physical custody of a child likely to suffer serious imminent physical harm or removal from this state, and requires payment of the prevailing party's costs and expenses by the non-prevailing party. The act does not apply retroactively to motions or other requests for relief initiated before August 28, 2000.

The act is identical to SB 505 (1999).
ERIN MOTLEY