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The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA) is a Uniform Act drafted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in 1997. The UCCJEA has since been adopted by 49 U.S. States, the District of Columbia, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Act became effective in Vermont on 7/1/2011. As of July 25, 2011 the only state that has not adopted the UCCJEA is Massachusetts, although a bill to enact it is pending in its Legislature. Puerto Rico has also not adopted the Act. The UCCJEA vests "exclusive () continuing jurisdiction" for child custody litigation in the courts of the child's "home state," which is defined as the state where the child has lived with a parent for six consecutive months prior to the commencement of the proceeding (or since birth for children younger than six months). If the child has not lived in any state for at least six months, then a court in a state that has (1) "significant connections" with the child and at least one parent ''and'' (2) "substantial evidence concerning the child's care, protection, training, and personal relationships" may assume child-custody jurisdiction. If more than one state has "significant connections" ''and'' "substantial evidence...", the courts of those states must communicate and determine which state has the most significant connections to the child. A court which has made a child-custody determination consistent with UCCJEA has exclusive, continuing jurisdiction over the determination until either (1) that court determines that neither the child, the child's parents, nor any person acting as a parent has a significant connection with the State that made the original order and that substantial evidence is no longer available in the State concerning the child's care, protection, training, and personal relationships, ''or'' (2) that court or a court of another State determines that the child, the child's parents, and any person acting as a parent do not reside in the State that initially made the child custody order. The UCCJEA replaced a previous Uniform Act, the "Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act", primarily because the old act was inconsistent with the federal Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act when determining proper jurisdiction for initial custody determinations and because of contradictory interpretations of the PKPA. The UCCJEA corrects these problems. The UCCJEA also added uniform procedures to register and enforce child-custody orders across state lines. == Initial custody determination == To determine which state has proper jurisdiction to make an "initial determination" of child custody, the UCCJEA proceeds in the following order of priority: 1. The state which is the "home state" of the child, or was the child's home state within six months immediately before the commencement of child custody proceedings if the child is absent from the state, but a parent or person acting as a parent continues to live in the state; 2. If no state has jurisdiction under #1, then jurisdiction is proper where the child and at least one parent have a significant connection with the state (other than mere presence), and substantial evidence concerning the custody determination is available in the state; 3. If no state has jurisdiction under #1 or #2 above, jurisdiction is proper in any state having an appropriate connection with the child. A state having jurisdiction under #1 or #2 above may decline to exercise its jurisdiction, and transfer it to another state if it is more convenient for the parties, or if one of the parties has engaged in misconduct necessitating a change. "Home state" is defined as the "state in which a child lived with a parent or a person acting as a parent for at least six consecutive months immediately before the commencement of a child-custody proceeding. In the case of a child less than six months of age, the term means the state in which the child lived from birth with any of the persons mentioned. A period of temporary absence of any of the mentioned persons is part of the period." For example, young Chris has lived in Iowa with his mother and father for the last three years. If the mother moves to Minnesota, but Chris remains in Iowa, then Minnesota will not have jurisdiction to determine custody over Chris. Iowa is the only state that can determine custody at this point. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction And Enforcement Act」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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