42 U.S.C. § 11602
Section 11602 · Definitions
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 14 court decisions — leading case Ohlander v. Larson (1997)
Most recently applied in Angelica Sanchez v. Miriam Lopez Sanchez (August 2014)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
For the purposes of this chapter—
(1) the term “applicant” means any person who, pursuant to the Convention, files an application with the United States Central Authority or a Central Authority of any other party to the Convention for the return of a child alleged to have been wrongfully removed or retained or for arrangements for organizing or securing the effective exercise of rights of access pursuant to the Convention;
(2) the term “Convention” means the Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, done at The Hague on October 25, 1980;
(3) the term “Parent Locator Service” means the service established by the Secretary of Health and Human Services under section 653 of this title;
(4) the term “petitioner” means any person who, in accordance with this chapter, files a petition in court seeking relief under the Convention;
(5) the term “person” includes any individual, institution, or other legal entity or body;
(6) the term “respondent” means any person against whose interests a petition is filed in court, in accordance with this chapter, which seeks relief under the Convention;
(7) the term “rights of access” means visitation rights;
(8) the term “State” means any of the several States, the District of Columbia, and any commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United States; and
(9) the term “United States Central Authority” means the agency of the Federal Government designated by the President under section 11606(a) of this title.