¹ Hereafter ‘the Convention’.

² See further below.

³ For France this meant that the Convention entered into force on the same day as the domestic reforms in relation to the protection of adults contained in LOI n° 2007-308 du 5 mars 2007 portant réforme de la protection juridique des majeurs et liens vers les décrets d'application.

⁴ Alongside France, Germany and the United Kingdom, the Convention had also previously been signed by the Netherlands and Switzerland in 2000 and 2007 respectively.

⁵ Article 1.

⁶ Replacement is achieved by means of Article 48. See further, E Clive, ‘The New Hague Convention on the Protection of Adults’ in P Šarčević and P Volken (eds), Yearbook of Private International Law: Volume 2 (2000), (Kluwer Law International, London, 2000) 2.

⁷ P Lagarde, Explanatory Report on the Convention of 13 January 2000 on the International Protection of Adults, para 9. Hereafter ‘Explanatory Report’. In 2007, the number of people above state pension age in the United Kingdom exceeded the number of people under sixteen for the first time: Office for National Statistics, Population Trends 134, 2008, Table 1.4.

⁸ A survey conducted by the personal banking arm of NatWest International in February 2008 suggested that 1.8 million Britons could retire abroad by 2025. Moreover, the amount of people aged over 45 who decided to leave the United Kingdom and live abroad more than double from 33,000 in 1991 to 68,000 in 2006: see the Office for National Statistics, Populations Trends 133, 2008, Table 7.1.

⁹ PMM Mostermans ‘A New Hague Convention on the International Protection of Adults’ (2000) 2 International Law FORUM Du Droit International 10.

¹⁰ There are a limited number of cases concerned with such matters in the United Kingdom. One of the most recent is Re S (Hospital Patient: Foreign Curator) [1996] Fam 23 in which a question arose over the jurisdiction of the English courts in respect of a Norwegian man, present in England, for whom the Norwegian courts had appointed a guardian.

¹¹ E Clive (n 6) 3.

¹² See also E Clive (n 6) 4–16 and W Kennett Family Law–Protection of Adults (1998) 49 International and Comparative Law Quarterly 497.

¹³ Explanatory Report para 1.

¹⁴ Article 2.

¹⁵ P Lagarde Explanatory Report on the Convention of 19 October 1996 on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Co-operation in Respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children para 16.

¹⁶ ibid para 11.

¹⁷ E Clive (n 6) 4.

¹⁸ ibid. See further below.

¹⁹ Explanatory Report para 16.

²⁰ Article 55. See further, Harrington, J ‘Scrutiny and Approval: The Role for Westminster-Style Parliaments in Treaty-Making’ (2006) 55 International and Comparative Law Quarterly 121, 150–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²¹ Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000, schedule 3, para. 1(2)–(4). This Act is also notable as it was the first substantive piece of Scottish legislation following Devolution.

²² Mental Capacity Act 2005 (Commencement No 2) Order 2007/1897. The exceptions are contained in the 2005 Act, schedule 3, para 35 and, like Scotland, relate to Articles 8 and 9, and a number of additional factors.

²³ Mental Capacity Act 2005, schedule 3, para 8(2).

²⁴ Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000, ss 15–24.

²⁵ Mental Capacity Act 2005, ss 9–14.

²⁶ Article 15(1).

²⁷ Article 15(2).

²⁸ Article 16.

²⁹ ibid.

³⁰ For a more detailed, and critical, analysis of the position of advanced medical directives within the Convention see AR Fagan An Analysis of the Convention on the International Protection of Adults (2002) 10 Elder Law Journal, 329.

³¹ Article 15(3).

³² Explanatory Report para 97.

³³ Article 6.

³⁴ Explanatory Report para 97.

³⁵ See further, R Frimston England & Wales—France: Incapacity of Adults (2008) Private Client Business, 218–219.

³⁶ A R Fagan (n 30) 359.

³⁷ Article 28.

³⁸ PMM Mostermans (n 9) 11.

³⁹ Ibid.