Custody of a Minor

This case presents the question whether the courts of this Commonwealth should defer to a determination of a court in Australia concerning the custody of a minor child, an Australian citizen, now in the Commonwealth with his mother, but purportedly subject to custody orders of the Family Court of Australia. This issue concerns G. L. c. 209B, the Massachusetts Child Custody Jurisdiction Act, enacted in 1983 (St. 1983, c. 680, § 1), and largely modeled on the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act. See 9 U.L.A. Ill (Master ed. 1979). A judge of the Probate and Family Court determined that under…