Amidst controversy, a legal regimen for intercountry adoption (ICA) has been developed over the past twenty-five years. The primary constituent parts are the 1989 UN-based Convention on the Rights of the Child (“CRC”) and the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Hague Convention). Since the creation of those conventions, international and national legal efforts have focused on delineation and implementation of a set of standards based on their principles in the attempt to create a stable and reliable intercountry adoption system. This project of the creation of a stable and reliable intercountry adoption system through a legal regimen based on the CRC and Hague Convention constitutes the primary legal approach to intercountry adoption in the world today. It also represents, in terms of perspectives on intercountry adoption, a middle pathway between viewpoints that are positioned as hostile to any kind of systematic practice of intercountry adoption and viewpoints that view intercountry adoption as the logical primary response to the vulnerable situation of millions of children in the world.

Part I of this article will summarize differing views of intercountry adoption, situating the CRC/ Hague Convention regimen within these competing views. Part II will discuss and evaluate the obstacles and threats to this legal regimen. The conclusion will very briefly comment on future prospects for the CRC/Hague legal regimen.