WASHINGTON -- An international child custody dispute that started in Alabama will be heard later this year by the U.S. Supreme Court in a case that could affect when American courts have jurisdiction in such cases and when they don't.

A federal judge in Alabama last year allowed a then-4-year-old girl to return to Scotland with her mother, where they had lived before moving to Huntsville to be with her father. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned down the father's appeal, saying the issue was no longer in its jurisdiction because the girl already was living in Scotland, prompting him to ask the Supreme Court to review the case.

The Supreme Court justices last week said they will consider whether the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction requires that such appeals be considered moot after the child leaves the United States. The father, Jeffrey Chafin, argues there are conflicting lower court opinions about when American courts lose jurisdiction because of the treaty.

"The majority of other courts disagree, and disagree vociferously, with the 11th Circuit," said Michael Manely of Atlanta, who is representing the father.

Chafin, a munitions expert and a sergeant first class in the U.S. Army, no longer lives in Alabama, Manely said. But it was the October 2011 decision from U.S. District Judge Inge Johnson in the Northern District of Alabama granting the mother's petition to take her daughter back to Scotland that started Chafin's legal battle. The couple's divorce is pending, Manely said.

In written arguments submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court, attorneys for the girl's mother agree that there are conflicting lower court opinions and say she did not oppose the father's petition to the justices. However, she also argues that the 11th Circuit's ruling was correct, and that the father had been wrongfully keeping the daughter in the United States, which is why she originally asked the federal court for permission to take her back to Scotland.

Lynne Chafin also told the justices that she has begun custody proceedings in the Scottish courts, where she and her daughter have lived since October.

The Alabama Family Rights Association, a group that advocates changes in Alabama's family courts to battle what they argue is an unfair bias toward mothers in custody cases, is supporting Jeffrey Chafin's case.

"We see a lot of inequities where the men are taking care of the children . . . and the judges say, 'Well, so what?' " said Mark Davis of Florence, a volunteer with the association.

Manely said such international custody issues are fairly common.

"It happens a lot all over the nation and in particular to military members," he said.