A MAN considering having his eight-year-old son circumcised has been warned he may face a courtroom fight.

A judge has ordered he give his former partner six weeks' notice of any plan to send the boy for the operation.

The Family Court allowed the mother, 45, liberty to appear again if she wanted a court order to stop it.

Justice Ian Loughnan said the mother should be given adequate time to consider her position and intervene with the father or the court.

"Whatever might be said about the practice at birth, it's not an insignificant procedure for an eight-year-old boy," he said.

The judgment did not contain details of why the father, 37, wanted the procedure done.

The father came to Australia from Iraq in 1999 before beginning a six-year relationship with the boy's mother.

Justice Loughnan said both were loving parents but the mistrust between them made it impossible for them to communicate.