I thought one of the main reasons was to prevent any convoluted legal wrangling which might occur between 'adoptive' parents and natural parents - because as a WOC she would have to be immediately handed over the the nearest British Embassy?
The lawyers then talked to us
about applying for an order to make Madeleine a
ward of court.
Wardship status gives the courts certain statutory
powers to act on a child’s behalf in any legal
disputes and to bypass some of the data-protection
laws that deal with access to information (hotel guest
records, for example, and airline passenger lists),
when knowledge of this information is considered to
be in the interests of the child in question. Such an
order could be useful in acquiring records not
otherwise available to us that might be relevant in
our case. We decided to proceed with an
application, which was granted in due course
Madeleine chapter 8.They used the Ward of Court status to try to get the evidence held by Leicestershire Police, but it didn't work.