Papers from the 10th International Society of Family Law Conference covering the resolution of disputes and current pressures on family law.

This volume highlights important classic and contemporary works by law and society scholars who analyze the complex and often highly political relationship between law and families. Featuring authors from Australia, Canada, England and the United States, the volume looks at how socio-legal scholars think about families and the law, how law shapes family practices, the capacity of family law to deliver social justice and how family disputes are resolved. Topics such as law's role in recognizing spousal and parental relationships or promoting responsible behaviour or equality norms are covered and the relationship between law's assumptions and the lived realities of families is problematized.

Australian Family Law: The Contemporary Context 2nd Edition encourages critical thinking and a wide understanding of contemporary Australian family law. Description and analysis of the law is set in a broad context that includes policy debates surrounding the law and the family as well as discussion of relevant empirical and research literature. Recent years have seen a burgeoning of empirical research relevant to family law and policy, and this research enables the authors to convey a rich sense of the law in action, social norms (both attitudes and behaviors), and the contexts of the field. This second edition has been comprehensively updated to reflect the latest changes in family law. It continues to take a thematic approach, and its use of interdisciplinary materials presents the substantive law in a highly contextualized way. This new edition includes a separate chapter on financial disputes, and expanded coverage of parenting and property disputes.

Presented in an accessible format, this text provides a detailed and authoritative exposition of the law, illustrated by carefully selected materials and complemented by clear and engaging commentary drawing on a range of critical and theoretical perspectives.

When relationships break down, disputes commonly arise over the parenting arrangements for children, whose living arrangements have to be reorganized at a time of great conflict and turmoil. Most such disputes are resolved without a judicial determination through private agreement, negotiation between lawyers, mediation, or a combination of these methods. This book examines whether and how children should be involved in the process of resolving family law disputes. Although there is widespread acceptance in the Western world that the views of children should be taken into account, and that the weight given to those views should depend on their age and maturity, there is much less agreement about how children's voices should be heard. There are many benefits to giving children a voice in decisions that affect their lives, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child identifies this as a right for children. However, there are difficulties and dangers in seeking to hear from children, not least because they may be subject to pressure from each parent to express views that support his or her case. Courts dealing with family law issues are constantly faced with a dilemma. Is it better to keep children out of the conflict, or to give them a say, so that the arrangements are as workable for them as possible? This book integrates examinations of these issues with empirical data from interviews which explore the views and experiences of children, parents, counsellors, mediators, lawyers, and judges involved in such disputes in Australia. Drawing on this research, the authors suggest ways in which children can better be heard without placing them at the centre of their parents' conflicts. They argue that the focus should not just be on how children are heard in legal proceedings, but on how they can be better heard in those families who resolve their conflicts without going to court.

This volume represents key scholarship on the issue of parental rights and responsibilities, selected from a dense forest of literature. The collection offers an overview of the subject and covers topics such as: underlying rationales of who or what is a parent; legal concepts of ?parent? and their linkage; the legal parent - accommodating complexity; the nature and scope of parental rights; shared parental responsibility; and parental rights and the state.