1st Edition
Contemporary Family Law Principles and Practice
Taking a fresh and modern approach, Contemporary Family Law: Principles and Practice gives students all the information they need to develop a clear understanding of this fascinating area of the law. Covering the very latest developments in family law, each chapter uses contemporary cases as a window to introducing core legal concepts, principles and developments, emphasising the dynamism and evolving nature of family law, in which practitioners, campaigners, law reformers and students all play their part.
Key features include:
• Developments in family law are considered not only from a vantage point of judicial decision making, but also from the perspective of the contribution made by solicitors, barristers and experts. This encourages students to develop a sense of their own potential agency when as future practitioners they represent their clients and engage in law reform;
• In considering legal argument and case determination, the book places equality front and centre, including access to justice;
• Each chapter provides further reading with online links and URLs and a set of self-test questions, including problem scenarios and discursive essay questions. Each form of assessment reflects the levels of educational attainment and mirrors testing techniques relevant to academic examination and legal professional and vocational practice courses.
This uniquely contemporary textbook will be essential reading for all students of family law.
1. Introduction to Family Law 2. State Intervention in Personal Relationships 3. Nullity and Its Consequences 4. Acquisition and Protection of Rights in the Family Home 5. Protecting Adults from Domestic Abuse – The Civil Remedies 6. Ending Relationships 7. Financial Consequences of Relationships 8. The Elderly, Their Rights in Family Life and Death and its Consequences 9. Family life – Parents and Carers: From Parental Rights to Responsibilities 10. Adoption – Only Permissible if nothing else will do 11. Adolescent Autonomy – The Right to Decide and to Participate in Court Proceedings 12. Putting Child Welfare First in Child ‘Custody’ and Private Disputes 13. The Limitless Jurisdiction of Wardship 14. Child Protection: Local Authority, The Court and Public Law Procedure 15. ‘Significant Harm’: Judicial Interpretations and State Politics16. Financial Provision for Children
Biography
Susan S. M. Edwards is a Professor of Law at Northumbria University, Barrister, Expert witness, Emerita Professor of Law of University of Buckingham, writer, and broadcaster on feminist issues, published in the area of family law, homicide, partner and child abuse.
Judith Bray is a Barrister and Emerita Professor of Law at University of Buckingham. With many years’ experience of teaching Family Law at degree level and for professional examinations, Judith has published extensively on property law and equity and trusts, particularly rights in the family home.
