Family Law Lecture Notes
Week 1 – introduction week Lecture slides & key readings & questions to test.
Lecture slides
Week 2 – Dissolution of relationships
Lecture slides
Week 3 – Finances of divorce
Lecture slides
Lecture notes in person
Week 4 – Finances and Relationship breakdown
Lecture slides
Week 5 – Domestic abuse
Lecture slide
Lecture notes in person
Week 6 – Parents and Childrens Rights
,Week 1 – Introduction
‘Amato-normative ideal’ – culture privileges the marital relationship above others.
Definition – ‘the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman, to the exclusion of all others’.
Marriage – dissolved by divorce
Civil Partnership – dissolved by dissolution.
Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act 2022 – minimum age for marriage went from 16
to 18.
Monogamy – union of two people attempting to contract marriage. Doing that with more than 1
person is a criminal offence under section 57 and is referred to as bigamy.
Void marriage – underage, fail to comply with legal formalities, bigamy, polygamy
How to distinguish between void and non qualifying ceremonies?
Did it set out to be a lawful marriage? Bore enough hallmarks of marriage? Three participants
believed, intended and understood the ceremony giving rise to lawful marriage?
Voidable marriage:
1. Lack of consent – person lacked capacity to give consent (Durham v Durham), duress or fear
(Hirani v Hirani), mistake to the identity of other party, mistake as to what was happening in
ceremony (Valier v Valier)
2. Mental disorder
3. Gender Re assignment
4. Venereal Disease
5. Pregnancy by another
6. Unsoundness of mind
7. Inability to consummate
8. Wilful refusal to consummate.
What counts as a valid marriage?
1) Comply with the capacity laws
- If you are not in prohibited degree of relationship
- Both of age
- Neither party already married or civil partnership
2) Comply with the formality laws
, Week 1 – Key Reading
From: https://dc.talis.com/port/bundles/6787e4a8ce99e603697a8434
Family Law introduction
David Archard suggests a family is ‘that group of individuals whose adults take primary custodial
roles in respect to its dependent children’.
One of the difficulties in defining ‘family’ is the power of the definition and especially the stigma that
follows from denying that a certain group of people is a family.
The Governments definition of family –
‘Family test’ has a very broad understanding of families as including: couple relationships,
relationships in lone parent families, parent and step parent to child relationships, relationships with
foster children and adopted children, sibling relationships, children and grandparents, extended
families, kinship carers.
How does the law define family?
Ms Justice Russell in Re B (A child) (No 2) (Welfare: Child Arrangements Order) – ‘the family courts
are familiar with many kinds of families including those that might have once been considered
unconventional and take a broad and purposive approach both to families and to family life; family
life is a matter of fact, one of substance, not form’.
The ECHR has had to consider the definition of family because Article 8 of the ECHR requires a right
to respect for family life. The European Court has determined that family ties can emerge from a
biological link or from a sustained relationship.
The growth of individualism
Some sociologists believe family life is being affected by an increase in individualisation, with
personal development being a key aspect of peoples lives.
Individualism has led to a detraditionalisation of family life with people abandoning the traditional
obligations to one’s family or spouse and taking on informal relationships which have looser
obligations. People value being free to move away from relationships they no longer find fruitful and
move onto new relationships.
Not everyone accepts the individualisation argument. To some such as Neil Gross, the thesis fails to
acknowledge that many people still do feel obligations to their family and spend much time caring
for them. Most notably parents still feel obligations to care for their children and do not feel free to
move on if the relationship is not working. Commitment is negotiated and this means that the value
of the relationship is found by the couple themselves rather than in the form it takes.
Geoff Dench and Jim Ogg – ‘we can see a clear tendency at the moment for matrilineal ties (through
the mother) to become the most active, while patrilineal, through the father may often be very
tenuous or even non-existent.
Arguments in favour of family life:
1. Emotional security. Family members can provide crucial emotional support and care for each
other.
Week 1 – introduction week Lecture slides & key readings & questions to test.
Lecture slides
Week 2 – Dissolution of relationships
Lecture slides
Week 3 – Finances of divorce
Lecture slides
Lecture notes in person
Week 4 – Finances and Relationship breakdown
Lecture slides
Week 5 – Domestic abuse
Lecture slide
Lecture notes in person
Week 6 – Parents and Childrens Rights
,Week 1 – Introduction
‘Amato-normative ideal’ – culture privileges the marital relationship above others.
Definition – ‘the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman, to the exclusion of all others’.
Marriage – dissolved by divorce
Civil Partnership – dissolved by dissolution.
Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act 2022 – minimum age for marriage went from 16
to 18.
Monogamy – union of two people attempting to contract marriage. Doing that with more than 1
person is a criminal offence under section 57 and is referred to as bigamy.
Void marriage – underage, fail to comply with legal formalities, bigamy, polygamy
How to distinguish between void and non qualifying ceremonies?
Did it set out to be a lawful marriage? Bore enough hallmarks of marriage? Three participants
believed, intended and understood the ceremony giving rise to lawful marriage?
Voidable marriage:
1. Lack of consent – person lacked capacity to give consent (Durham v Durham), duress or fear
(Hirani v Hirani), mistake to the identity of other party, mistake as to what was happening in
ceremony (Valier v Valier)
2. Mental disorder
3. Gender Re assignment
4. Venereal Disease
5. Pregnancy by another
6. Unsoundness of mind
7. Inability to consummate
8. Wilful refusal to consummate.
What counts as a valid marriage?
1) Comply with the capacity laws
- If you are not in prohibited degree of relationship
- Both of age
- Neither party already married or civil partnership
2) Comply with the formality laws
, Week 1 – Key Reading
From: https://dc.talis.com/port/bundles/6787e4a8ce99e603697a8434
Family Law introduction
David Archard suggests a family is ‘that group of individuals whose adults take primary custodial
roles in respect to its dependent children’.
One of the difficulties in defining ‘family’ is the power of the definition and especially the stigma that
follows from denying that a certain group of people is a family.
The Governments definition of family –
‘Family test’ has a very broad understanding of families as including: couple relationships,
relationships in lone parent families, parent and step parent to child relationships, relationships with
foster children and adopted children, sibling relationships, children and grandparents, extended
families, kinship carers.
How does the law define family?
Ms Justice Russell in Re B (A child) (No 2) (Welfare: Child Arrangements Order) – ‘the family courts
are familiar with many kinds of families including those that might have once been considered
unconventional and take a broad and purposive approach both to families and to family life; family
life is a matter of fact, one of substance, not form’.
The ECHR has had to consider the definition of family because Article 8 of the ECHR requires a right
to respect for family life. The European Court has determined that family ties can emerge from a
biological link or from a sustained relationship.
The growth of individualism
Some sociologists believe family life is being affected by an increase in individualisation, with
personal development being a key aspect of peoples lives.
Individualism has led to a detraditionalisation of family life with people abandoning the traditional
obligations to one’s family or spouse and taking on informal relationships which have looser
obligations. People value being free to move away from relationships they no longer find fruitful and
move onto new relationships.
Not everyone accepts the individualisation argument. To some such as Neil Gross, the thesis fails to
acknowledge that many people still do feel obligations to their family and spend much time caring
for them. Most notably parents still feel obligations to care for their children and do not feel free to
move on if the relationship is not working. Commitment is negotiated and this means that the value
of the relationship is found by the couple themselves rather than in the form it takes.
Geoff Dench and Jim Ogg – ‘we can see a clear tendency at the moment for matrilineal ties (through
the mother) to become the most active, while patrilineal, through the father may often be very
tenuous or even non-existent.
Arguments in favour of family life:
1. Emotional security. Family members can provide crucial emotional support and care for each
other.
