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Family Law Review

"Every Family Matters: An in-depth review of family law in Britain" | Published 13 July 2009

This report presents the conclusions of the Family Law Review. The CSJ report Breakthrough Britain documented how family breakdown was deeply detrimental to children's life chances and the wellbeing of adults.

Every Family Matters is a comprehensive analysis of the impact of English family law on family life. The review makes 131 recommendations which will ensure that the law does not contribute to family breakdown but, rather, supports stable and healthy families. The recommendations are in the following areas: relationship support, pre-marriage information and preparation, pre-marital agreements, domestic violence, mediation services, divorce law, post-divorce settlements and financial provision, legal aid, international families, as well as the rights of the extended family.

"Every Family Matters" A Policy Report by the Family Law Review
Executive Summary
Key Policy Recommendations Sheet

"Breakthrough Britain: Family Law Review"

The Family Law Review was established in response to a key recommendation from the Social Justice Policy Group (SJPG), commissioned by David Cameron to make policy recommendations for the next Conservative manifesto, which reported in July 2007 with the publication, Breakthrough Britain.

The recommendation from the Family Breakdown Working Group (one of the six groups comprising the SJPG) was for "a review of family law conducted by a dedicated independent commission".

The Report continued, "The relationship between the law and family breakdown and legal aspects of marriage, divorce, cohabitation, parental rights and the rights of the extended family (especially grandparents) are highly complex but require consideration. We recommend that this be carried out under the auspices of an independent body such as the Centre for Social Justice."

This recommendation was taken up and a Family Law Review instituted. One area currently being considered by some members of this body concerns the Government's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, currently proceeding through Parliament, which is intended to update UK law on embryology and assisted reproduction.

There are a number of proposed changes within the Bill which directly relate to fathers. One change proposes that IVF clinics will no longer need to consider 'the need of the child for a father' before a woman has fertility treatment. The Family Law Review has written a briefing paper which looks at some of the implications of this proposed legal change, and whom it might affect, within the context of the important, and distinctive, role that a father plays in a child's development.
Proposal for the Removal of the Need for a Father

Another question facing legislators is whether children conceived by donor conception will be informed about their true biological origins. Currently such children have no guarantee that they will be told if their legal parent is not their biological parent. One proposed means of ensuring donor-conceived offspring can find this out is to register the fact of donor conception on their birth certificate. This briefing paper from the Family Law Review looks at the arguments for annotating birth certificates, within the context of exploring the importance of biological origins.
Providing Children with Information about their Biological Parents at Adulthood

The Working Group also look to Brussles and its international marriage and divorce laws and have released a 24 page interim report looking to challenge the divorce trend that these laws have reinforced. They outlined four major themes:

Remove lis pendens from European Family Law which encourages international couples to rush the divorce court to gain financial advantage over each other
Keep individual countries' own Family Law rather than a universal law imposed by Brussels
The country with the closest connection to the international couple should deal with the proceedings
Encourage Brussels to slow down its programme of European Family Law reform to take in to account traditions of family life and law around Europe

"Family Law Review: Faster Divorce and Foreign Law" Family Law Review interim report

Other Pages in Policy:

CHAIRMAN

David Hodson
David is an English family law solicitor, mediator, family arbitrator, Australian solicitor and mediator, and practices at The International Family Law Group, Covent Garden, London. He is a deputy District Judge at the Principal Registry of the Family Division, High Court, London

WORKING GROUP

Rebecca Bensted MA (Cantab)
Associate Principal Lecturer, BPP Law School

Philippa Taylor
Independent Consultant on bioethics and the family

Brenda Almond
Emeritus Professor of Moral and Social Philosophy, University of Hull

Helen Grant
Family Lawyer (Solicitor) and Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Maidstone and The Weald, Senior Partner of Grants Solicitors LLP

Dr Samantha Callan
Research and Policy Consultant Honorary Research fellow at Edinburgh University

Benjamin Fry
Psycotherapist and member of the British Association for Counselling and Psycotherapy

Sheela Mackintosh
Family Lawyer (Barrister and Solicitor); Matrimonial Consultant and Coach of Divorce & Family Law Service; Conservative Party Approved Parliamentary Candidate; Law Society Mentor and Coach for Junior Lawyers; Trustee of the charity DrugFAM.

Richard Bruce
A graduate of Bristol University, where he gained both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Law, Richard Bruce was Called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1974. He is the author of a text book on the general principles of English law published by John Murray in 1978 and now in its fifth edition. He was elected a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in 1992 and appointed as a Recorder in 2002.

Rachel Gillman
Practising barrister since 1988, specialising in all aspects of family law both relating to money matters and children, with a particular commitment to representing less advantaged clients.

Advisors

Dr Andrew Bainham
Fellow and Reader in Family Law, Christ’s College, Cambridge

Andrew is a Fellow of Christ’s College Cambridge and Reader

in Family Law and Policy at the University of Cambridge. For

over a decade he was editor of the International Survey of Family Law. He was

a founder of the Cambridge Socio-Legal Group and co-edited four of their

books, two of which deal with parentage and contact between children and

parents. He also authored the leading textbook, Children: The Modern Law

(3rd edition, 2005). Recently he has written an article entitled ‘Arguments

about Parentage’, in the forthcoming number of the Cambridge Law Journal

which is concerned in part with the arguments surrounding the parentage

provisions of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.

District Judge Nicholas Crichton,
Inner London Family Proceedings Court

Professor Patrick Parkinson,
Sydney Law School, University of Sydney,

Australia

Patrons

Lady Elizabeth Butler-Sloss of Marsh Green

Baroness Ruth Deech of Cumnor