730-316 Current Issues in Family Law

Legal Method and Reasoning; Principles of Public Law; Torts; Legal Theory; Family Law or in each case their equivalents.

This subject builds on the material taught in Family Law 730-313 and aims to develop your understanding of family law in its broader social context, including an understanding of the processes of law reform and policy development in this area from an interdisciplinary perspective. The course aims to encourage students to think critically and reflexively about current policy arguments and legal issues in relation to Australian family law, and to consider these in the context of developments in other countries, especially the United Kingdom and Canada. The principal topics to be covered will depend on current law and policy developments, but will be drawn from the following areas:

• the nature of the 'family': current issues (eg. legal recognition of indigenous family practices);

• family law reform processes: current issues (eg. the role of emperical research and lobby groups);

• children: the public law perspective (eg. jurisdictional overlap in the areas of child protection, current issues in child protection, children in detention);

• children: the private law perspective (eg. the drive to regulate post-separation parenting arrangements); and

• financial aspects of family law (eg. current child support issues (such as the contact-child support nexus); superannuation and family law; prenuptial agreements; the on-going relevance of spousal maintenance).

Note: The essay in this subject is regarded as a substantial piece of legal writing for honours purposes.

Research assignment 5000 words 100% (due week 12 of semester).

Printed materials will be issued by the Faculty of Law.