New Zealand Family Law - A Dramatic Year of Change

The 1980 session of the New Zealand Parliament saw the passage of perhaps the most substantial package of family law legislation in the country's history. Hardly an aspect of family law remains untouched. The changes, most of which are in force from October 1981, are both substantive and procedural. They affect divorce, maintenance, matrimonial property, custody, access, and the court system for determining domestic disputes itself. Of other areas, future legislation is promised on domestic violence and a review is under way of the law relating to adoption. It is the purpose of this article to outline briefly the most important of the changes which have taken place