Judicial interviews with children in contested parenting proceedings are an uncommon and contentious practice in Australia and many other common law jurisdictions. While there has been some debate about the merits and risks of such a practice among professionals and academic commentators, there...

Judicial interviews with children in contested parenting proceedings are an uncommon and contentious practice in Australia and many other common law jurisdictions. This article reports on a study of the views of Australian judges concerning talking with children in chambers. Most judges were...

Very different rules regarding the economic consequences of divorce govern divorces in Australia and the United States. These differences are explored in this paper. We consider 6 different hypothetical divorcing couples. Prof. Parkinson predicts how each such couple would fare in an Australian...

In 2006, the Australian Parliament made major amendments to the Family Law Act 1975 to encourage a greater level of shared parenting, and to give greater emphasis to the importance of children maintaining a relationship with both parents in the absence of violence or abuse. There are major...

Fourteen parents who had undertaken child-inclusive mediation, and a comparison group of 19 parents who had engaged in mediation without their children being involved, were asked about their views on utilising child-inclusive mediation to assist in the resolution of their disputes concerning...

This article presents a thematic retrospective of the past 40 years of family law in terms of the international landscape in developed countries. It examines three questions: First, whatever happened to marriage? While once marriage was central to family formation, it is no longer. Indeed,...

This article examines the limitations on the powers of courts exercising jurisdiction under the Family Law Act to affect third parties who are entitled to be considered for distributions from a discretionary trust, or who exercise the responsibilities of trusteeship. These issues are explored in...

In determining what outcome is likely to be in the best interests of children, it is necessary to try to predict how each of the parents and the children, will respond to, and cope with, the decision that is made. That is particularly difficult in relocation cases. This article reports on the...

Family Relationship Centres formed the centrepiece of major reforms to the family law system in Australia which were introduced from 2006 onwards. They were established all over the country between 2006 and 2008, providing information and advice and offering free or heavily subsidised mediation...