“Not of the Highest Importance”: Family justice under threat

Eekelaar, John

doi:10.1080/09649069.2011.632883

Cited by 20 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…These changes in both public and private law, although differently configured, can both be seen as having cost-savings at the heart of revision. Despite fierce opposition from leading professional associations (Association of Lawyers for Children) and powerful critical analysis from leading academics about a perceived demise of family justice (Eekelaar, 2011), the counter-narrative was insufficient to stall major reform. Indeed, fiscal constraint and assault on perceived 'bloated' public services under the Coalition Government (2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015), also led to a major reduction in the capacity and expertise within central government ministries.…”

Section: Fiscal Constraint and Neoliberal Values: In Search Of Sustainable Funding For The Fdtcmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tensions and contradictions in family court innovation with high risk parents: The place of family drug treatment courts in contemporary family justice

Harwin

Broadhurst

Cooper

et al. 2019

International Journal of Drug Policy

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Parental substance misuse is a leading factor in child abuse and neglect and frequently results in court-mandated permanent child removal. Family drug treatment courts, which originated in the USA and are only found in adversarial family justice systems, are a radical innovation to tackle this problem. Unlike ordinary court, they treat parents within the court arena as well as adjudicating, and in this way they seek to draw a new balance between parental needs and the child's right to timely permanency. Family drug treatment courts have spread to England, Australia and Northern Ireland and international research has found they have higher rates of parental substance misuse cessation and family reunification and lower foster care costs than ordinary courts. Yet their growth has been far from straightforward. In the USA they have not kept pace with the rise of criminal drug treatment courts and in England and Australia their numbers remain small. The central purpose of this article is to explore why the family drug treatment movement has not achieved wider impact and to consider opportunities and challenges for its future development. To address these questions we draw on evidence and experience from the USA, England and Australia. We discuss the operational challenges, tensions between children's needs for stability and parental timescales for recovery, the 2 impact of wider economic and political change, and issues in data evaluation. We conclude that despite the promise of family drug treatment courts as a new paradigm to address risky parenting, effecting systemic change in the courts is extremely difficult.

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Section: Fiscal Constraint and Neoliberal Values: In Search Of Sustainable Funding For The Fdtcmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tensions and contradictions in family court innovation with high risk parents: The place of family drug treatment courts in contemporary family justice

Harwin

Broadhurst

Cooper

et al. 2019

International Journal of Drug Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As John Eekelaar concluded, "the question is not whether law is a sufficient condition for family justice, but whether law is a necessary condition." [3] The realization of family justice requires not only the regulation and guidance of family law, but also the support of social law, as well as human rights law to provide human rights standards for the formulation and revision of domestic law.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Legal Construction of Family Justice

Xia

2023

BCPSSH

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In traditional society, family justice is mainly confirmed through ethics, which emphasizes "friendship" and "obedience" among family members. In modern society, family justice is more concerned with the basic rights of individual family members and opposes the unreasonable distribution of obligations, so family justice needs to be realized through law. The pursuit of family justice is not only the purpose of human beings, but also the purpose of law. The realization of family justice requires not only the regulation and guidance of family law, but also the support of social law and human rights law.

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“…Ensuring that all people, irrespective of background or ability, are able to effectively access and navigate the family courts has long been a key concern in the family justice system (Eekelaar 2011;Cobb 2018;Maclean and Eekelaar 2019). Currently, it is accepted that this access is more challenging for particular minority groups within society, for example those with disabilities (Flynn 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Our normal is different’: autistic adults’ experiences of the family courts

George

Crane

Remington

2020

Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law

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This article reports the findings of a small-scale qualitative study exploring the experiences of autistic adults who have had experience of the family justice system.While participants related some positive elements to their experiences, in particular with regard to the willingness of professionals to try to learn more about their clients' needs, the overall picture showed significant concerns. The reports given showed significant misunderstandings about autism, and a system which struggled to make appropriate adjustments which would allow autistic court users to have access to justice on an equivalent basis to non-autistic litigants. This situation stands in contrast to the position regarding other disabilities in the Family Justice System, but also to the relatively greater level of provision for autistic people within the Criminal Justice System. Based on participants' experiences and existing good practice in other areas, we make recommendations that could be adopted by the Family Court.

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“Not of the Highest Importance”: Family justice under threat

Cited by 20 publications

References 3 publications

Tensions and contradictions in family court innovation with high risk parents: The place of family drug treatment courts in contemporary family justice

Tensions and contradictions in family court innovation with high risk parents: The place of family drug treatment courts in contemporary family justice

The Legal Construction of Family Justice

‘Our normal is different’: autistic adults’ experiences of the family courts

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