September 2021 #206 – Law Journals

International children: Across the seas

Dorothea Gartland and Maria Wright provide a guide to inter-country placements of children and the assessment of potential long-term carers At the heart of cases where overseas kinship placements are contemplated is a delicate balance of rights, ensuring that children are afforded the right to live with extended family overseas where this is possible, but …

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Media access: Behind closed doors

Jemma Pollock highlights issues of transparency versus privacy in the family courts following the judgment in Barclay v Barclay The courts have discretion to shift the balance as to privacy in favour of transparency, and recent case law evidences a trend toward that approach, particularly in cases such as Barclay where there are issues of …

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Barder: Exceptional and rare

Cate Maguire looks at how the Barder principle has been applied in cases involving ‘known unknowns’ Neither of the decisions in S v T and HW v WW represent a restriction or characterisation of the Barder principle, but rather affirmation of its exceptionality, even in these most unusual times. The family courts have recently had …

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Consent orders: A matter of interpretation

Kayleigh Biswas sets out the issues encountered in Derhalli v Derhalli, where the delayed sale of a former matrimonial home led to a plethora of litigation To ascertain the meaning of an order, the court would need to consider what a reasonable person, having all the background knowledge, would have understood the order to mean, …

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Domestic abuse: Protection at a distance

Gemma Sparks analyses the lasting legacy of lockdown on domestic abuse cases and the practical impact on the family justice system For victims of domestic abuse, the special measures introduced as a result of Covid-19 overall work well: they don’t have to travel to court, they don’t have to be in the same space as …

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Proprietary estoppel: Widening the net

Mark Pawlowski and James Brown examine whether a proprietary estoppel claim can extend to property other than land Assuming that the doctrine of proprietary estoppel is of general application to property other than, strictly speaking, interests in land, there is no reason why a spouse or cohabitee should not be able to mount a successful …

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Embryology: Tread carefully

Nicola Wilburn-Shaw considers issues that may arise in relation to fertility treatment where the parties separate or divorce The courts are not prepared to remove an individual’s right to withdraw their consent as to the use of embryos and the process relating to the provision of consent is not infallible. There has been much media …

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