Type:	Journal Article
Title:	Deserving Of Further Attention: A Case Streaming Approach To Child Custody And Access In The Context Of Spousal Violence
Other Titles:	Canadian Journal of Family Law
Authors:	Grant, Kathy Lynn
Keywords:	Family law
Year:	2005
Publisher:	Canadian Journal of Family Law
Notes:	General Overview: This Canadian article questions the legal paradigm’s ability to address spousal abuse and child custody and access. Objective: It gives a review on the best interests of the child (BIC) principle and discusses problems with applying this principle in the context of spousal abuse. Methods: Child custody law reforms and cases in Canada, Australia and New Zealand are analysed. Discussion: It discusses the BIC principle, the impact of this principle on women abused by their former spouses, safety concerns, models for child custody in the context of spousal abuse, rebuttable presumptions (joint custody presumption, primary care-giver presumption, the approximation standard), lessons from Australia and New Zealand in addressing spousal abuse in custody law, and a streamed approach for child custody and access. Results: It finds that none of the three rebuttable presumptions to reform the BIC principle could adequately address the problems with child custody and access disputes in the context of spousal abuse. The Australian reforms show reforms in child custody and access law targeted at spousal abuse are over-ridden by other custody and access considerations. The New Zealand reforms focus more on abuse and are found to have done a better job in directing judges’ attention to the interaction between custody and access decisions and spousal abuse. These reforms indicate that a two-streamed approach to child custody and access disputes so that spousal abuse cases are distinguished form other custody and access cases, should be explored. Conclusions: It concludes that streaming-out spousal abuse cases could be successful if it is supported by non legal reforms such as state support for programs to help women leave abusive relationships, adequate legal aid, and education training for lawyers and judges. Without such non legal reforms, the streaming process is likely to fail as abuse cases may not be identified. However, it suggests that if spousal abuse and child custody cases are determined by legal rules and presumptions for all child custody and access cases, then major changes need to be done to the operation of the BIC principle.
URI:	https://anrows.intersearch.com.au/anrowsjspui/handle/1/14153
ISSN:	0704-1225
Appears in Collections:	Journal Articles

Items in ANROWS library are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.