Type:	Thesis
Title:	Women's experience in court : the implementation of feminist law reforms in civil proceedings concerning domestic violence
Authors:	Hunter, Rosemary
Keywords:	Family law;Protection orders
Year:	2005
Publisher:	Rosemary Hunter
Notes:	A Dissertation submitted to the law School and the Committee on Graduate Studies of Stanford University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Juridical Science This thesis dissertation looks at how civil courts hear women’s experiences of domestic violence and explores their experiences in trying to tell their stories in Australian family law and domestic violence intervention order proceedings. Methodology comprises court observations, analysis of Family Court files and reported cases, and interviews with survivors of violence, lawyers and support workers. The intervention order process and its legislation are presented: representation and support; lawyers’ understandings of domestic violence; physical facilities; substance of the hearing; magistrate’s demeanour; applicant’s missing voice (insufficient time, language barriers); the role of the registrar; magistrates’ understandings of domestic violence (incident focus, emphasis on physical violence, relationship conflict as source of violence, denial and minimisation of violence, influence of ethnicity and class); and terms of the orders are discussed. Family court proceedings including: safety issues in court; court proceedings as a form of harassment; consent orders (prevalence of failed consent orders, reasons for consent, court’s promotion of settlement, role of lawyers, results of consent processes); evidence in chief; cross-examination (trauma of cross-examination, direct cross-examination by a self-represented ex-partner); and reliance on interpreters are examined. Legislation and case law relating to domestic violence in family law are outlined, including: family lawyers’ understandings of domestic violence; children’s representatives, child experts and family reports; judicial responses to allegations of violence; the privileging of physical violence; need for independent evidence of psychological harm; and the conceptual separation between the interests of mothers and children are discussed. The jurisdictional intersection of intervention orders in the Family Court and children’s issues in the magistrates’ court such as: magistrates’ views of family law on exceptions allowing for child contact, father’s right of contact, strategic use of intervention orders; and intervention orders in the Family Court are analysed. Findings include: that survivors of domestic violence were successful in their cases but the legal processes were unsatisfactory; that women’s ‘success’ did not guarantee their own or their children’s safety; that there was little acknowledgement of women’s experiences of violence or of the widespread nature of domestic violence; and that non-feminist understandings of domestic violence were not challenged. It concludes with recommendations for future actions and suggestions for addressing implementation problems and further reform.
URI:	https://anrows.intersearch.com.au/anrowsjspui/handle/1/17835
Physical description:	377 p.
Appears in Collections:	Miscellaneous

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