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The domestic ratification process that States undergo prior to ratifying UN human rights conventions is an under researched area. In 2006, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was adopted. The CRPD is of historic significance as it is the first international human rights law instrument to explicitly set out the human rights of persons with disabilities. It is said to 'crystalise' and clarify a 'paradigm shift', in international human rights law; as historically persons with disabilities were seen as 'objects' to be managed, whereas the CRPD views persons with disabilities as 'subjects' with rights. The CRPD's drafting and negotiation process was a unique participatory process involving persons with disabilities and their organisations (DPOs). The participatory process influenced and shaped the content of the CRPD text. The CRPD may pose a challenge to States in its interpretation and practice. There is very little research focusing on the ratification process for the CRPD. This research explored the ratification process for the CRPD in the case of the Republic of Cyprus (Cyprus). A Foucauldian discursive analytic approach was used to identify the discourses and practice which shaped the process. The method included semistructured interviews with 23 governmental and non-governmental stakeholders and documentary analysis. The research found that the ratification process was a complex cultural process. The relationship between the Cypriot Government and DPOs was an important factor in shaping the ratification process. The 'CRPD human rights discourse' did not strongly shape the ratification process. There is a need for a conceptual engagement with the principles and values which underpin the CRPD. This thesis argues that although the ratification process in Cyprus had the capacity to support a transitioning to the CRPD's 'paradigm shift', a key factor in shaping this transitioning was its cultural context.

This thesis explores the desirability and viability of a function-based as opposed to a form-based approach to adult relationship recognition in law. It explores the benefits and difficulties with both form-based and function-based approaches to determine whether either has any significant advantage over the other, both in relation to a need to provide a system of relationship recognition that is inclusive of the diversity of family relationships formed today, and in relation to the protective and symbolic functions of family law. To do this, the thesis will compare the English and Welsh approach to relationship recognition with that adopted in Australia. The thesis will show that form- and function-based approaches share many of the same benefits and both can be flexible because they can be used in ways that are inclusive of a variety of relationship types and both approaches have their disadvantages. On balance, function-based systems appear more principled than form-based systems because they focus on the quality of the relationship and not merely on its structure and function-based systems are better placed to protect the vulnerable partner in a relationship because there is no need to opt-in for legal recognition. But, form-based systems should not be abandoned because they have the benefit of being administratively efficient, and are better placed to serve family law’s symbolic function. Both form- and function-based approaches have the potential to be used in radical ways to respond to the needs of real families, but social reality and political will limits the development of both approaches to relationship recognition.

The Civil Partnership Act (CPA) came into force in the UK on the 5th December 2005, entitling same-sex relationships to formal legal recognition. It is the second piece of legislation (following the Adoption and Children Act, 2002) that begins to redress the legal inequalities between opposite-sex and same-sex couples by giving civilly partnered (CP'd) couples similar civil and financial benefits as married couples. Research into heterosexual relationships indicates that marriage is linked to better mental health than cohabitation, thus some authors have predicted similar links between civil partnership (CP) and mental health. Moreover, previous research into lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) populations shows that discrimination against LGB people within social policy reinforces social exclusion and negatively impacts on the mental wellbeing of LGB people. It is therefore important to research the effect of the recent CPA legislation on LGB people. To my knowledge there are no published studies into this. Consequently the current study is a qualitative exploration of the experiences of individuals that have registered a CP. Five male and four female participants were interviewed individually. Interpretative phenomenological analysis focused on the personal experiences of the participants. Foucauldian discourse analysis then looked at the cultural and political contexts that mediated the participants' experiences of CP. The analysis showed that same-sex couples face many challenges living in a heteronormative society. CP led to a sense of increased social recognition of same-sex relationships and increased feelings of social support. Many participants also felt that CP challenged negative stereotypes regarding the identity of LGB individuals and relationships. However, difficulties were expressed in their attempts to find a coherent sense of their new positioning as in society as a CP'd couple. For example, participants often felt torn between considering themselves 'married' and rejecting marriage as an inappropriate model for same-sex unions. The context of a heteronormative discourse was discussed in relation to this difficulty. The implications for clinicians who work with LGB clients and social policy were discussed.

This thesis examines the development and enactment of legislation between 1834 and 1897 which sought to deal with the problems associated with the support of the bastard child. This Victorian legislation, reflecting a new paradigm of state intervention, represents the first example, apart from the obvious case of the criminal law, that eventually authorised in 1897 state encroachment into the domestic home. The thesis is divided into three main parts. In the first part, I examine the Poor Law of 1834 and the bastardy legislation which followed to show how lawmakers sought to influence the behaviour of those women likely to produce illegitimate children. I argue that these provisions served not to deter women from having children but resulted in a lack of possibility of practical help which might have enabled women to care for their own children. One possible solution for a woman who faced the problem of providing care for her illegitimate child was to entrust them to someone else and to pay for childcare, in effect to employ a baby farmer. The second part of the thesis examines the trials of four baby farmers charged with the murder of children in their care. I consider the cases of Charlotte Winsor (1865) and Margaret Waters (1870), which brought to wide public attention the practices of baby farming and marked a shift of official attention from the mothers of illegitimate children to those paid to care for them. I then consider the cases of Jessie King (1889) and Amelia Dyer (1896), a generation later than the other two cases, but which confirmed the earlier construction of baby farmers as child murderers. In the third part of the thesis I evaluate the formal response of government to the issues raised by the dangers to child health posed by some baby farmers. This consists of analysis of the minutes of three select committees (1871, 1890, and 1896), constituted to consider legal solutions to the issue of baby farming. I examine the evidence presented to the committees in which some witnesses advocated direct inspection and regulation of the homes in which the baby farmers carried out their trade, in effect to take social control into the domestic circle. The first two committees resisted this, but the third resolved to create a regime of notification, mandatory inspection, and local-authority supervision which brought social control directly into the private home. This led to the Infant Life Preservation Act 1897, the foundation of a power of state inspection of childcare within the private home.

This work takes an ordinary language approach to the question of parental rights in order to try to disentangle some of the problems, theoretical and practical, which arise when we try to decide between the various rights claims which arise in relation to the family. Family relationships are always complex; however, the challenges presented by non-nuclear families and artificial reproductive technologies place new demands upon traditional ways of thinking about the legal and moral relationships between parents, children and society. At the same time the use of rights-language has proliferated and courts must therefore juggle complex claims and counter claims. This expansive use of rights-language can lead to misunderstandings about the nature of rights and rights-claims. If these misunderstandings are imported into the technical spheres of law and philosophy this may lead to a further clouding of rights theory. This in turn allows us to become entangled in seemingly irresolvable conflicts of right A significant portion of this work addresses two traditional approaches to parental rights in order to show why these models fail to give us an adequate account of parental rights, it is argued that this failure is in part due to linguistic confusions and in paJi to theoretical ones. At the close, I offer a model which allows us to judge whether or not a rights-claim is successful. This success is measured, not in the right being met, but in the claim made succeeding as a rights-claim. Whether or not a rights-claim is viewed as a right in fact will depend upon the context in which it is made. This model applies to rights in general and as such may help us to begin to disentangle the knot of claims and counter claims we find in relation to the family.

Abstract. Empirical research has immeasurably improved our understanding of the complex matrices and intrigues that confront the family court when there is a contact dispute between parents. Indeed, extensive empirical research has been conducted since the 1980’s on the need for contact between children and both their parents and the nature of contact disputes between parents. Undoubtedly, this has served to identify and permit a more sophisticated understanding of the consequences and effects that contact disputes have on children, and has been utilized by the courts to better inform decisions in respect of contact proceedings. Notwithstanding this, the issue of contact remains problematic and recent debate and academic literature has highlighted the deficiencies in the family justice system when confronted with the ‘intractable’ contact dispute. Although recent years have witnessed a vast outpouring of learned and popular literature, it is notable that there is a dearth of pedagogic and related empirical rigour and intelligence into the inordinately complex phenomena of the ‘intractable’ contact dispute. This prompts the need to consolidate and develop our knowledge in this difficult area of family law. Accordingly, the thesis theoretically and empirically assesses intractable contact disputes. The research focuses on three core theses. Firstly, it explores the theoretical basis of intractable contact disputes by critically appraising the salient scholastic and related descriptive literature focusing on the explanations for contact disputes including how they are divided along gender lines. This is further consolidated through the application of a thematic analysis of the salient jurisprudence in this area and scrutiny of the key concepts that emerge. In light of this, the research subsequently develops a conceptual model and hierarchical framework of the ‘intractable’ contact dispute. Secondly, the thesis empirically examines the nature of intractable contact disputes by eliciting the views of a multi-disciplinary and eclectic group of professionals from within the family law arena in Northern Ireland. The research achieves this through the application of the ‘Delphi’ technique. Significantly, the collated empirical data identifies the prevalent features of these types of disputes through expert knowledge which permits the ranking of the salient variables which affect and explain these complex phenomena. The rankings are consolidated by further statistical analyses. Finally, the research findings are evaluated in the context of family proceedings and extant legislative instruments and statutory rules, in an attempt to identify and consider reforms to family law policy in Northern Ireland, including the appropriate interventions to be applied and conclusions to be offered by the research.

This thesis aims to analyse the influence of human rights concerns on recent revisions of mental health legislation in England (Mental Health Act 2007) and Ireland (Mental Health Act 2001), and the extent to which human rights concerns assist in promoting human rights through mental health law. This thesis demonstrates that human rights standards, as reflected in the European Convention on Human Rights and publications of the United Nations and World Health Organisation (WHO), played a critical role in shaping revisions of mental health law in England (where public safety was also influential) and Ireland (where human rights concerns dominated single-handedly). Mental health legislation in England meets 92 (55.4%) of the 166 relevant human rights standards outlined by the WHO; mental health legislation in Ireland meets 81 (48.8%). Areas of high compliance include definitions of mental disorder, involuntary admission procedures and clarity regarding offences. Areas of medium compliance relate to capacity and consent (with a particular deficit regarding capacity legislation in Ireland), review procedures (which exclude long-term voluntary patients and lack robust complaint procedures), and rules governing special treatments. Areas of low compliance relate to economic and social rights, voluntary patients (especially non-protesting, incapacitated patients), vulnerable groups and emergency treatment. Overall, mental health legislation provides substantial protection for some rights (e.g. liberty) but not others (e.g. economic and social rights). Additional protection is provided by mental health policy, social policy or other areas of law (e.g. human rights law). Future research could usefully focus on the outcome of mental health legislation in the lives of the mentally ill; the relevance of the “third wave” of human rights, acknowledging the broad range of legal, health-care and social-care actors affecting the mentally ill; and values underpinning increased trans-national influences on national mental health law and policy (Council of Europe, European Union, WHO).

No description available.

The aim of this thesis is to assess the Irish regulatory approach to asset and wealth distribution upon marital breakdown, and to highlight the implications arising from the failure to articulate the social policy aims of such regulation. Whilst the main body of the thesis considers the regulatory approach of four distinct jurisdictions, it commences with a critical overview of the rules versus discretion debate in order to illustrate the nature and impact of different approaches to law-making. Thus chapter one incorporates both a theoretical examination of rule-based and discretion-based regulation and an examination of the significance of such regulatory approaches in the context of asset distribution on divorce. Chapter two provides a historical account of the elevated status of the marital family under Irish law and the implications for the manner in which the remedy of divorce was eventually enacted. Chapter three provides a critical analysis of the content and workings of the Family Law (Divorce) Act 1996, which in granting extensive and infinite judicial powers to secure justice and proper provision, has evaded the responsibility for identifying the objectives of such state intervention, creating a legal and social policy vacuum and a system which lacks legitimacy, predictability and fairness. In order to fully illuminate these shortcomings and ultimately inform the Irish lawmakers as to the need for, and nature of reform, a detailed and comparative analysis of the governing regimes of three distinct jurisdictions, California, Scotland and New Zealand is presented in chapters four to six respectively. Particular attention will be focused upon the willingness of these law-makers to enunciate the social and legal policy objectives of their governing laws. Ultimately it will be argued that effective governance demands that regulatory processes, howsoever structured, exist within a considered and articulated legal and social policy context.