A divorce as one of the forms of termination of marriage is enacted in all European laws, being defined as abolishment of an existing marriage during the life of the spouses, pronounced by a competent state body, on the grounds stipulated by the law and within the framework of a prescribed procedural process, with effect ex nunc. One of the characteristics of the current European society is a so-called "family crisis". A manifestation of this crisis is a growing number of unmarried couples and, first of all, a continuously growing number of divorces. A divorce as a social situation became at the beginning of the third millennium an ordinary and acceptable issue for an overwhelming majority of the society, being considered to be an accessible, decisive and effective method for resolving disputes and problems in a marriage. In this respect, the current European legislation also leads to the fact that only a small proportion of divorces today ends by settlement between the partners. However, it is certainly unadvisable to overestimate the importance of the institute of marriage. As regards the general opinion, the law on divorce cannot be made so complicated that it would force the spouses to remain in a non-functional and de facto nonexistent union. In general we presume that upon termination of...

ABSTRACTTitle: Children´s perspective at custody dispute? -A qualitative study of the experiences of Family Law Social workers of whether parents in custody dispute have a children´s perspective or not.Authors: Malin El Fhaily and Marlene HaglundThe purpose of the study was to investigate the experiences of social workers at Family Law about whether parents in custody dispute have a children´s perspective or not. The six respondents have been interviewed with semi-structured questions. They are employed as Family law social workers in one small community and one bigger community in the middle of Sweden. The interviews were conducted in April 2017. In the study, a qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the gathered material. The result showed that the respondents experienced that a lot of the parents in custody dispute tries to have a children´s perspective, but the parents have different opinions of what the best of their child is, and this is the reason a dispute andunpleasantness arises. The result also showed that the respondents experienced that some of the parents in custody dispute have too much focus on their own conflict and not being able to see the best interest of their child. The task for respondents was in this case to get the parents to cooperate and solve their dispute so they could move focus from their conflict to the child, and to get the parents to agree in questions concerning the best of their child. The Family law social workers in the study experienced that their tasks in custody dispute was to visible every child´s best interest for both the parents and the court.Keywords: Children´s perspective, Child´s best, Custody dispute, Family law, Family law social worker. / SAMMANFATTNINGTitel: Barnperspektiv vid vårdnadstvist? -En kvalitativ studie om familjerättssocionomers upplevelser av huruvida föräldrar i vårdnadstvist har barnperspektiv eller inte.Författare: Malin El Fhaily och Marlene HaglundStudien syftade till att undersöka om familjerättssocionomer upplever att föräldrar som är i vårdnadstvist har ett barnperspektiv eller inte. De sex deltagande respondenterna har intervjuats med semistrukturerade frågor. De har anställning som familjerättssocionomer i en mindre kommun och en större kommun i Mellansverige. Intervjuerna genomfördes i april 2017. I studien har kvalitativ innehållsanalys använts för att analysera det insamlade materialet. Resultatet visade att respondenterna upplever att många föräldrar i vårdnadstvist försöker att ha ett barnperspektiv men att föräldrarna har olika uppfattning om vad som är det bästa för barnet. Detta leder till att tvist och samarbetssvårigheter uppstår. Resultatet visade också att respondenterna upplevde att en del föräldrar som är i vårdnadstvist är så uppe i sin egen konflikt att de inte har förmåga till barnperspektiv och att se barnets bästa. Respondenternas uppgift blev då att försöka få föräldrarna att samarbeta och lösa sin tvist så att de kan flytta fokus från sin konflikt till barnet samt att få föräldrarna att enas om vad som är deras gemensamma barns bästa. Familjerättssocionomerna i studien upplevde att deras uppgift i vårdnadstvister blir att synliggöra barnperspektivet och varje barns bästa både inför föräldrarna och tingsrätten.Nyckelord: Barnperspektiv, Barns bästa, Familjerätt, Familjerättssocionom, Vårdnadstvist

The purpose of this Thesis is to determine which set of private law rules ought to apply to the use and storage of bodily material. I recommend that the most appropriate legal approach is through a combination of property rights and duties of confidentiality. The suggestion is that where a healthcare institution obtains possession of bodily material, their possession of the material may give rise to property rights in the material. In addition, where an individual retains entitlements in bodily material that is held by a healthcare institution, the entitlements of the individual ought to be protected through the imposition of duties on the healthcare institution that are akin to duties of confidentiality. This recommendation is the product of two main inquires. The first inquiry concerns which entitlements individuals and institutions ought to be able to exercise in separated bodily material. This involves an investigation into which aspects of the relationship between a person and their body can also be found in the relationship between a person and their separated bodily material. It also involves an assessment as to which societal interests can be served through allocating entitlements in bodily material to healthcare institutions, and how to resolve the conflict between individual and societal interests in the use and storage of bodily material. The second main inquiry concerns the way in which different branches of private law are able to protect entitlements in things. I identify that property rights, rights of bodily integrity and privacy are similar insofar as they protect entitlements through the exclusion of others. Property rights are nonetheless distinct as property law concerns rights than can exist independently of the rights-holder. The recommended approach follows from connecting the different entitlements in bodily material that ought to obtain legal protection with different ways an entitlement may be afforded legal protection.

Despite the Arizona family court's purported focus on the "best interests" of the child, it is inherently parent-centered and does not, in actuality, serve children's well-being. When children are offered opportunities to participate in this legal system, studies have found positive impacts to both the children and the judicial system. The overwhelming majority of these studies were conducted in countries that have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child; the United States is not one of those countries. As such, facilitating children's participation in the court process by encouraging judicial interviews is one way Arizona family law could better promote children's best interests and well-being. What began as a quest for research on how judicial interviews affected children emotionally and psychologically, has evolved into a critical analysis of the family law framework as it exists in the United States—particularly, the State of Arizona. Through a detailed presentation of Arizona family law, this papers demonstrates the court's focus on parents' rights—often in the absence of children's rights. An exploration of the ways in which various philosophical and legal theories work to critique and expose the dominant power relationships in the family law structure follows. It is only through such deconstruction of this law that children's voices can be effectively reincorporated into the family law schema and their "best interests" properly considered.

This thesis that is supported by the research findings is as follows: In private law contact disputes between parents, greater weight should be attached to the statutory requirement to give children an opportunity to express their views, as well as to the statutory requirement to protect them from abuse, rather than assuming on-going contact with a both parents is essential for the promotion of a child’s welfare. Despite the acquisition of rights by women and children since the late 19th century, it is argued, they remain disempowered within private law legal process as the patria potestas (paternal power) once held by married fathers, has evolved into this assumption that a child’s welfare requires direct, regular contact with his or her biological father – whether the child wants this or not. Consequently, where children’s views are taken, but they express a view contrary to on-going contact with their biological father, their wishes are often overridden and they may be forced by the court into contact arrangements that distress them. This is particularly problematic as the majority of cases coming before the courts involve serious welfare concerns (including domestic violence and the abuse of substances) and children often have lucid reasons for not wishing to be left under the care and control of their non-resident parent. Yet, these children may sometimes be further victimised by the court system charged with their protection.

Currently, a great schism exists in the way that the law of financial provision treats cohabiting and married couples on relationship breakdown. Given that research consistently demonstrates that women are predominantly responsible for carrying out homemaking activities regardless of employment status, at the heart of this divide is the way that the law attributes value to this traditionally female role. In the married context, on divorce, breadwinning and homemaking contributions have equal value, yet in the cohabitation context only financial contributions are recognised, with homemaking having no value attributed to it. This polarised approach has received extensive criticism from the courts, the legal profession and the academic community, both for overvaluing domestic contributions in the married context and for ignoring or at best undervaluing them in the cohabitation context. Yet, despite the agreement over the inadequacies in this area, there is a lack of consensus over the direction that reform should take, and so far attempts have been slow and have often come to nothing, especially in the cohabitation context. Furthermore, feminist opinion is divided about whether financial recognition of domestic contributions in family law poses a threat to the financial autonomy of women, encouraging patriarchal financial dependence; or whether such developments redress a glaring inequality inherent in gendered roles freely chosen within the family. Consequently, this project uses the two very differing feminist positions of Ruth Deech and Martha Fineman who embody this divide as the lens through which to explore this dichotomous tension underlying the law in this area. To test out these two feminist stances, this project uses a range of doctrinal, feminist and empirical methodology, namely interviews with legal practitioners, to compare the approaches in New Zealand, Scotland and Queensland, Australia alongside England and Wales, where each jurisdiction differentially reflects a point on a spectrum between Deech and Fineman’s contrasting positions. This project also uses focus groups with members of the public in England and Wales to ascertain the affected communities’ views on these models of financial provision. Drawing on these results, this thesis shall consider how the law of financial provision in England and Wales should divide assets on relationship breakdown in the marriage, civil partnership and the same- and different-sex cohabiting context. Should it promote financial autonomy or should it offer greater protection to those who lead gendered lives in the private sphere?

Although resilience is the normative psychological outcome of divorce, parents and children of divorce are disproportionately represented in the mental health and legal systems. Due to the great financial and psychological costs of incessant divorce litigation, interventions that promote positive child adjustment while alleviating the costs of litigation are in high demand. Social policymakers and clinicians have responded to this demand via a number of intervention strategies; however, the implementation of many current interventions has predated supporting empirical evidence.The present study seeks to establish the efficacy of a child-focused, intensive co-parenting therapy (ICT) intervention for divorced parents. ICT is a 14-week manualized therapy with an emphasis on communication and problem-solving training using cognitive-behavioral techniques. ICT's impact on legal outcomes (i.e., resolution of custody/visitation disputes, payment of child support, court order compliance, etc.), communication, co-parenting and parenting (i.e., cooperation, hostility), family functioning, and child adjustment (i.e., internalizing and externalizing behavior) was assessed.Participants were five families of divorce who had at least one child aged 11 to 17 and were court-ordered to participate in co-parenting therapy. Three of the families were African-American and two were Caucasian. A single-case research design with replication was employed. Therapeutic success was monitored by a multi-informant approach (parent, teacher, and child) according to a multiple baseline procedure. Communication and legal outcomes were monitored on a weekly basis. Co-parenting and parenting behaviors, family functioning, and child adjustment symptoms were measured at baseline, session 8, and termination.ICT significantly impacted all outcome variables measured, although the clinical significance of that impact varied across domains. ICT had the greatest impact on legal and communication outcome variables. For example, 100% of families in the study resolved at least some portion of their custody and/or visitation disputes; 40% of families dropped their legal dispute entirely. Additionally, all families significantly increased the quality and quantity of their communication. Results in the domains of co-parenting and parenting behaviors, family functioning, and child adjustment, while noteworthy and reflective of positive outcomes, were more varied. Clinical implications of study findings are discussed as they relate to establishing ICT as a possibly efficacious co-parenting intervention.

This diploma thesis deals with the institute of foster care. Foster care has been a widely discussed issue lately, in the field of family law. After years of theoretical considerations, discussions and preparations, a lot of significant changes have been made in this area, which have been incorporated into the new Civil Code and have been defined by the Amendment No. 401/2012 of the Coll., of the Act on Social-Legal Protection of children. The main objective of such changes is to professionalize foster care, and thus create an alternative to institutional care, to make foster care work in a more efficient way, to lower the risks of failure in daily practice, and to increase a notion of such form of substitute care in public. On the very top of general ideas and considerations remains especially the best interest and well being of a foster child. The emphasis is laid on the child's right to grow up in a background of a family and on help provided to a family with an endangered child. The diploma thesis is divided into seventeen chapters. First chapter gives an introduction to the issue of substitute care and talks about individual forms of such care. Second chapter presents a historical view into the individual phases of the development of foster care. Third chapter is dedicated to state and international...

Private international law in a comparative perspective: International family law in the Czech republic and in the Federal Republic of Germany The subject matter of this thesis is a comparison of Czech and German legal regulations of international family law. I have concretely focused on a regulation of matrimonial law with an international element and on a regulation of relations connected with registered partnership containing the international element. I have chosen this subject matter because this field has not been completely unified by a legislation of the European Union and so that I can compare legal regulations in the Czech Republic and in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is a really actual theme because a new law act about international law is going to be effective from 1st January, 2014 in the Czech Republic and furthermore the Regulation Rome III governing applicable law for a severance and divorce has become effective in some member states of the EU. Also there have been designed other new Regulations regulating marital relations and relations of registered partnership with the international element. A development of a new legal regulation allowed me to elaborate the topic with using information which has not been used so summarily yet. So this work could be a contribution according...

The aim of the work is to analyze efficient legislation concerning the posi- tion of a child's parents during the child's adoption and the adoption itself considering the current issues and legislation in the new Civil Code. The analyti- cal and comparative methods are especially used. The work is divided into five chapters. The first chapter deals with definition of the basic terms that are treated further in the work. It also classifies the institute of adoption in a broader frame- work of the substitute family care. The second chapter focuses on the legislation of adoption. It is divided into six subchapters with the third one being crucial and dealing with the conditions of adoption. The third and largest chapter is the sub- stance of the work. It concerns an analysis of the current legislation concerning the legal position of child's parents while adopting the child. This part also fo- cuses on the new formulation of a parent's disinterest in connection to the new Civil Code. This chapter also includes an issue of giving birth to a child in secret, which is discussed frequently among both experts and the public. Due to the tra- dition of this institute in France there is also an insight in the French legislation. The fourth chapter focuses on the procedural position of a child's parents both...