- Title
- Australia: the certain uncertainty
- Creator
- Bates, Frank
- Relation
- The Future of Child and Family Law: International Predictions p. 47-76
- Relation
- http://www.cambridge.org/au/academic/subjects/law/family-law/future-child-and-family-law-international-predictions
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2012
- Description
- As will become apparent, the condition of Australian family law, in almost all of its central areas, is in a state of genuine uncertainty. By way of introduction, it should be said that this state of affairs has been brought about because the major family law statute, the Family Law Act 1975, has been subject to continual amendment that has often lacked a sound conceptual basis. The Family Law Act 1975 has been amended, sometimes significantly, no fewer than eighty times from its coming into force in 1976. In addition, there has been a tendency for courts, particularly the Family Court of Australia, to undermine particular legislative goals. The tensions between the aims of the original framers of the Family Law Act and traditional legal processes were doubtless in part responsible for that state of affairs and, as will be seen, tensions continue to exist between legislators, policymakers and courts. It would be struthious indeed for any commentator to attempt to gloss over these difficulties and the uncertainties to which these forces have given - and continue to give - rise. The thesis which this commentary seeks to pursue is that, since the 1975 Act came into force at least, the pressures to which the law and its administrators have been subjected have led to a state of uncertainty about both the present and the future. Put another way, neither the legislators nor the administrators seem to be aware of what the other wants or, indeed, is likely to do.
- Subject
- Australian family law; Family Law Act 1975; Family Court of Australia
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1053097
- Identifier
- uon:15523
- Identifier
- ISBN:9781107006805
- Language
- eng
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