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Judicial Settlement-Seeking In Parenting Disputes: Consensus And Controversy, Noel Semple
Judicial Settlement-Seeking In Parenting Disputes: Consensus And Controversy, Noel Semple
Noel Semple
The judicial role in child custody and visitation disputes has traditionally been understood as one of authoritative decision-making. However this new empirical research suggests that many family court judges prioritize the pursuit of voluntary settlement in pre-trial conferences, using evaluative and facilitative mediation techniques. Drawing on qualitative interviews with judges and other family law professionals in Toronto and New York City, this article identifies points of consensus and controversy among settlement-seeking family judges. Despite the general support for settlement-seeking, there are substantial differences of opinion regarding coercion, due process, and the meaning of the best interests of the child standard.
Whose Best Interests?: Custody And Access Law And Procedure, Noel Semple
Whose Best Interests?: Custody And Access Law And Procedure, Noel Semple
Noel Semple
This article compares the law of custody and access disputes with the procedure used to resolve them. The author argues that there is a fundamental contradiction between the two. The former focuses on the interests of the children involved to the exclusion of everything else. The latter, however, is controlled by and designed to protect the rights and interests of the adult parties to the dispute. Despite their doctrinal centrality in custody and access law, children are usually silent and invisible in custody and access procedure. To resolve this contradiction, the author proposes a focus on the costs and benefits …
Judicial Settlement-Seeking In Parenting Disputes: Consensus And Controversy, Noel Semple
Judicial Settlement-Seeking In Parenting Disputes: Consensus And Controversy, Noel Semple
Noel Semple
The judicial role in child custody and visitation disputes has traditionally been understood as one of authoritative decision-making. However this new empirical research suggests that many family court judges prioritize the pursuit of voluntary settlement in pre-trial conferences, using evaluative and facilitative mediation techniques. Drawing on qualitative interviews with judges and other family law professionals in Toronto and New York City, this article identifies points of consensus and controversy among settlement-seeking family judges. Despite the general support for settlement-seeking, there are substantial differences of opinion regarding coercion, due process, and the meaning of the best interests of the child standard.
Book Review: The Best Interests Of Children – An Evidence Based Approach, By Paul Millar, Noel Semple
Book Review: The Best Interests Of Children – An Evidence Based Approach, By Paul Millar, Noel Semple
Noel Semple
If custody and access disputes are a deck of cards, the trump suit is the best interests of the child. When separating parents litigate about how and with whom their child should live, findings about what’s best for the child are meant to sweep away the parents’ interests and rights-claims. This principle is uncontroversial, but applying it is difficult. What parenting arrangements are best for children, and how successful is the legal system in putting these arrangements in place?
Sociologist Paul Millar has responded with this slim volume, the goal of which is to “explain child custody outcomes in Canada …
Mandatory Family Mediation And The Settlement Mission: A Feminist Critique, Noel Semple
Mandatory Family Mediation And The Settlement Mission: A Feminist Critique, Noel Semple
Noel Semple
North American family law conflicts are very often brought to mediation, in which a neutral third party attempts to bring about a voluntary resolution of the spouses’ dispute. Family mediation has many enthusiastic supporters, and has in many jurisdictions been made a mandatory precursor to traditional litigation. However, it has also given rise to a potent feminist critique, which identifies power imbalance and domestic violence as sources of exploitation and unjust mediated outcomes. This article summarizes the feminist critique of family mediation, and assesses the efforts of contemporary mediation practice to respond to it. Even in the absence of formal …