Family Law Reform: a lengthy pedigree

EI is the path not taken ever since 1986.

The attached chronology - click here - from1986 to 2020 provides some indication of the persistence with which this obvious remedy has been overlooked.

This listing is brought up to date below: on 29 September 2022 the President of the Family Division gave the John Cornell lecture to the annual convention of the Family Mediation Association. Inter alia he said,

“Moving on, the structure of the MIAM process itself continues to be kept under live consideration by the sustained campaign of Dr Hamish Cameron, Oliver Cyriax and others who favour the ‘Early Interventions’ model [‘EI’][3]. Along with my distinguished and much respected forebears, Dame Margaret Booth and Dame Joyanne Bracewell, I have long been in favour of this approach.

The central proposition of EI is that there should be a set of widely available and judicially endorsed guidelines or templates for the pattern of child arrangements that are likely to meet a child’s welfare needs in normal circumstances, depending on age and other factors. Some years ago I called for there to be a statement of what ‘normal looks like’ to be available for parents to consider when they separate. The EI model is not, however, favoured by those who advise me in the Private Law Working Group and, for the present, the Pathfinder Pilot does not include guidance of the sort that EI requires. I remain of the view that this is a concept that should be the subject of further consideration during the evaluation stage of the current pilots.”

Sir Andrew’s ‘Conclusion’ referred to “a head of steam building for change” in the way that separating parents and former partners can be supported in resolving disputes. His penultimate paragraph set out ‘An Idea’:

“My idea is that, if there is to be compulsion, the compulsory event… would include basic neutral advice about the law and the legal structure. It should, in my view, also include a description of ‘what normal looks like’, along the lines proposed in the EI model.”

The Dame Margaret and Dame Joyanne Bracewell conferences are covered on this site. Sir Andrew’s full speech is available at: https://www.judiciary.uk/speech-by-the-president-of-the-family-division-relaunching-family-mediation/