Reform within the Family Courts: Lessons from Baltimore

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Connie Healy
Keyword(s):  
2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Oluwaleye Monisola

The trend of violence against women in Nigeria has increased more than ever recently, with many women having been deprived of their fundamental rights. Violence against women in Nigeria includes sexual harassment, physical violence, harmful traditional practices, emotional and psychological violence, and socio-economic violence. This article investigates cases of domestic violence against women in South West Nigeria by assessing the role of family courts in the adjudication of such cases. Both primary and secondary sources of data were employed to examine incidents of violence against women and the role of the family courts in ensuring justice. The author employed both primary and secondary sources of data; the data gathered were analysed by frequency and simple percentages, while qualitative data were descriptively analysed. The article reveals the causes of domestic violence against women to include a cultural belief in male superiority, women’s lack of awareness of their rights, women’s poverty owing to joblessness, men seeking sexual satisfaction by force, women having only male children, the social acceptance of discipline, the failure to punish the perpetrators of violence, the influence of alcohol, and in-laws’ interference in marital relationships. It also reveals the nature of domestic violence against women. The research revealed that the family courts have played prominent roles in protecting and defending the rights of women. The author therefore recommends that the law should strengthen the family courts by extending their power to penalise the perpetrators of violence against women. 


Author(s):  
Asha Bajpai

Custody refers to the physical care and control of a minor whereas guardianship is a wider term and includes rights and duties with respect to the care and control of minor’s person and property, and includes the right to make decisions relating to the minor. The present legal regime relating to guardianship and custody of children is discussed, including the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890, the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956, the personal and matrimonial laws, and relevant provisions in the Family Courts Act and Protection of Women against Domestic Violence Act, 2005. The emerging concepts of shared parenting, joint custody, and the interparental child removal or abduction of child is included. There is review and analysis of some major reported judicial decisions. A comparative survey of international laws and trends has been done. Suggestions for law reform in the best interest of the child have been given.


1984 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 591
Author(s):  
James T. Sprowls ◽  
Michael Fabricant
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Heather Douglas

This chapter explores women’s interactions with judges when they appeared before them in relation to protection orders and child custody orders after experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV). Commonly women identified that judges prioritized physical violence and minimized other forms of abuse and that they seemed to align with abusers, discounting the women’s experiences of abuse. Women identified that judges often lacked preparation for hearings, rubber-stamped witness subpoenas, and failed to stop irrelevant witness examination. They explained how these approaches facilitated their partner’s misuse of the legal system as a tactic of abuse. Women also discussed how judges, especially in the family courts, prioritized fathers’ rights to contact with children over safety. However, women’s stories also demonstrated resistance to their abuser’s control over them through the courts, and their efforts to ensure the safety of their children regardless of court orders.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Wanda Stojanowska ◽  
Paulina Wypierowska

ADMISSION OF PATERNITY DURING A PATERNITY CASE BY THE MAN WHO IS A PARTY IN THE PROCEEDINGSSummaryThe subject of this article is the provision of the new § 2 added to Art. 72 of the Polish Family and Guardianship Code (Kodeks rodzinny i opiekuńczy) in the amendment of 6 November 2008, which came into force on 13 June 2009. Under this provision, “the admission of paternity is not possible if paternity proceedings have already started.” The provision has provoked heated argument in the juristic literature, boiling down to the question whether the admission of paternity by the man who is a party in a paternity case is admissible and possible. Most authors have considered this admissible and, moreover, they have strongly criticised the wording of the new provision, which is very unclear. In view of the controversy in the doctrine, it was highly necessary to examine data on paternity cases to establish the trend in court decisions, that is how the courts are interpreting the provision of § 2 of Art. 72 of the Family and Guardianship Code, whether they are accepting the interpretation of this provision as allowing the admission of paternity in court while a paternity case is already in progress, or whether they are treating the this provision as a prohibition on the admission of paternity in such circumstances and strictly observing it. The article contains an analysis of the research data from 50 paternity cases heard in three family courts in the district of Warsaw following the amendment. 84% of the cases concluded with the man who was the party in the case admitting paternity. Thus the court decisions show that such a solution is admissible, and the interpretation of the provision adopted by the majority of representatives of the doctrine is being implemented in forensic practice.


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