Course Catalogue

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This course provides students with a different perspective on family law, considering various issues of family law through a comparative perspective.

In this course, students will explore issues involving the legal regulation of both parenthood and adult relationships but will do so by considering a range of different jurisdictions (including the 'Anglo-American' Common Law jurisdictions and European Civilian jurisdictions) and their alternative regulatory approaches to these issues. 

This comparative perspective will provide insight into these issues in the domestic context, by showing what can be learned from the approaches adopted in other jurisdictions. Through this, the course will allow students to undertake a much deeper consideration of a range of issues relating to family law than is possible within the Level 1 Family Law course.

There will be 10 x 2-hour seminars spread throughout semester 2.

This course is only available to LLB students.

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A 1000-word plan/outline (15%) and a 4000-word essay (85%).

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. Where, exceptionally, reassessment on Honours courses is required to satisfy professional/accreditation requirements, only the overall course grade achieved at the first attempt will contribute to the Honours classification. For non-Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

This course aims to introduce students to comparative methodologies in the context of family law, through considering a range of issues relating to the legal regulation of families and family life. This will allow students to critically engage with key issues of domestic family law and policy through an entirely different lens.

Further aims are:

i) to enhance the analytical and critical skills of students by considering the differing approaches of the jurisdictions to the same legal issues

ii) to develop awareness of a range of theories, methodologies and approaches which are relevant to comparative accounts of family law

iii) to enhance student understanding of a variety of key topics in domestic family law by drawing from foreign perspectives

iv) to explore the links and connections between family law and broader legal cultures

v) to give the students an opportunity to undertake independent research on topics of current relevance and interest

vi) to offer an ideal complement to other family law courses (such as Parenthood and the Law and Adult Relationships and the Law) and other comparative law courses (such as Comparative Constitutional Rights)

By the end of this course students will be able to:

i) appraise certain issues of family law through a comparative perspective

ii) utilise a range of comparative legal methodologies and recognise how these specifically relate to the legal regulation of family life

iii) evaluate how issues of family law are influenced by the particularities of certain legal cultures

iv) analyse critically how legal responses to family law issues reflect both general and jurisdiction specific factors

v) identify and comment upon areas of debate and controversy within comparative family law

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.