(no subject)
Dec. 19th, 2003 02:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liadnanFathers4Justice were demonstrating as I went out to lunch and for yet another desultory look for possible Christmas presents. They were all dressed in Santa costumes.
I don't know what I think about them, really. As I understand it, their complaints are, first, that there is a general rule of thumb that all other things being equal the child of separated parents will stay with the mother; and second that the limited access they do receive to their children in law is a dead letter because it's difficult to enforce. I should note that this is an area of law that I avoid like the plague: the Family Division only enters into my professional work in the contexts of inheritance and when dealing with possession orders where a separated partner has a claim on the property. Since to the best of my knowledge, belief, and hope, I am not a father it really isn't something on which I can comment: I genuinely don't know what the answer to their first complaint is and know nothing about the second. But I'm not sure they're doing their cause much good by demonstrating at the courts, though I suppose their main hope is to raise the public profile of their campaign. But if they want a change in policy it'll have to be Parliament, not the courts, that makes it, I think.
I don't know what I think about them, really. As I understand it, their complaints are, first, that there is a general rule of thumb that all other things being equal the child of separated parents will stay with the mother; and second that the limited access they do receive to their children in law is a dead letter because it's difficult to enforce. I should note that this is an area of law that I avoid like the plague: the Family Division only enters into my professional work in the contexts of inheritance and when dealing with possession orders where a separated partner has a claim on the property. Since to the best of my knowledge, belief, and hope, I am not a father it really isn't something on which I can comment: I genuinely don't know what the answer to their first complaint is and know nothing about the second. But I'm not sure they're doing their cause much good by demonstrating at the courts, though I suppose their main hope is to raise the public profile of their campaign. But if they want a change in policy it'll have to be Parliament, not the courts, that makes it, I think.
