International Perspectives on Disputes about Children and Child Protection: Collected Essays on Parental Responsibility and Children’s Dispute Resolution (Vol.1)

Abstract

The essays in Volume 1 focus on the substantive law relating to the child-parent relationship in terms of custody and access and on procedural frameworks adopted around the world to resolve disputes arising between parents in relation to their children. The first group of essays offers a comparative analysis of the paradigm shift occurring in post-divorce child law away from notions of custody, care and control to that based on “parental responsibility” in diverse jurisdictions such as England, Hong Kong, New Zealand, China and Europe. In the second section, essays focus on the procedural framework within which disputes relating to parenting and care of children post-divorce may be resolved, with particular focus on the development of specialized children’s dispute resolution procedures in various jurisdictions. The final essays highlight the progressive work of the Hong Kong Judiciary in introducing many procedural reforms in family law and children’s dispute resolution (with many involving a greater use of ADR processes), but also lament the lack of legislative reform in family justice. Volume 1 concludes by focusing on the need for greater empirical research and collection of data to allow for better evidence-based and informed policy making in family justice and child law reform in Hong Kong.