Back to Search
Start Over
Compromise on Parenting and Family Violence? Reforms to Canada's Divorce Act.
- Source :
- Feminist Legal Studies; Apr2024, Vol. 32 Issue 1, p3-24, 22p
- Publication Year :
- 2024
-
Abstract
- This paper contributes to international feminist debates on shared parenting and family violence via reforms to Canada's Divorce Act, in force since 2021. Looking backwards, it reviews parliamentary debates and early judicial discussions. The documentary review reads the reforms as an unstable compromise between calls from feminist voices and experts on family violence and from groups representing fathers. Family violence is now defined broadly and declared relevant to children's welfare. But language in the statute may undermine its seriousness. Exposing the tensions underlying these reforms is useful for Canadian participants in family justice and for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers elsewhere, exemplifying the promise and perils of reform in this area. Looking ahead, the paper offers recommendations to higher courts. Appellate judges should read rules on contact with both parents and parental cooperation in the light of the new recognition of family violence, taking the latter as an overarching objective of the statute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- DOMESTIC violence
LAW reform
DOMESTIC relations
DIVORCE law
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 09663622
- Volume :
- 32
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Feminist Legal Studies
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 176120057
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10691-023-09522-z