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Courses / Modules / LAWS2027 Family Law: Children, Parents and the State

Family Law: Children, Parents and the State

When you'll study it
Semester 1
CATS points
15
ECTS points
7.5
Level
Level 5
Module lead
Leonora Onaran
Academic year
2025-26

Module overview

Family law touches all of our lives at some point. This module considers the legal regulation of family life, in particular the extent to which relationships between parents and their children should be seen as a private matter free from State interference, and simultaneously reflects on the ways in which various types of family are treated differently, for example marital, civil partnered, non-marital, including same-sex relationships and families. It considers the extent to which English family law is based on the Judaeo-Christian tradition and how easily it accommodates family patterns and beliefs from different ethnic and faith traditions.

As well as examining the substantive rules governing the main aspects of family life, as they pertain to the regulation of relationships between parents and children, this module also examines the difficulties that the law has in balancing the need for clear and objective rules to govern behaviour, with the need to take the variety of individual circumstances into account. This has led to considerable use of judicial discretion and the strengths and weaknesses of this approach are considered during the module.