LO1 Research and critically evaluate the key theories, concepts and principles of family law in England and Wales.

Family Law

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES

Naming Your Submission

PLEASE IMMEDIATELY SAVE THIS DOCUMENT USING THE FILE NAME: [STUDENT REFERENCE NUMBER] - FAM - Assessment

So, for example, if your Student Reference Number is 123456 and code FAM you should save your submission using the file name:

123456 – FAM - Assessment

Please ensure you use your own Student Reference Number, not the one shown above.

Submitting Your Assessment

You MUST upload and submit your assessment BEFORE the submission deadline.

Answers to all questions must be submitted as one document via the Turnitin link. Please refer to the submission instructions sent to you by the Assessments Office.

Student Declaration

I certify that the assessment submission is entirely my work, and I have fully referenced and correctly cited the work of others, where required. I also confirm the contents of my submission have not been generated by a third party, or through an Artificial Intelligence generative system.

I have read the Student Discipline Regulations and understand any Assessment Related offence/Academic Misconduct can lead to consequences.

By submitting this assessment submission, I am confirming that I am fit to sit according to the Assessment Regulations.

Referencing and Bibliographies

All coursework answers should be properly referenced and include a complete bibliography. The default referencing system for law is OSCOLA and this should be adopted for all coursework unless you have been instructed that an alternative referencing system, such as Harvard, is acceptable.

There are a number of useful resources available on the Library Service website: https://library.law.ac.uk/Referencing.html

This Assessment is open book.

Questions

QUESTION 1

Critically evaluate the effectiveness of the current legal framework (including case law) which governs financial remedies for divorce, in addressing gender bias.

Your discussion should include a critical assessment of the strengths and limitations of the framework in ensuring fair and equitable settlements, and propose potential reforms that could address any bias and promote more equitable outcomes in financial settlements.

TOTAL FOR Question 1: 60 MARKS

PLEASE WRITE YOUR ANSWER TO QUESTION 1 HERE:

QUESTION 2

Shireen and Calvin have recently divorced after 15 years of marriage and have three children, Brady, aged 10 years, and twins Theo and Olly, who are aged 6.

Following their divorce, financial matters were settled through mediation. Calvin moved out of the former family home, and transferred it to Shireen, on the basis that she agreed not to seek any part of his savings. As Calvin works full time, he pays child maintenance regularly, together with a regular maintenance payment to Shireen. Shireen has not worked since the birth of Brady, but is able to live comfortably with the regular maintenance coming in.

When Calvin first moved out, they agreed between them a pattern of child arrangements for the children to see both parents. The agreement was that the children would live with Shireen at the former family home and that, in every three weekends out of four, Calvin would collect the children at 4pm on a Friday and take them for the weekend to stay overnight at his new house, which is around 20 minutes away by car from the family home. He would return the children to Shireen on a Sunday at 5pm. On the fourth weekend, the children stayed at home with Shireen so she could spend time with them.

This arrangement worked well at first but, recently, Calvin has been regularly late collecting the children on a Friday and also returning them later and later on the Sunday evening, the result of which is the children staying up later than they should on Sundays, and then being overtired for school on a Monday morning. On several occasions, Calvin has cancelled the weekend stay altogether, telling Shireen that he is busy or away with his new partner. This has resulted in the children being upset and disappointed.

In addition, Brady has recently asked Shireen if he can go to live with his father permanently. Shireen has found out that Calvin has promised Brady he would install a home cinema and computer games room with gaming chair at his house if Brady went to live with him. Brady is a big fan of computer games.

Things came to a head a couple of days ago, when Calvin told Shireen that he could give Brady and the twins a much better standard of living than she can, and they would enjoy living with him more. He told her that his new partner is his “true love” and that, now he is in a settled relationship, he wants the children to live with him, or at least for an equal amount of time, so they can be a “proper family”. He also wants to take the children out of the local primary school and hire a tutor to home school them if they live with him (he feels this would be best for their education).

The twins Theo and Olly are due shortly to have a second dose of the MMR vaccine. Calvin has told Shireen that he does not consent to them having the vaccine – apparently he watched a TV documentary recently which has made him concerned about the safety of the vaccine. Shireen wants them to have it but is unsure whether she can do so without Calvin’s consent.