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Hybrid | Family Law As Social Policy: Taking Family Problems Upstream

20 March 2025, 6:00 pm–7:00 pm

two toddlers playing outdoors

This Inaugural Lecture will be on ‘Family Law As Social Policy: Taking Family Problems Upstream' and delivered by Professor Rob George (Laws UCL).

Event Information

Open to

All

Organiser

UCL Laws

Location

UCL Faculty of Laws
056: Bentham House
4-8 Endsleigh Gardens
London
WC1H 0EG
United Kingdom

Speaker: Rob George (Faculty of Laws, UCL)

Chair: Mavis Maclean (University of Oxford)

About this Inaugural Lecture

In recent years, family law legislation has often been a focal point for reforms which have aimed as much at changing the societal attitudes and behaviours of family members as affecting their statutory entitlements or how the courts approach family law cases. There has been a tension in the approach of politicians between, on the one hand, restricting access to the courts and thus to law for family disputes and, on the other, using family law as a tool of policy to influence how family members think and behave in relation to one another. This lecture situates family law as a tool of social policy, but one which is often not up to or not suited to the job. Post-separation parenting arrangements are a key example: using family law, as it now does, to stipulate that the involvement of both parents in a child’s life is likely to promote their welfare comes too late to make effective change. The problem needs to be taken ‘upstream’, considering the policy factors that influence the way in which parenting was arranged prior to parental separation rather than focusing only on arrangements made post-separation. Policy factors that affect family problems such as this include parental leave and flexible working policies, situated as part of employment law; housing policy, seen as part of social welfare law; and provision of services such as mental health support, part of healthcare law (if seen as a concern of law at all). This lecture seeks to reposition these upstream policy issues as the central considerations for those interested in effecting societal change to family life.

About the Speaker

Rob George is Professor of Law and Policy at UCL. His research focuses on family law and the working of the family justice system, linking his academic background in both law and social policy. He is the co-author of OUP’s leading textbook, Family Law: Text, Cases, and Materials (5th edition, 2023) and Class Legal’s Dictionary of Private Children Law (4th edition, 2024), and his latest monograph is Wards of Court and the Inherent Jurisdiction (Hart Publishing, 2024). Alongside his academic work, Rob practises as a Barrister at Harcourt Chambers.

About Current Legal Problems

The Current Legal Problems (CLP) lecture series and annual volume was established over fifty five years ago at the Faculty of Laws, University College London and is recognised as a major reference point for legal scholarship.

Book your place

You can attend this event in-person at UCL Faculty of Laws (Bentham House, 4-8 Endsleigh Gardens, London WC1H 0EG) or alternatively you can join via a live stream.

Please make sure you choose the correct ticket when booking your place.

Book your place

Image by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

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