Family Law

Co-ordinator: Dr Adiva Sifris

This cluster covers research connected to 'families' in the broadest sense. Members of the cluster have research interests that include:

• Parenting orders, variation of orders and best interests of the child
• Formal and informal residence arrangements for children of separated families in Australia, in the light of the Family Law Amendment (Shared Parental Responsibility) Act 2006
• The effect of new "equal time" provisions in the Family Law Act
• Children in immigration detention
• Lesbian parenting
• Property and children aspect of domestic relationships
• Child support and maintenance
• Spousal maintenance
• Indigenous family law and the way that the mainstream legal systems of colonial countries have accommodated indigenous family structures and law
• “Customary adoption” in New Zealand, Australia and Canada
• Processes of family law dispute resolution
• The role and practices of the legal profession in family law disputes
• Legal ethics in family legal practice
• The role of Family Relationship Centres
• The “shadow” of family law
• The relevance of domestic violence in family law related decision making and Family Court proceedings, including how family violence will be treated under new Act
• Different family violence legislation at federal and state levels
• The relevance of child abuse in family law proceedings, including how child abuse will be treated under new Act
• The relevance of gender in family law decision making (especially for women)
• Sex workers and family law.