ABSTRACT

The Act was brought into force on 14 October 1991, drawing the private and public law under one statutory scheme, and ridding the previous, somewhat piecemeal, law of most of its complications and anomalies. The intention was to provide a comprehensive code and to a great extent this aim has succeeded. Thus, an academic student requires:

(a) a sound working knowledge of the private and public law aspects of the CA 1989; (b) some outline knowledge of how the public law provisions impact on and interrelate with the

private law; (c) an ability to watch trends and appreciate the importance of the latest cases (because of the

lack of application of the doctrine of precedent in Family Law – so that decisions are only a guide to how a court might interpret the exercise of its duty within the statutory framework, particularly since child law can be a fast-moving fi eld); this is especially important because the impact of practice is as important as the black letter law in Child and Family Law, since both are interdisciplinary specialisms where sociological factors may signifi cantly change the court’s approach, e.g. in relation to the treatment of domestic violence; 1 and

(d) an ability to research the law where necessary in order to decide whether there are human rights implications which impact upon the established principles of English law.