ABSTRACT
The changing political and social environment of the 1970s resulted in new laws to respond to domestic violence (Dobash and Dobash, 1992, p 174). In this chapter the development of the civil law remedies for domestic violence will be examined. The purpose of the new laws was to provide speedy and effective relief to victims of domestic violence, if necessary by excluding the perpetrator of the abuse from the family home. However the scope of the legislation fell to be determined by judiciary, which was conservative in relation to preserving male property rights. Judicial interpretation of the civil laws thus considerably undermined the effectiveness of the civil law remedies in the 1970s and 1980s. However, further legislative reforms took place in the 1990s, the most significant of these being Part IV of the Family Law Act 1996, which completely overhauled the protective orders available to victims of domestic violence under the civil law. Of course the provisions of the Family Law Act 1996 also fell to be interpreted by the judiciary and it may be questioned whether the purposes of the legislation have been fully achieved given the case law developments. This chapter will consider the extent to which the civil laws, old and new, provided a legislative framework for effective protection of victims of domestic violence, and the extent to which judicial interpretation of the legislation at appellate level has supported or undermined the protection available. It will also examine the issue of child contact under the Children Act 1989 and the extent to which judicial interpretation of that legislation has provided effective protection for women and children experiencing domestic violence post-separation.
