This book is concerned with the regulation of family relationships,in particular the issue of openness and contact in the many different family situations in which it may arise. The shift towards a presumption of contact, and its articulation within diverse fields of family law and practice raises a whole series of questions which this book seeks to explore. For example: Why has the contact presumption emerged? What is meant by contact, and with whom. What is the value and purpose of it? What makes it work or not work? What is the role of law and other forms of external intervention in promoting, regulating or facilitating contact and to what extent should 'familial' relationships be subject to state regulation? More broadly, what can we infer about current conceptualisations of family, parenting (and the relative importance of social and biological parenthood) and childhood from policy and practice towards contact? These and other questions were explored in a series of seminars organised by the Cambridge Socio-Legal Group in 2002. The book is the product of these seminars.
Andrew Bainham, Belinda Brooks-Gordon, Ann Buchanan, Shelley Day Sclater, Judy Dunn, John Eekelaar, Bob Geldof, Jonathan Herring, Claire Hughes, Joan Hunt, Adrian James, Julie Jessop, Felicity Kaganas, Bridget Lindley, Mavis Maclean, Joanna Miles, Katrin Mueller-Johnson, Elsbeth Neil, Jan Pryor, Martin Richards, Bob Simpson, Donna Smith, Liz Trinder
1.Introduction - Liz Trinder Section 1: Children and their Families 2.Contact and Children's Perspectives on Parental Relationships - Judy Dunn 3.Making and Breaking Relationships: Children and their Families - Claire Hughes 4.Children's Contact with Relatives - Jan Pryor Section 2: The Law and its Limits 5. Contact as a Right and Obligation - Andrew Bainham 6.Connecting Contact: Contact in a Private Law Context - Jonathan Herring 7.Supporting Cross-Household Parenting: Ideas about 'the family',Policy Formation and Service Development across Jurisdictions - Mavis Maclean and Katrin Mueller-Johnson 8.Squaring the Circle - the Social, Legal and Welfare Organisation of Contact - Adrian James Section 3: Mothers, Fathers and Children 9. Contact: Mothers, Welfare and Rights - Shelley Day Sclater and Felicity Kaganas 10. The Real Love that Dare Not Speak its Name - Bob Geldof 11.Father after Divorce - Bob Simpson, Julie Jessop and Peter McCarthy Section 4: The Hand of the State 12.Contact for Children Subject to State Intervention - Jo Miles and Bridget Lindley 13.Contact and the Adoption Reform - John Eekelaar 14.Adoption and Contact: A Research Review - Elspeth Neil Section 5: Challenging Contact 15.Assisted Reproduction and Parental Relationships - Martin Richards 16.Contact in Containment - Belinda Brooks-Gordon 17.Making Contact Work in International Cases: Promoting Contact Whilst Preventing International Parental Child Abduction - Donna Smith 18.Disputed Contact Cases in the Courts - Ann Buchanan and Joan Hunt 19.Working and Not Working Contact after Divorce - Liz Trinder
