A government report has supported recent calls to ban commercial surrogacy across Australia. The Senate committee supports altruistic surrogacy, but not its commercial equivalent. While the committee was firm on domestic matters, international surrogacy posed more of a problem. The committee argued that Australia is powerless to stop the... Read More
In a ruling last week the Supreme Court of Virginia recognised the legal status of same–sex relationships and cohabitation, enabling a man to cease paying alimony to his ex-wife who is now engaged to another woman. The Supreme Court had ruled in 2014 that the State’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, so this latest... Read More
Technology may be making it easier to maintain relationships over long distances, but few couples have considered tying the knot over Skype. Canadian Megan Radford and Bolivian Rolando Barrientos are the exception—while they were together in Bolivia during their wedding, the officiate and guests joined them from Canada via video chat.... Read More
Mr Justice Holman ordered, at Birmingham District Registry, that an application in child proceedings that he started to hear, be heard “from scratch” by a different judge, as notice was not given to the child’s parents or stepmother. A 15-year-old boy, currently the subject of care proceedings, was living with his father... Read More
Against the odds – 5000-1, to be exact – Leicester City won the Premier League earlier this week after Tottenham Hotspur drew 2-2 with Chelsea. We all know footballers can have high profile divorces, Ryan Giggs and Gary Lineker being two of the most recent examples, but does simply being a football fan put you at greater risk of... Read More
If, on June 23, Britain votes to remain in the European Union following David Cameron’s renegotiation of its membership, Brussels will be obliged to amend several laws governing the lives of families in Britain. Under the guise of reducing European immigration, Cameron’s agreement could see dramatic changes to the lives of some families in... Read More
The Central Family Court (CFC) in London and its Financial Remedy Unit (FRU) is finalising a pilot scheme for electronically filing documents for all finance proceedings. Chancellor George Osborne announced in his Autumn 2015 statement that radical court reforms were being planned. He stated that “under-used courts will be... Read More
Hundreds of eggs, sperm samples and embryos have been left on ice since India’s surrogacy ban for foreigners. Last October the Indian Council of Medical Research instructed fertility experts not to provide services to foreigners, but it failed to specify what should be done with genetic materials if the surrogacy process had already begun.... Read More
15 months after the birth of their daughter Carmen, Gordon Lake and Manuel Santos can at last come out of hiding and resume a normal family life, with the newest addition to their family in tow. In January 2015, the same-sex American-Spanish couple welcomed baby Carmen, who was born in Thailand via a surrogate, using a third-party donor egg.... Read More
Earlier this month, His Honour Judge Freedman, at Newcastle Family Court, ordered that a teenage girl should be put into secure accommodation to prevent her absconding and associating with known criminals. The application by North Tyneside Council was made under s.25 of the Children Act 1989 (CA 1989), requesting that the child... Read More