Family Law

Susan Heenan, Senior Lecturer, University of the West of England. The widely-reported European Court of Human Rights case of Evans v United Kingdom (Application No 6339/05) was not only contentious in the newspapers. As Natallie Evans' fight to be allowed to use six frozen embryos created during a relationship with her ex-partner progressed through the courts the legal issues that arose from this personal conflict were also disagreed upon amongst the judiciary.

Particularly in the European Court of Human Rights the dissenting voices were strong. In this article the author gets to grips with the arguments at the core of this case and the reasons why some judges fought against the tide of the majority. The point raised by Evans is difficult to legislate on and it is yet to be seen whether the case will have an impact on reform of the current legislation. For the full article see July [2007] Fam Law.