Justice for Children: Welfare or Farewell?

The Rt Hon Lord Justice Wall

This article is based on the keynote address to the Annual Conference of the Association of Lawyers for Children Manchester 19 November 2009

I am very conscious of my audience. You are not only specialists but you are working at the sharp and uncomfortable end of your specialism. Much of what I have to say will not alas be new or even original. Much will be to you at least statements of the obvious. That I believe they need to be said indicates the parlous state of family law in 2009. I am however going to discuss only three main topics under the title of the conference. They are: (1) the need to preserve the positives (I am going to concentrate on s 41) under the Children Act 1989 (the 1989 Act) and the Family and the Family Proceedings Rules (to be replaced (I hope in 2010) by the re-written Family Procedure Rules; (2) what has become known as 'transparency'; and (3) the recent decision of the President in Re Child...

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