The Uneven Scales of Justice Private Law Contact Applications in Divorce and Adoption

Abstract

Murray Ryburn considers how the courts in England and Wales apply contrasting principles to achieve very different outcomes in the private law where there are disputed questions of contact in divorce and separation on the one hand, and on the other, in adoption. He challenges the extent to which such divergence can be justified when the similarities between the questions at issue could be expected more reasonably to lead to comparable approaches. Reasons for the existence of this judicial divide are considered, alongside the consequent harm that may thereby result in the lives of some children and their kin networks.