Have you ever thought about studying or practising family law? This page tells you what to expect from this incredibly diverse area of law.
It also includes the types of work lawyers are involved in and information on how to become a family lawyer.
What is Family Law?
Family Law focuses on finding solutions to issues relating to often complex legal relationships. These include marriage and parenthood among others. For this reason, family law practice can involve work with varying groups from children to the elderly and any others in between. Because family law relates to some very personal aspects of a client’s life, it can be one of the most emotive areas of law to practice.
At degree level, family law often comprises an elective module in the final year of a student’s LLB degree. Modules can vary by university and may include a sociological look at the way society views family as well as a specific focus on the law’s practical application.
Family Law Topics
Family Law is incredibly diverse. This means that the topics studied at one institution are often different from those studied at another.
Most modules will feature some core topics (such as marriage, divorce and children) as well as others which will be more specifically linked to the professors’ areas of expertise.
Examples include:
- Divorce, dissolution and financial separation
- Children, parentage, residence, contact and parental responsibility. This may also include adoption, surrogacy, child abduction and even abuse/neglect
- Children’s Rights (taking into consideration a child’s ability to make their own decisions)
- Domestic Abuse
- Domestic obligations towards families under International Treaties such as the ECHR
- Socio-legal Family Law: a more general look at what society defines family as and whether the law has adequately responded to modern societal views. Examples include the law of parentage in the context of a rise in same-sex couples
- Family law and the State. This includes the role of agencies and local authorities in childcare and protection.