The law reports this week are again peppered with cases where children are caught up in international disputes between their parents. As the world becomes ever smaller and we increasingly form relationships with partners from different backgrounds, different cultures and different countries, it sometimes seems that the law struggles to catch up. For us lawyers, it is interesting to watch the courts grappling with situations for which there is a lack of appropriate legislation, precedent or guidance. We know, however, that for those caught up in the maelstrom of uncertainty – parents and children – it can be very traumatic.
During the last year, the family court has been dealing with a particularly hard-fought dispute where the mother and the father of two children, P aged 10 and L aged 6, have been unable to agree the level of the father’s involvement in the children’s lives. So far, so humdrum for the family court, you might think. The interesting facet of this case is that there is not one mother but two, in a stable lesbian relationship. They comprise the ‘nuclear family’ of the two children. The father is a gay man, also in a stable relationship and with parental responsibility for…
