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04 June 2015 / Geraldine Morris
Issue: 7655 / Categories: Features , Family
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There may be trouble ahead

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Geraldine Morris looks at the newly elected government’s plans & the potential impact on family law

So, the new government is the old one, but without their former coalition partners the Liberal Democrats. There were many policy aspects of the previous government that caused family lawyers concern, although of course there were some positive aspects too for others. The Conservative party’s second term provides them with an opportunity to follow through on policy developments started in their first term, as well as develop areas of reform they had alluded to previously such as human rights. The following is a summary of some areas of potential change.

Human rights

This is the big one. The government has said that it will seek to repeal the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA 1998) and replace it with a UK Bill of Rights. Tory heavyweight, Michael Gove, has been appointed as Lord Chancellor reportedly as a man on a mission to see this through. Human rights are the lifeblood of family law; a few examples are:

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Secondments, disciplinary procedures and appeal chaos all feature in a quartet of recent rulings. Writing in NLJ this week, Ian Smith, barrister and emeritus professor of employment law at UEA, examines how established principles are being tested in modern disputes
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