Singapore University of Social Sciences

LAW327 Family Law and the Family Justice Courts - 2 introduces students to how the law regulates parenting, how it protects children, the provision of maintenance by parents and selected non-parents, the legitimacy or otherwise of the parent-child relationship, the adoption of children and orders of guardianship and custody made between parents or for non-parents. While parents are the main caregivers of their children, it is not impossible for non-parents to also become involved. Substantive family law needs to provide sound principles of how such nonparents qualify to be bestowed with legal authority over someone else’s child and, where this happens, how the parents and the selected non-parents should behave towards each other as persons with legal authority over the same child. The Family Justice Courts buttress these sound principles by differentiating, or not, between parents and selected non-parents in access to the courts and in what forms of orders each may seek. LAW327 continues to introduce both substantive law regulating these areas and the Family Justice Courts providing relief to family members who have disputes with one another. Each topic is presented so the students gain a holistic view of how substantive law regulates while the courts buttress the law by providing relief in disputes. From studying both law and procedure in an integrated manner, students gain an appreciation of the ethics of caring that permeate the jurisprudence of parental responsibility within substantive family law as well as therapeutic justice meted out by the Family Justice Courts. By this holistic treatment, students gain some familiarity with statutory provisions as well as court rules, court documents and processes.