The Family Court : a road-map.

Abstract

The family is one of the foundations of society and is recognized as an institution which must be protected and promoted by the State in terms of unity and stability. Many families are indeed unified and stable but others, in contrast, experience distress and crises which may eventually lead to a family breakdown. This is an unfortunate but undeniable reality which must be faced and tackled and it was felt that the legal system was inadequate to meet the needs of families who turned to it for a just and reasonable solution - hence the establishment of the Family Division as a part of the Civil Court. The aim of this thesis was to explore the rationale and implementation of the unified and family court as a specialist court for family matters, a subject which has over the last couple of years given rise to intense debate from all sectors of Maltese society. Unfortunately, despite the importance of this subject and the controversy raised in relation to and as a result of the Family Division, local information is limited and was a problem encountered in the conduction of research for this thesis. The first chapter consists in a brief overview of the previous system with the Second and First Hall of the Civil Court and the central innovative features of the specialist Family Division. The second chapter takes a look at the family courts in Australia, New Zealand and England, particularly proceedings for marital breakdown and the underlying principles. Many of these principles are in fact at the heart of the Maltese system. The third chapter deals with the structure, jurisdiction and procedure in the Family Division in terms of a number of amendments to the Code of Organisation and Civil Procedure and the Regulations of 2003. Chapter Four deals with the concept and procedure of mediation, which has been made mandatory in all separation proceedings as well as a number of other cases. The fifth and final chapter deals with other persons in the Family Division, amongst Family Division, amongst which is the introduction of the children's advocate who is has the important task of preventing children being forgotten and representing their interests in the course of proceedings.