header-logo header-logo

Home Login E-newsletter About us

NLJ this week: Five decades of family law reviewed

© Copyright LexisNexis 2026. All Rights Reserved.
31 March 2023
Issue: 8019 / Categories: Legal News , Family , Mediation
printer mail-detail
117285
Family law specialist, solicitor-advocate and commentator David Burrows looks back at his 50 years in family law, in this week’s NLJ. What’s changed? And how does the reality of some of those changes differ from what was originally envisaged? What could be improved?

Burrows, an NLJ columnist, looks back to the genesis of mediation which ‘we all thought’ would be government-funded. He reflects how his working life was ‘transformed’ by the Children Act 1989 and the Child Support Act 1991.

Burrows also questions the point of separate rules for family and civil proceedings. ‘Sometimes they are in parallel, sometimes they needlessly diverge. I am a fan of CPR 1998. But for the rule-makers to have created two sets of rules helps no one. And what is truly remarkable, the respective sets of rule-makers seem rarely to talk to one another.’ 

Read more on Burrows' 50 years in family law here.

Issue: 8019 / Categories: Legal News , Family , Mediation
printer mail-details
RELATED ARTICLES
 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Read All
Sponsored by
Browne Jacobson—Matthew Kemp

Browne Jacobson—Matthew Kemp

Firm grows real estate team with tenth partner hire this financial year

Hogan Lovells—Lisa Quelch

Hogan Lovells—Lisa Quelch

Partner hire strengthens global infrastructure and energy financing practice

Sherrards—Jan Kunstyr

Sherrards—Jan Kunstyr

Legal director bolsters international expertise in dispute resolution team

NEWS
Read All
NLJ this week: Police, contempt and the rule of law
Can a chief constable be held responsible for disobedient officers? Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Parpworth, professor of public law at De Montfort University, examines a Court of Appeal ruling that answers firmly: yes
NLJ this week: When your brain signs the contract
Neurotechnology is poised to transform contract law—and unsettle it. Writing in NLJ this week, Harry Lambert, barrister at Outer Temple Chambers and founder of the Centre for Neurotechnology & Law, and Dr Michelle Sharpe, barrister at the Victorian Bar, explore how brain–computer interfaces could both prove and undermine consent
NLJ this week: Comparators—how close is close enough?
Comparators remain the fault line of discrimination law. In this week's NLJ, Anjali Malik, partner at Bellevue Law, and Mukhtiar Singh, barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, review a bumper year of appellate guidance clarifying how tribunals should approach ‘actual’ and ‘evidential’ comparators. A new six-stage framework stresses a simple starting point: identify the treatment first
NLJ this week: Domicile—more than where you live
In cross-border divorces, domicile can decide everything. In NLJ this week, Jennifer Headon, legal director and head of international family, Isobel Inkley, solicitor, and Fiona Collins, trainee solicitor, all at Birketts LLP, unpack a Court of Appeal ruling that re-centres nuance in jurisdiction disputes. The court held that once a domicile of choice is established, the burden lies on the party asserting its loss
NLJ this week: Arbitration’s fast lane—with guardrails
Early determination is no longer a novelty in arbitration. In NLJ this week, Gustavo Moser, arbitration specialist lawyer at Lexis+, charts the global embrace of summary disposal powers, now embedded in the Arbitration Act 1996 and mirrored worldwide. Tribunals may swiftly dismiss claims with ‘no real prospect of succeeding’, but only if fairness is preserved
Copyright © 2026 LexisNexis
back-to-top-scroll