The Supreme Court and Family Law

Summary

INTRODUCTION

It is a great privilege and pleasure to contribute to this Festschrift celebrating Nigel Lowe's career as an eminent family law scholar. When one thinks of Nigel's distinctive contributions, the mind immediately alights upon the niche he has carved for himself as a pre-eminent scholar on international child law. Unpicking the complexity of the relevant international Conventions, their attendant case law and processes, and providing academic critical commentary thereon requires meticulous analysis and attention to detail – qualities which Nigel's work has always displayed. I first encountered Nigel's thorough accounts of domestic family and child law in Bromley's Family Law when I was a student; and the first edition of his co-authored detailed commentary on the Children Act 1989, Children Act in Practice, when I was a very junior lecturer. I say this not to make Nigel feel old, but to observe that his works were the places students and lecturers alike went for authoritative, detailed and thorough accounts of the law (and, of course, they still do). Each page packed with real mastery of the subject, the law was clearly explained and situated historically, the footnotes a veritable paper trail of Law Commission Reports and other pre-Parliamentary material, various Parliamentary reports, and accounts of Bills as they proceeded to law. Nigel's desire for a detailed understanding was evident also in his accounts of case law, in both the breadth and depth in which it was explored. An example is Nigel's tribute essay to PM Bromley, which appeared not long aft er I had begun my academic career and which I (and no doubt many others) found useful in understanding the House of Lords’ development, and interpretation, of the ‘welfare principle’. It was this contribution which largely prompted an invitation to contribute his account of the landmark case J v C to Landmark Cases in Family Law, which was the first time I had the privilege of working with Nigel.

And so it is, with these reflections on Nigel's accounts of leading cases, and his focus on issues such as international child abduction, which is increasingly requiring the deliberations of our Supreme Court, that I am led to my choice of subject-matter for this chapter.