Current issue

This issue has a special focus on our Modern Families Forum, which was held on 18 June, co-chaired by Angela Killa and Natalie Sutherland. “Modern families” has been a subject close to Resolution’s heart for many years now. The Forum, though, offers the most up-to-the-minute exchange of ideas from across the family justice perspective, with contributions from top academics – including, this year, Professor Vasanti Jadva. We are very lucky to have Coram Chambers’ Rachel Cooper in this issue to talk us through the academic research on new and diverse family structures. In the next issue Rachel, with Carrie Anne Walker, will look at how the law has kept up, or tried to keep up, with those changing structures. Also from the Forum we have James Netto’s fascinating piece on hearing the child’s voice in LGBTQIA+ cases, as well as a round-up of key cases by Andrew Powell KC and Laura Morley of 4PB.

There is something of an international theme in this issue as well, with a report on the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association’s conference examining the complex relationship between immigration and family law, a look at the various ramifications of globalisation for family practice, and an examination of certain relocation issues by Charlotte Beck and David Wilkinson. Resolution members will all be aware of the growing number of cases with an international element and these three pieces show just how much is at stake and how complex the cases can become.

This year’s Innovation Conference is coming up on Friday 2 October, looking at how technology is reshaping our work, our services and the families our members support, and in this issue we have three articles written by members of the Innovation Committee previewing some of the topics that will be discussed on the day. You won’t be surprised to hear that AI looms rather large in those articles, as Abigail Whelan, Sapphira Gold and Lee Henderson weigh the risks against the opportunities from various perspectives.

We are sure all regular readers have enjoyed the series of columns Joanna Gosling has written over the past year, bringing some very sharp perspectives on mediation strategies. This issue marks the last in the series, but she reassures us she will be back in The Review again, and we have Marcie Shaoul’s column for the next few issues to console us! Happy reading!