Divorce Reform and the Image of the Child

Abstract

In recent years marriage and divorce have again become the focus of a debate which has attracted and digested in varying degrees the contributions of academics, practitioners, politicians, religious leaders, and the popular press. It has resulted in a series of official documents, from the Inter-departmental Committee's Report on Conciliation in 1983 through the Law Commission working papers to the White Paper on divorce reform1 and, now, Parts I, II, and III of the Family Law Act 1996. It has been argued that the proposed legislation does not pay sufficient attention to the interests of children. James and Lyon note that 'although there are now in excess of 160,000 children under the age of 16 each year who experience the divorce of their parents, the White Paper contains in total little more than two pages referring to the needs of children in divorce', supporting their contention that there is an 'almost complete absence of discussion concerning children' in the White Paper.2 However, the scattered passages which make up those two pages and the similar references in the preceding consultation paper,3 can be interpreted quite differently if quantity is not the yardstick for importance. Instead, I will argue that the child of divorcing parents is given a high profile in these documents and that the particular image of the child the conceptualization or 'mental representation of something not present to the senses'4 which is drawn on and reconstituted in these documents is crucial both to the development of government policy in relation to the family and to the operation of family law.