Family enterprise in the Baltic estate economy

During the nineteenth century, the Baltic provinces of the Russian Empire exhibited characteristics of economic change typical of Eastern European rural areas where the landed estate and an enserfed peasantry were dominant forces. Family enterprise, other than agricultural enterprise was rare, even among estate owners. The number of estate “manufactories” remained small throughout the first half of the century, and estate owners discouraged peasant entrepreneurship of any kind. Only in the post-1850 decades, as a consequence of reforms enacted by the Imperial government, did rural economic differentiation become sufficiently pronounced to require notice in various census-type enumerations (1881, 1897). Still, family-based peasant entrepreneurship remained exceptional, and reports about it took anecdotal form.     

Evaluating the work of Australia's Family Relationship Centres: Evidence from the first 5 years

Family Relationship Centres (FRCs) have been described as a centerpiece of Australia's 2006 family law reforms. This paper places these centres in the larger context of the reforms and their commitment to providing community‐based family services in the family law area. The paper also examines the empirical evidence regarding FRCs' use and effectiveness. It notes that while the objectives and intentions of FRCs place considerable emphasis on strengthening family relationships and assisting families to stay together, the centres themselves have only a modest level of direct involvement with intact families. FRCs tend to have strong links with other community‐based family services, many of whom are more engaged with intact families; but it is difficult to gauge their effectiveness in this area. Most FRCs' direct services are aimed at separating families and most of that work involves family dispute resolution (family mediation) and associated services such as screening and assessment and the provision of relevant information. A substantial majority of clients who attend FDR at an FRC reach agreement about their parenting arrangements either at FDR or subsequent to attending FDR. These agreements also tend to hold up in the medium term. A majority of parents believe that at FDR, the child(ren)'s needs were taken into account; the parenting agreement worked for the child(ren); and the parenting agreement worked for them. A substantial proportion of FRC clients come from families that have experienced family violence or other dysfunctional behaviours, and such behaviours reduce the chances of resolving parenting disputes. The paper concludes by suggesting that having been created mainly as a default alternative to legal interventions and court processes, it is likely that a major future strength of FRCs will lie in their emerging capacity to work constructively not only with other relationship services and networks, but with family lawyers and the courts.     

Family Relationship Centres: partnerships with Legal Assistance Services

In June 2009, the Commonwealth Attorney General in Australia announced a Family Relationship Centres/ Legal Assistance Partnerships Program, (the “Better Partnerships” program). Its aim was to assist separated or separating families, “by providing access to early and targeted legal information and advice when attending Family Relationship Centres” (McClelland, 2009). After contextualizing this significant shift in policy and practice, the present paper reports on largely positive key results of an evaluation of the program by the Australian Institute of Family Studies. The paper concludes with reflections on future challenges and possibilities regarding ongoing collaboration between Australia's legal and family relationship sectors.     

APPLYING CASE STUDY METHODOLOGY TO CHILD CUSTODY EVALUATIONS

The child custody evaluation (CCE) can play a critical role in the resolution of custody disputes in the Family Court. There have been a number of significant methodological advances made in this field by various researchers over the past 20 years. It is timely that a scientifically‐based, integrative, methodological framework be developed within which existing methods might be situated. In this paper, case study methodology is proposed as an appropriate methodological framework for CCEs. The application of this methodology to CCEs is explicated with particular attention being paid to the methodological tasks of data collection and data interpretation. An orienting model is proposed to guide the collection of data, and strategies are described for applying population level research findings to individual cases in the form of risk and resilience models. Finally, coherence, analogy, and making methodology explicit are proposed as evaluation criteria for the CCE process and reports, and suggestions are made about outcome research.     

针对儿童家庭暴力的伦理审视

1992年4月1日,《儿童权利公约》对我国生效。同年,我国明确提出＂儿童优先＂原则,并重视保护儿童利益的政府和国家责任。但传统的家庭伦理和家庭自治都认同父母对于子女有适度惩戒权,导致我国针对儿童的家庭暴力非常普遍且合理存在。本文拟从伦理角度对针对儿童的家庭暴力的原因进行分析,探讨解决针对儿童家庭暴力问题的新路径。     

其他重大过错导致离婚损害赔偿的立法解释

《婚姻法》第46条严格限制离婚损害赔偿的过错情形,由此引发因制度供给的法定理由不足、离婚损害赔偿的性质不明、权利救济不充分导致的司法裁判路径混乱.我国离婚损害赔偿本质上是配偶一方因过错行为违反婚姻契约导致离婚而产生的违约损害赔偿责任.在解释《民法典·婚姻家庭编》第1091条新增的有其他重大过错时,既要充分发挥离婚损害赔...