Obligations Between Adult Partners: Moving From Form to Function?

It was observed at the end of the twentieth-century that inrelation to family law policy in the UK, the ‘parent-childrelationship was the only clearly ascertainable family relationshipto which legal consequences can be attached’ and it waspredicted that relational obligations between adult partnerswould become individually negotiable. Some considered that whileparenthood would remain subject to normative obligations, thelegal position of married and unmarried couples would be equatedvia the gradual de-regulation of marriage through increasingthe capacity of adults to define the terms of their own relationships.However, recent policy and practice-based developments reveala different picture. The purpose of this article is to considerthe interaction between these mutually informing discoursesand to suggest that rather than developing a more function-basedapproach to the imposition of intra-familial obligations, relationshipstatus continues to carry determinative weight. Particular attentionwill be paid to evolving jurisprudence in the ancillary reliefcontext which has given the fact of marriage, by itself, greaterdistributive consequences on divorce. It will be argued thatcontrary to predictions at the end of the twentieth century,the regulatory gap between married and unmarried relationshipsis becoming wider, and that obligations between parents whichare created by the ‘joint parenting exercise’ arebeing confined, in both arenas, to remedial awards based uponthe disadvantaged economic position of the primary caregiver.     

An Experimental Investigation of How Judicial Elections Affect Public Faith in the Judicial System

Judicial scholars have often speculated about the impact of elections on the administration of justice in the state courts. Yet relatively little research has concerned itself with public perceptions of state court selection methods. Of particular interest is the concept of legitimacy. Do elections negatively affect public perceptions of judicial legitimacy? Bonneau and Hall (2009) and Gibson (2012) answer this question with an emphatic “No.” Judicial elections, these studies show, are not uniquely troublesome for perceptions of institutional legitimacy. This article aims to extend the findings of Bonneau and Hall and Gibson via a laboratory experiment on the effects of elections on public perceptions of judicial legitimacy. In the end, we find that because elections preempt the use of the other main selection method—appointment—they actually enhance perceptions of judicial legitimacy rather than diminish them.     

Public Sector ‘Modernisation’: Examining the Impact of a Change Agenda on Local Government Employees in England

Can public sector reform change service performance for the better? This is a hotly contested debate that carries significant theoretical and practical importance. In England, as in many countries, modernisation was at the heart of local government reform and represented an interpretation of New Public Management into a policy framework. This paper examines the role of the modernisation change agenda in England and what this has subsequently meant for ‘service improvement’. Drawing on both document analyses and qualitative interviews with local government employees, we find that while modernisation sought to establish continuous improvement, unintended consequences of modernisation have led to Staff Reductions, Skill Deficiencies, and Loss of a Competent Middle Core in local government, as well as performance outcomes creating an environment for Commissioning, Service Reduction, and Self‐Policing. Implications for the lasting roles and behaviours of public managers affected by this national change agenda are discussed, and conclusions for theory and practice are drawn.     

Strategizing for the Future through the Civil Partnership Act

Using Fraser's 'status model of recognition' as the conceptual lens through which to view the 'misrecognition' of gay and lesbian relationships, this paper assesses the value of the Civil Partnership Act in light of family law policy and gay and lesbian politics. The second section considers the context of Northern Ireland where the issue is complicated by prevailing moral conservatism and the historical reductionism in the politics of identity.