The Subject Matter

Child Law deals with the law relating to children. For convenience, the
teaching is divided into four topics:

Basic Concepts and Guiding Principles:

What are the principles which guide the courts in making decisions about
children? What are the legal consequences of being a parent? Do parents
have rights? Do children have rights?

Children and their Biological Parents:

What are the consequences of parenthood outside marriage? What happens

if parents cannot agree about how their children should be brought up?
Where do the children live if their parents separate? How is the decision
made? What is the position of the non-residential parent?

Children and Third Parties – Guardians, Step-parents, Relatives,

Foster parents and Adoptive parents:

How can non-parents obtain parental responsibility for – or even become the
legal parent of - someone else’s child?

Children and the State:

What state assistance is available to parents temporarily unable to care for

their children? When can the state take children away from their parents?

However, the nature of modern Child Law means that there are no truly
discrete topics: our four topics are all inter-connected and there are
considerable areas of overlap.

The Teaching

Each student will have the equivalent of 30 contact hours. This will be made
up of:

20 substantive lectures;

4 tutorials;

2 skills sessions;

2 exam technique sessions; and

1 two-hour revision seminar.

Below is the teaching schedule for the module:

Week Lectures Skills and Exam Technique Sessions/Revision Tutor

Seminar
Wk 20

w/c 30 Jan
Lectures 1, 2 and 3
Wk 21

w/c 6 Feb
Lectures 4, 5 and 6
Wk 22

w/c 13 Feb
Lectures 7 and 8 Skills Session 1: Statutory Interpretation

Wk 23

w/c 20 Feb
Lectures 9, 10 and 11
Wk 24 Tutori

w/c 27 Feb
Lectures 12, 13 and 14
Wk 25

w/c 6 Mar
Lectures 15, 16 and 17
Wk 26

w/c 13 Mar Lectures 18, 19 and 20 Tutori

Wk 27

w/c 20 Mar Lectures 21 and 22

Wk 28 Skills Session 2: Case Analysis Tutori

w/c 27 Mar Exam Technique Session 1

Wks
 29-32 EASTER BREAK

Wk 33

w/c 1 May Exam Technique Session 2

Wk 34

w/c 8 May Tutori

Wk 35

w/c 15 May Revision Seminar

Lectures

There will normally be three 50-minute lectures per week. They will start in
the week commencing Monday 30th January and take place on:

Wednesday at 11.00 am in B62 LASS;

Thursday at 4.00 pm in A48 Clive Granger;

Friday at 9.00 am in B63 LASS.

The lectures will be delivered in person, but will also be recorded using
Echo360. You will find the Lecture Handouts and a link into the Lecture
Recordings in the 'Lectures' section of the Moodle page.
If you have questions arising out of the lecture content, please post them on
the Moodle Discussion Board. Confusion about Point A can make it harder to
understand Points B and C, so if you are unclear about anything in the
lectures, you are encouraged to discuss it with us at once, rather than wait
until the relevant tutorial.

Tutorials

There will be four tutorials at fortnightly intervals and they will be held in
person. The first tutorial cycle will start in the week commencing Mon 20th
February. Please contact Maeve (maeve.doggett@nottingham.ac.uk) if you
have a query about your tutorial timetable.

If you cannot make your scheduled tutorial for any reason, please consult the
full Tutorial Schedule available in the 'Teaching Schedule' section of the
Moodle page. Identify other occasions when you would be available to
attend, and then email your tutor to see if it will be possible to rearrange.

Tutorial sheets and tutorial handouts will be posted in the 'Tutorials' section
of the Moodle page.

Skills Sessions

These are interactive sessions which will make use of timetabled lecture slots
and locations.

Skills Session 1: Statutory Interpretation: w/c 13th Feb. This will focus
on sections 8-13 Children Act 1989. These provisions create a framework for
the use of s 8 orders and so a close acquaintance with them will help you
prepare for Tutorials 2, 3 and 4.

Skills Session 2: Case Analysis: w/c 20th March. This will focus on child
protection case law and will form an important part of your preparation for
Tutorial 4.

Further information and materials will be posted in the 'Skills Sessions'

section of the Moodle page.

Exam Technique Sessions

These are interactive sessions which will be held in timetabled lecture slots
and locations:
Exam Technique Session 1: w/c 27th March

Exam Technique Session 2: w/c 1st May

In these two sessions, we will consider how Child Law problem questions
should be approached, using updated versions of the 2021-22 examination
questions. We will make those questions available in advance so that you can
start drafting your own answers. After we have analysed the questions
together in the Sessions, we will post guideline answers which you can study
in conjunction with your own draft answers.

Further information and materials will be posted in the 'Exam Technique

Sessions' section of the Moodle page.

Revision Seminar

Legal problems do not exist in isolation – they overlap – and this is

particularly true in Child Law. Initially, of course, the various topics have to
be taught one at a time. But the revision seminar that rounds off the module
will seek to demonstrate how they all fit together. It is designed to help you
to deal with the mixed-topic questions you will encounter in the exam.

The Revision Seminar will be held in the week commencing Mon 15th May.
The class will be divided into three groups for this purpose and the seminar
will be held on three separate occasions. You will only have to attend once.

Further information and materials will be posted in the 'Revision Seminar'

section of the Moodle page.

The Textbooks

The textbooks are the same as those recommended for Family Law in
Semester 1.

You will need a copy of one of the following:

Bromley's Family Law, Nigel Lowe, Gillian Douglas, Emma Hitchings, Rachel
Taylor (12th ed, 2021);

Hayes and Williams' Family Law, Stephen Gilmore, Lisa Glennon (7th ed,
2020);

Family Law: Text, Cases and Materials, Joanna Miles, Rob George, Sonia
Harris-Short (4th ed, 2019).
You should be aware of the Online Resources that accompany these books.
They include updates, supplementary materials and suggestions for further
reading.

You can get 12 months’ online access to all three of the textbooks as part
of the Family Law collection in Oxford Law Trove. OUP are offering a 20%
discount to individual student purchasers who use the early bird discount
code JANFEB23 until 28th Feb 2023. This makes the price £39.99 which is
the same as the cost of purchasing a new hardcopy of the Gilmore and
Glennon book. The other two books cost £44.99 each in hardcopy. However,
as we recommended all the same books last year, you may be able to find
cheaper secondhand copies.

In addition, you should have a copy of:

Rob George, Blackstone’s 2021-2022 Statutes on Family Law (30th ed, 2021).

If purchasing the required books in hardcopy, note that the University

Bookshop offers discount bundles, a price match guarantee and a second-
hand service.

 Reading ListExternal tool

 Practice Essays

There is no assessed coursework in Child Law. However, there are a

number of opportunities to practise answering questions from past
exam papers and to benefit from different kinds of feedback on your
performance.

Firstly, you have been provided with updated versions of

the questions from the 2021-22 exam paper. You are invited to
attempt answers to these questions in advance of the Exam
Technique Sessions which will be held in the weeks commencing
27th March and 1st May. We will analyse the questions and discuss
how they should be approached in those sessions, and guideline
answers will subsequently be posted in the 'Exam Technique Sessions'
section.

Secondly, you will find an updated version of the 2020-21 exam paper
in the 'Voluntary Coursework' section of the Moodle page. You
are encouraged to attempt some voluntary coursework to test your
understanding of the subject matter, and to help develop your
examination technique. It can also be a useful aid to revision. The
deadline for the submission of voluntary coursework will be
5.00 pm Friday 19th May 2023.
Doing voluntary coursework should be a learning exercise so, although
you are not limited to submitting just one piece of coursework, you
are asked to only submit one piece at a time. This is to enable you
to take account of the feedback you receive and improve as you go
along. Any coursework submitted must be fully reasoned, written in
coherent sentences and of an appropriate length. Essays plans and
notes will not be marked.

In fact, when producing voluntary coursework, it may be a good idea

to practise working within the constraints that will apply in the 24-hour
take-home exam. You will be required to answer two problem
questions (chosen out of four) in 10 pages, formatted and referenced
following the instructions in the 'Information About E-Exams for
Undergraduate Students' document. In drafting your coursework, you
should think not only about identifying the legal issues raised, but also
about structure and technique.

If you wish to attempt a past exam question, you should choose one of
the questions from the Voluntary Coursework Document as they are
taken from a recent exam paper. Questions taken from older exam
papers may be based on out-dated law. Also, the focus of the module
will shift from year to year to take account of developing areas and
topical issues. Older exam questions may not reflect the
preoccupations of this year's module.

Coursework should be saved as a Word document and sent to your

tutor as an email attachment. Feedback will be sent by the same
method. Everyone submitting coursework will receive feedback
consisting of an outline model answer to the question attempted, along
with individualised comment.

Thirdly, you can attempt answers to the questions from the 2019-20
exam paper. These are available in the 'Assessment' section of the
Moodle Page. You can then compare your answers with the outline
model answers which will be posted in the 'Assessment' section during
the revision period.

When using outline model answers as a learning tool, you should

remember that they are model answers and will, therefore, include
everything that could be included in a good answer. It is possible to
achieve very good marks without including everything in the model
answer. However, you should also remember that they
are outline answers. How issues are discussed in an examination
answer will affect your mark just as much as the fact that they are
discussed.

Also remember that they cannot be used in a 'cut and paste' way when
answering future exam questions. The nature of the exam may be
different. The question you will be answering will be different. The
issues raised will be different or, at least, they will be raised in
different ways and in different combinations. Even if you are applying
the same law, you will be applying it to different facts and, therefore, it
will have to be applied differently.

Assessment

The module will be assessed by way of a take home exam in May/June.

The questions will all be problem questions. You will be required to
answer two questions out of four. You will have 24 hours in which to
complete your answers. There will be an overall page limit of 10 pages.
Therefore, you will have approximately five pages per question. Your
answers should be formatted and referenced following the instructions
in the 'Information About E-Exams for Undergraduate Students'
document.

Approaching the Study of Child Law

There is a strong focus in the teaching of the module on reinforcing

what you should already know about how law works, that is, on
reading, interpreting and applying statutes and on using, as opposed
to just citing, judicial authorities in your writing. This should be borne
in mind when preparing for classes.

Statute Law: Normally, your tutorial reading list will include a

reference to statutory provisions. This reflects the fact that Child Law
is heavily statute-based, and that the statute should always be your
starting point. The relevant statutory material must always be
brought to class. If you are consulting the legislation online, be sure
that you have accessed the most up-to-date version of the statute,
that is, one which contains all the textual amendments made by
subsequent legislation. Also check that the provisions you are looking
at are in force, that is, they have been implemented and represent the
current law.

Case law: Tutorial reading lists will sometimes include references to

cases. When this occurs, it signifies that they are regarded as part of
the most profitable reading available on the topic. They should be read
in full unless a contrary indication is given; they will often be discussed
in detail in the tutorial.

Other reading: The tutorial reading list will always include extracts
from the textbooks. Sometimes there will also be references to journal
articles or law reform documents. Items included on the tutorial sheet
are carefully selected to provide information or perspectives not
available from the textbook. All items on the tutorial reading list
are required reading.

Further reading: References to further (i.e. non-compulsory) reading

will be available on lecture handouts. You shouldn't be intimidated by
the number of sources referenced on the handouts. You are not
expected to look at all of them! Child Law is a popular subject for
students doing dissertations, independent studies and research
projects, and the handouts provide a useful starting point for their
research. Articles which have been influential are also likely to be
referenced in the textbooks and included on tutorial sheets. If you
want to read around a particular topic, it is usually a good idea to start
with something recent and work back from there. However, you are
always welcome to ask our advice about good further reading.

Child Law is serviced by a variety of excellent journals - Family Law,

the Child and Family Law Quarterly, the Journal of Social Welfare and
Family Law and Feminist Legal Studies to name but a few. The case
reports contained within the journal Family Law are another
invaluable resource. The facts of important cases are summarised and
useful commentaries are provided.

Finding Articles and Cases Online: The journals Family Law, Child
and Family Law Quarterly and International Family Law Journal, and
also the Family Law Reports, will usually need to be accessed
via the database: LexisLibrary. If you do a NUsearch in the Library
Catalogue, and are told that an article is available via 'the publisher',
this is where the link will take you. Cases for which you only have a
FLR citation can be found by doing a 'Cases' search in LexisLibrary
('Content' > 'Cases'), and the journals can be found by browsing its list
of journals ('Content' > 'Books and Journals' > 'Journals').

Note that no attempt is made to cover topics in their entirety in

tutorial. This would not be possible, and nor should it be necessary.
The fact that an issue is not dealt with in tutorial does not necessarily
mean that it is not important.

One final and very important point about the nature of modern Child
Law: the Children Act 1989 has made this into a very cohesive area.
There are no truly discrete topics and, therefore, question spotting is
not to be recommended. While the overlap between topics leads to a
certain amount of repetition and provides a built-in opportunity for
revision, it also means that patchy attendance will affect your overall
understanding. Also, if you have failed to get to grips with issues dealt
with in the first half of the module, you will find the second half heavy
going. The final two tutorials cover a lot of ground but a significant
proportion of it should simply be revision.