How do the family courts balance the competing considerations of:
- Open justice – ensuring legal processes are conducted openly so that the public can see that the courts and judges are doing their jobs properly; and
- Privacy – people turn to the family courts to resolve the most private of matters, including the failure of their relationships and consequential issues such as the future arrangements for their children and the resolution of their financial matters?
Whilst this balancing act raises complicated issues, you might be forgiven for thinking that the law would nonetheless be clear. After all, the law (and family law in particular) is no stranger to needing to weigh up difficult issues of principle. We have clear laws about the obligations created by marriage and about reproductive technology, to pick a couple of examples, despite these issues being less than straightforward. You would also hope that judges would be aware of and in agreement as to what the law is.
That is, unfortunately, not always the case.