Project Announcements

The International Model Code of Family Justice

An important and wide-reaching law project is being undertaken by World Fathers Union.

The Union's International Model Code of Family Justice Project is a major, global effort to develop a model legal code, which, when completed in 2008, will present a codified family law system designed to be the standard against which all jurisdictions can measure their existing domestic relations statutes and rules of procedure.

Directing the project is John F. Smith. 'The first step,' he explained, 'is to determine the scope of the code. We will need to address all of the many complex issues which can give rise to disputes among the members of separating families. In the first draft of the project prospectus, we have defined 10 chapters.'

Among the issues presently in those chapters are Divorce, Custody, Child Support, Family Violence, Child Kidnapping, Contempt, and Enforcement, said John F. Smith.

'Other difficult issues need to be addressed as well,' he continued. 'Adoption and Consent issues are closely intertwined with Paternity, and the conflicts of rights in those areas must be resolved. And of course, there is the question of expert witnesses and intervenors. Family law is a very wide field, and we must not neglect any part of it, because so much of present family law is based on old ideas of adversarial justice. This is what we need to remedy.'

The Model Code will not treat only the issues which the parties bring before the courts, but it will also treat the way in which the courts and legal practitioners deal with them. Many fathers' movement critics feel that this is one of the most important aspects of the problems facing men seeking a fair hearing for their children.

'There will be individual chapters devoted to Rules of Procedure for Family Courts, and Ethical Conduct for Family Law Practitioners,' said John F. Smith. 'There will also be a chapter specifically devoted to judges, referees, and what are known in some jurisdictions as "special masters."

'In sum,' said John F. Smith, 'the Model Code will be designed to provide absolutely equitable treatment of parents in all issues arising under its scope. But it will do something even more important: It will encourage parents to agree, by eliminating any advantage to them in disagreeing.'

Great emphasis will be placed on devising statues and rules which actively discourage parents from going to court in the first place. All perceived advantage which one spouse could hope to achieve through fighting a custody battle through the courts will be eliminated. Under the Model Code, there will be no monetary or control advantage to gaining custody--only an equitable division of responsibility and the parental authority necessary to fulfill it. Said John F. Smith, 'The Code will eliminate the destructive power games that fuel these disputes by apportioning the power evenhandedly. Neither father nor mother will have anything to gain by fighting...and everything to lose.'

'This,' he continued, 'is the essential ingredient lacking in all family law codes today. Divorce has become big business, an all-consuming industry, because current family law encourages parents to fight. It is an adversarial system, with built-in bonuses for the 'winner'. But what these codes fail to do is realise that the children are always the losers. That must be changed.'

Calls are currently being sent out to members, Institutional Affiliates, and individuals to participate in the process of creating the International Model Code of Family Justice. 'That is step two,' said John F. Smith. 'We will now assemble our working group. A new page will soon appear on the Union's website to describe the project in detail, and to enable interested parties to become part of the process.'

--John T. (23-03-07)

Project Spotlight: The First Report

November 23, 2006 marks an important milestone in the Union's Project SPOTLIGHT history. Our researchers have been working on the first study in the programme since early April of 2006, and the planning and design of the project began over six months before that. Now, finally, the first report is ready, and you can read it here on our website. A brief article about the report also appears on the News Page story index.

This is an important report, because the subject judge of the study is not just an ordinary family court judge, he is the Associate Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Quebec in Canada, a man with an extraordinary amount of power in that province.

Thanks go out to the entire research team: John T. for helping co-author the report; John P1 and John B. for helping read the seemingly endless list of court decisions; Dr. Jane K. and John CG for vetting the statistical work; and attorney-members John A. and John K. for their help in consolidating the legal aspects discussed in the introduction.

--John F. (23-11-06)

Members and Affiliates

Berkshire Fatherhood Coalition

We are please to welcome two new Institutional Affiliates this month.

The Berkshire Fatherhood Coalition is a local fathers' aid group in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in the United States. Attorney and activist Rinaldo del Gallo III is the founder. The Coalition takes as its mandate 'to provide both members and non-members easy access to important legal information, free legal seminars, and up-to-date legal news.'

The Los Angeles Chapter of the National Coalition of Free Men joins the Affiliate list this month as well. NCFM's Los Angeles chapter, as part of a global men's movement for gender equality, raises awareness about and combats sexism against men in family courts, domestic violence policies, criminal sentencing, military conscription, media, education, public health policies and other areas, using public speaking, media, lawsuits, legislative advocacy, rallies, tabling and other activism tools. The group holds local meetings and also provides limited emergency advocacy and transport to a battered men's shelter. Marc Angelucci is President of the chapter.

New member roster

The Union is pleased to welcome John AA Smith (CAN), John A2 Smith (USA) and John 98 Smith (?) as new members this week.

John F. (20-03-07)

Members on the job at The Union....

John X. Smith, a new member of the Union from 'somewhere between 'Tierra de la turista and Le grand nord,' as he likes to put it, joins the NEWS PAGE staff this week as helper, gadfly, and associate editor. (We wanted someone to fill that rather charming American job-title, the 'gofur', as well...but asking anonymous electrons to fetch a fresh cup of tea is an exercise in futility, alas.)

He tells me that if I survive his apprenticeship, he will crack through my 'constipated British reserve' or die trying. I told him that while I look forward to the trying part, there's no point in his doing anything rash.

So if you notice any 'constipated British reserve' in the items appearing over his byline, it should be safe to assume that it's just me, taking back some of the grammatical liberties with which John X. attempted to abscond....

Welcome to the Union, John X. (And do please get rid of that paisley tie, if you would be so kind.)

---John T. (20-10-06)

While John T. is welcoming his new assistant, I would also like to welcome John NN Smith, a new member from 'The West Coast' (he won't say which one).

John NN is a web developer, and has been helping me get through the tricky bits on our re-design of the website for the last several weeks. I take full blame, however, for any glitches and bugs which remain to be ironed out; all the page creation and design is still my responsibility. John NN's real task is beyond me, and that is to develop the back-end code and applications for the active pages still to come.

Among other things, he is working on creating our very own discussion board, one which will respond to our members' needs and be user friendly in a way the old 'blog' never was. He is also working on our long-awaited World Action Page, which will be a secure, password-protected page to which Institutional Affiliates can upload information to be shared and discussed only amongst themselves at the administrative level. Finally, he will be creating a secure data base to which member requests can be referred automatically, so that there will no longer be the delay inherent in manual processing of membership applications. Once that is up and running, new members should get confirmation of their status within a few minutes.

Welcome, John NN. As far as I'm concerned, you can wear whatever you please (no matter what John T. dictates in his department).

---John F. (22-10-06)