ABSTRACT

This article considers the modernisation of family justice, set in train by the Family Justice Review and given legal force by the Children and Families Act 2014, with specific reference to public law care proceedings. It does so through the prism of Complexity Theory that has been used extensively to analyse public sector policymaking, including child protection, but that has not to date been applied to family justice. It shows how the Family Justice Review was influenced, from its terms of reference to its proposed solutions, by the rational paradigm that has dominated UK policymaking for decades. Rationalism is, it is argued, of limited value to driving policy in a system as complex as family justice and the use of a performance indicator to enforce compliance has proved to be problematic. Core concepts of Complexity are explained and an analysis of modernisation through the lens of Complexity is provided. The article concludes by setting out principles derived from Complexity to guide family justice through recovery.

摘要

本文考虑了家庭司法的现代化，由家庭司法审查启动并由 2014 年儿童和家庭法案赋予法律效力，并特别提及公法护理程序。它通过复杂性理论的棱镜做到这一点，该理论已被广泛用于分析公共部门的政策制定，包括儿童保护，但迄今为止尚未应用于家庭正义。它展示了《家庭司法审查》是如何受到几十年来主导英国政策制定的理性范式的影响，从其职权范围到其提出的解决方案。有人认为，理性主义对于在像家庭司法这样复杂的系统中推动政策的价值有限，并且使用绩效指标来强制遵守已被证明是有问题的。解释了复杂性的核心概念，并通过复杂性的视角对现代化进行了分析。文章最后列出了从复杂性中衍生出来的原则，以通过恢复来指导家庭正义。