"Kangaroo Court"

ebook Family Law Court in Australia; Quarterly Essay 17 · Quarterly Essay

By John Hirst

cover image of "Kangaroo Court"

Sign up to save your library

With an OverDrive account, you can save your favorite libraries for at-a-glance information about availability. Find out more about OverDrive accounts.

   Not today

Find this title in Libby, the library reading app by OverDrive.

Download Libby on the App Store Download Libby on Google Play

Search for a digital library with this title

Title found at these libraries:

Library Name Distance
Loading...
The Family Court was a progressive reform of the 1970s. Now it is perhaps the most hated institution in Australia. In the 'Kangaroo Court', John Hirst investigates what went wrong.

This is a measured yet unsparing appraisal which interleaves individual cases with compelling legal and moral argument. Hirst takes us deep into the workings of the Court and the domestic apocalypses it sees every day.

He explores the Court's fervour to uphold the best interests of the child no matter what and traces its chilling consequence- a court where malicious allegations regularly go unpunished. He notes the Court's enormous power over individual lives, as well as its self-proclaimed status as a 'caring court', and wonders at its ability to overlook the defiance of its own authority. In closing, he considers how to reform an institution that has bred antagonism and extremism and too often entrenched paranoia and despair. Lucid and urgent,'Kangaroo Court'is a cautionary tale about the perils of high-mindedness when it comes to dealing with the breakdown of families.

'When Family Court judges talk piously of the 'caring court', I wish they could hear the roar of pain that their piety has caused.' -John Hirst,'Kangaroo Court'

This issue also contains correspondence discussing Quarterly Essay 16, Breach of Trust, from Paul Kelly, Paul Bongiorno, Mungo MacCallum, Natasha Cica, Alex Miller, and Raimond Gaita.

"Kangaroo Court"