Major challenges for the pursuit of the child´s best interests in the legal system: An international perspective

Philip Marcus, judge (retired), Jerusalem Family Court 

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Philip Marcus

When parents separate, their most important responsibility is to minimize harm to their child. This requires them to reach agreement about how much time the child will spend with each of them, and to divide their responsibilities in accordance with the needs of the child. If they cannot reach agreement, a court must decide these matters, in the best interests of the child, according to the applicable laws. 

Reviewing the situation in several jurisdictions, the following challenges are common: 

• Lack of facilities and resources for diversion to counselling and mediation services, which can prevent the need for judicial intervention 

• Using doctrines of rights, and terminology of custody and visitation, leading to adversarial processes, rather than a presumption of shared parenting 

• Lack of training for judges and lawyers in child development, mental health, etc. 

• Lack of available social/psychological services for assessment of the family, to enable design of suitable parenting plans, on a multidisciplinary basis. The presentation will suggest ways of handling these challenges.