Laws822 Family Law Quiz
Instructions:
Students are required to complete 5 Short Essay Questions based on Lectures 7-12 and related readings in the prescribed text. No additional research will be required.
Please see the Exemplar and the Marking Guide available on iLearn. Only consider reform when asked.
Students will have from 9am Friday 7 June to 9pm on Saturday 8 June to complete their answers.
Each answer should be 500 words max and they are worth 9 marks each. The word limit will be strictly applied and work above the word limit will not be marked.
All assignments are to be uploaded to Turnitin. Please upload in the Turnitin that matches your surname.
Students will be expected to include references. AGLC is preferred but in-text referencing (eg Parashar and Dominello 2017, p. 107) will also be accepted. If referring to an author cited in the materials you can use this format (Parashar and Dominello 2017, citing Smart, p. 27). Case names should be cited in full, for example, Smith v Jenkins (1970) 119 CLR 397. Legislation should also be cited in full, for example, Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) but can be abbreviated after the first citation, for example, FLA.
No bibliography will be required.
Your answers should be double spaced in 12 pt Times New Roman. Any footnotes can be in 10 pt Times New Roman.
Note the Special Consideration policy for timed assessments:
No late submissions will be accepted for timed assessments – e.g. quizzes, online tests in the absence of a successful application for special consideration.

1. What were the government’s reasons for introducing binding financial agreements in 2000?
What concept of the family do these provisions embody? Do you think this family construct conforms to the typical Australian family?
Do you think the aims of the provisions for binding financial agreements have to date been fulfilled? Discuss with reference to at least one case you have studied in the unit.
2. Do you think the rebuttable presumption of shared parental responsibility places undue limits on the exercise of judicial discretion in child proceedings?
What effects have the rebuttable presumption had in these proceedings? Do these effects warrant reconsideration of whether such a presumption should apply?
Are there any good reasons to impose presumptions in child proceedings in family law?
3. Do you think the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) adequately protects the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to their culture?
In your answer discuss the legislative provisions and at least two cases to support your answer.
Do you think the right to culture could be better protected in Australian family law?
4. What is the rationale for having a child support scheme?
Do you think the current scheme has struck the right balance between society’s responsibility for providing support to children and the responsibility of the children’s parents to provide support? What about as between the children’s parents – has the right balance been struck?
If there was one aspect of the child support scheme you would change, what would it be and why?
5. In this unit, a range of issues were covered which are not usually included in the study of family law. This included social welfare policy, abortion, child protection, adoption and artificial reproductive technologies, including surrogacy.
Select one of these areas and consider the following questions:
What is the role of social policy and/or legal regulation in your chosen area?
How does this regulation shape relations between men and women and/or social relations more broadly?