(p.5) 1 Historical Overview
(p.5) 1 Historical Overview
This chapter traces the doctrinal and procedural antecedents of the late twentieth-century paradigm shift in family dispute resolution. Doctrinal developments in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries expanded and transformed the judicial role in divorce and custody disputes, ultimately making courts the primary guardians of children's welfare in the face of family breakdown. In addition, the therapeutic underpinnings of progressive-era juvenile justice reform shifted in the mid-twentieth century from the delinquency to the divorce and custody context. Finally, the shift from a fault-based, sole custody regime to a no-fault co-parenting model in the 1980s and early 1990s simultaneously undermined the efficacy of traditional adversary processes and invited ongoing court involvement in families affected by divorce and parental separation—both important elements of the new paradigm.
Keywords: family dispute resolution, divorce, custody disputes, children's welfare, juvenile justice reform, family breakdown, parental separation
NYU Press Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
