PPC1 Family Law flashcards
PPC1 Family Law · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Irretrievable breakdown
- The sole ground for divorce in England and Wales, proved by one of five facts: adultery, unreasonable behaviour, two years' desertion, two years' separation with consent, or five years' separation.
- Void marriage
- A marriage treated in law as never having existed, typically because of bigamy, prohibited degrees of relationship, lack of age, or failure to comply with essential formalities.
- Voidable marriage
- A valid marriage until a decree of nullity is granted, available on grounds such as non-consummation, incapacity, wilful refusal, duress, or undisclosed gender reassignment.
- Decree absolute
- The final divorce order that formally ends the marriage, following the conditional order (formerly decree nisi) and the expiry of the statutory waiting period.
- Clean break order
- A financial order on divorce that terminates ongoing maintenance obligations, used where the parties can achieve independence and no continuing support is needed.
- Section 25 factors
- The Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 checklist guiding financial provision, including the parties' needs, resources, ages, health, standard of living, contributions, and the children's welfare.
- Parental responsibility
- The legal status giving a person rights, duties, and authority to make major decisions about a child's upbringing, including education, medical treatment, religion, and name.
- Welfare checklist
- The Children Act 1989 s.1(3) list of factors courts weigh when deciding a child's upbringing, including wishes, needs, harm, and parental capability.
- Child arrangements order
- A court order under the Children Act 1989 setting out where a child should live and with whom, and how much time the child spends with each person.
- No order principle
- The rule that a court should not make a children order unless doing so would be better for the child than making no order at all.
- Paramountcy principle
- The rule that the child's welfare is the court's paramount consideration in any decision about the child's upbringing under the Children Act 1989.
- Prohibited degrees
- Relationships within which marriage is legally barred, such as parent and child, grandparent and grandchild, and sibling relationships, subject to limited exceptions for affines.
- Non-molestation order
- A Family Law Act 1996 order prohibiting a respondent from molesting an associated person, enforceable as a criminal offence and often granted on short notice.
- Occupation order
- A Family Law Act 1996 order regulating who may occupy the family home, and on what terms, typically where a party is at risk of harm.
- Special guardianship order
- An order giving a guardian parental responsibility for a child to the exclusion of most others, intended for long-term care without full adoption.
- Adoption order
- A court order transferring parental responsibility for a child to the adopters permanently, severing the legal relationship with the birth parents.
- Contact order
- A now-renamed order requiring the person with whom a child lives to allow the child to visit or stay with another person; replaced by child arrangements orders.
- Residence order
- A former order under the Children Act 1989 setting out where a child should live; replaced by child arrangements orders in 2014.
- Unmarried father
- A father who lacks automatic parental responsibility unless he is registered on the birth certificate, agrees with the mother, or obtains a court order.
- Guardianship
- Appointment of a person to hold parental responsibility for a child after the death of a parent, often made by will or by the court.
- Child maintenance
- Periodic payments for a child's support, calculated under the Child Maintenance Service formula or agreed between parties and approved by the court.
- Pre-nuptial agreement
- An agreement made before marriage setting out how assets should be divided on divorce, given weight by courts where freely entered into with full understanding.
- Cohabitation
- Living together without marriage or civil partnership; cohabitants have limited rights on separation and no automatic claim on each other's property.
- Civil partnership
- A legal relationship between two people conferring rights and obligations similar to marriage, available to same-sex and opposite-sex couples.
- Domestic abuse
- Physical, sexual, psychological, economic, or coercive behaviour between people who are personally connected, defined by the Domestic Abuse Act 2021.
- Forced marriage
- A marriage entered into without the full and free consent of one or both parties; forcing someone to marry is a criminal offence in the UK.
- Wardship
- The High Court's inherent jurisdiction over a child, making the child a ward of court so that no important decision may be taken without the court's approval.
- Section 8 order
- Any of the Children Act 1989 orders covering child arrangements, prohibited steps, and specific issue, available to specified persons and the court.
- Specific issue order
- A Children Act 1989 order directing how a particular question about a child's upbringing, such as schooling or medical treatment, should be resolved.
- Prohibited steps order
- A Children Act 1989 order preventing a person from taking a specified step in relation to a child without the court's permission.
- Parental alienation
- Behaviour by one parent that undermines the child's relationship with the other, treated as a form of harm relevant to the welfare assessment.
- Family mediation
- A voluntary process in which a neutral mediator helps separating parties reach agreements on finances and children without going to court.