Marriage breakdown is now a cultural phenomenon in modern Ireland. Since the introduction of the Judicial Separation and Family Law Reform Act in 1989, the Family Law Act in 1995 and the Family Law (Divorce) Act in 1996, the whole concept of the family has changed.
But, the "in camera" rule requiring that family law cases be heard "otherwise than in public" has denied the public important knowledge about the seismic shift that is taking place in Irish society. The ramifications of divorce and the process by which it is regulated can not be reported in public.
For these reasons, the proposal by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr Michael McDowell, to relax the "in camera" rule is to be welcomed. The new Civil Liability and Courts Bill, published on Friday, would allow for the preparation and publication of a report of proceedings and the decision of the court on such proceedings to be made public. Mr McDowell has entered the important caveat, however, that any report or judgment should not contain any information which would enable the parties to proceedings, or any child to which they relate, to be identified.
The fine print of the Bill would relax, in a limited way, the prohibition on any reporting of legitimacy, maintenance of spouses and children, separation, divorce and domestic violence proceedings. It would allow semi-official, academic and research reporting for the record. And, as it stands, it would appear that the Bill would facilitate journalistic access to the family law courts, in circumstances to be controlled.
The reporting of marriage breakdown would throw a new light on the nature of family life in modern Ireland. The lack of familiarity with the way that the courts regulate broken marriages on a day-to-day basis fuels a number of misconceptions and misunderstandings. There is a notion that the cost of marital breakdown is prohibitive for poorer spouses. There is a vocal group of men, many of whom are unmarried fathers of children, who believe that they are discriminated against in child custody and access proceedings. And there is the interesting question as to how the courts, in divorce cases, accommodate the special constitutional position of the stay-at-home woman in the home.
Thousands of men and women have had their lives regulated behind closed doors in family law courts in recent years. They end up in court because they can not reach agreements amongst themselves.The judgments handed down are having a critical impact on the fabric of society. The Minister is to be commended for moving to providesome public scrutiny of how the courts deal with these issues. But this should not be an opening for the salacious and the prurient to trawl over the entrails of other peoples' private lives.