CPL Seminar: 'Post-Adoption Contact Reform: Compounding the State-Ordered Termination of Parenthood?'

The Centre for Public Law is hosting a seminar to be given by Brian Sloan of the University of Cambridge. He will speak at 5.30pm on Thursday 24 October in the Moot Court Room on "Post-Adoption Contact Reform: Compounding the State-Ordered Termination of Parenthood?".

The Children and Families Bill 2013-14 pursues the twin policies of increasing the number of children adopted out of compulsory state care and reducing the scope for court-ordered contact between such children and their birth families. Building upon previous work by Dr Kirsty Hughes and myself, this paper will critically evaluate the proposed reforms to post-adoption contact in view of the fact that adoption terminates the legal relationship of parent and child. Aspects of the analysis will include the impact of the proposals on ‘open adoption’ and child welfare in the light of the available empirical evidence, and their compatibility with both the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

A working paper can be downloaded from SSRN.

All Faculty Members and Visitors, PhD students and LLM Public Law students are welcome.

For more information contact Mark Elliott (mce1000@cam.ac.uk)