Journal article
‘Divorce with dignity’ as a justification for publication restrictions on proceedings under the family law act 1975 (cth) in an era of litigant self-publication
Griffith Journal of Law and Human Dignity , Vol.7(2), pp.161-195
31/12/2019
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Abstract
Upon its enactment, the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) closed the Family Court of Australia to the general public and imposed a total prohibition on the publication of proceedings. Such privacy protection, together with the advent of ‘no-fault’ divorce, were intended to serve the objective of ‘divorce with dignity’ by ridding divorce of its stigma which had made it a public spectacle and prime media fodder. Subsequent legislative amendments opened the Family Court to the media and permitted the publication of non-identifying accounts of proceedings. In their current form, the publication restrictions imposed by section 121 of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) prohibit the publication or dissemination of identifying details
of family law proceedings. Adopting a personhood account of privacy, this paper asks whether the privacy protection embodied by section 121 remains justifiable in terms of human dignity, in light of litigants self publishing details of their family law litigation on digital and social media platforms. It considers how the balance between privacy and free speech
should be struck in these circumstances and explains how online self publication by litigants may violate privacy as well as be an affront to dignity. The paper argues that, notwithstanding the privacy paradox, section 121 can still be justified by ‘divorce with dignity’ to which the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) aspired but should be redrafted to make
explicit that it captures litigant self-publication on digital and social media.
Details
- Title
- ‘Divorce with dignity’ as a justification for publication restrictions on proceedings under the family law act 1975 (cth) in an era of litigant self-publication
- Creators
- Georgina Dimopoulos (Author) - Southern Cross University, Law
- Publication Details
- Griffith Journal of Law and Human Dignity , Vol.7(2), pp.161-195
- Publisher
- Griffith University ePress
- Identifiers
- 991013174013102368
- Academic Unit
- Centre for Children and Young People; Faculty of Business, Law and Arts; Law
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article