Australian Family Law

Family law is an aspect of law that deals with issues such as divorce, child custody, adoption, marriage, financial affairs and more. The current definition of marriage is ‘The union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others and is voluntarily entered into for life.’ This definition was established by the monumental case Hyde v Hyde on 20th March 1866. The definition of marriage has been questioned over a number of years but do society and their beliefs correspond with legislation that has been passed. As of 2015, 16 attempts have been made to amend the Marriage Act to legalise same-sex marriage in Australia, all of which have been unsuccessful. As it stands Australia are not looking to modify the current legislation, but over time Australia could potentially change their Marriage Act.

The Australian Marriage Act 1961 was developed by the
Some of the disadvantages that are evident is that as society’s views continue to change more and more changes to the legislation are being put forward which could result in an uproar in society. Another disadvantage could be the fact that people who are not in a fully committed marriage our are a same-sex couple will not be recognised as a valid marriage unless the legislation is changed but the change in legislation will give same-sex couples certain privleges or rights that hetrosexual couples will not have. Wikipedia.org states that the foreign marriage certificate is proof of marriage and marriages need not be registered. However section 88EA states that marriages performed in another country between a man and another man or a woman and another woman must not be recognised as a marriage in Australia. As said before there are a number of advantages and disadvantages but what recommendations or agreements could be made to keep society from conflicting with the Australian