Oral presentations, of up to 20 minutes duration, to be delivered in English in a panel format.  The conference will have 5 streams of concurrent sessions held over 3 days.

Abstracts may be submitted under one of the following 6 themes:

1.    “It takes a Village”: New approaches to family justice and child issues – experiences from around the world

• Eco-system, multidisciplinary approach for families in need – Upstream and downstream support for families, children and vulnerable parties caught in conflict
• Management of Court cases – a multi-disciplinary approach, a future focussed outcome aimed at reduction of acrimony and child centric decisions
• Dealing with intractable & complex cases: What are we doing and what else can we do?
• Mediation – can mediation / ADR co-exist with adjudication?  Can and should Judicial Officers and Child Custody Evaluators also mediate?
• Effective use of consensual dispute resolution (e.g. Counselling, family conferencing, mediation and arbitration & hybrid models) throughout the family justice ecosystem
• Self-care for family law professionals: The impact of the work on us, the impact of our stress on our cases and how to manage expectations, ourselves and our work
• Managing the multiple costs to litigants and children of family breakdown – financial, psychological and time
• Safeguarding children’s well-being in a divorce
• A role for Mediation in Sharia law and other aspects of family law?
• The Malta Conference and Sharia law countries
• Mediation and its future – open or privileged?
• Other

2.    The eye on the child

• Exploitation of children: trafficking, abuse, neglect, organ harvesting
• Vulnerable Children in detention, immigration, statelessness unaccompanied minors, legal identity
• Child centric interventions – what works, what needs work
• Hearing the child – best practices worldwide
• Considerations for children with special needs
• Anxious children
• Estrangement & alienation / the resist & refuse dynamic
• Childhood anxieties and mental health
• The impact of social media on children and young people
• Safety and the internet: Cyber bullying, sexual exploitation, etc.
• Child sexual abuse – protecting especially vulnerable children – intergenerational effects & institutional responses
• Management of child abuse cases within court processes and multidisciplinary approaches outside the court environment
• Parental child abduction – mitigating effects, restoring normalcy
• Children and LGBTIQ+ families
• Bioethics & Science – adoption, surrogacy, parentage
• Is gender still an issue in 2020?
• Other

3.    Paradise in Peril – a diagnosis and possible interventions for troubled families

• New iterations of ‘Family’ (grandparents, step families, blended families, sperm donors) and what it means when families fall apart
• Surrogacy and its ethical challenges
• Effective strategies to keeping families together in a healthy co-parenting relationship
• Family violence across cultures and best practices to avert / mitigate impact
• Cultural and religious conflicts within the family and within different legal systems (e.g. choice of forum, conflicts on parenting styles and values, involvement of extended family / tribe)
• The impact of de facto law on the institution of marriage?
• Parental responsibility – a call for effective co-parenting
• Provision of, or withholding of medical treatment for children against the advice of treating doctors
• Other

4.    Sharing the harvest

• Trends in property – innovative approaches to asset division – is a formula the right answer?
• Sharing pensions internationally – time for a global fund?
• Maintenance of families and children – challenges in quantification and enforcement of spousal maintenance as well as child support
• International relationship agreements – the classic dilemma between autonomy, duress and disclosure
• Conflicts of law
• Religious marriages not civilly registered
• Jurisdictional issues and forum shopping
• Enforcing de facto financial rights internationally
• International res judicata – should there be a ‘second bite’?
• Domicile v nationality – time for a change?
• Finding, dividing and enforcing
• Offshore assets – tracing & unveiling companies and trusts
• Brexit and international treaties
• The reach of the EU and its plans for the global family
• Cryptocurrencies as matrimonial assets
• Artificial Intelligence, technology and the role of the lawyer
• On-line access to justice – new approaches
• Finances, assets and key trends in Asia
• The role of the 1996 Convention
• The role of the Child Support Convention and enforcement methods generally
• Other

5.    “A Candle in the Darkness: Helping the Vulnerable”

• Elder abuse – challenges and strategies for prevention and management
• Mental incapacity, illness and impairment – protection and relief
• Challenges for litigants with mental illness – effective strategies from around the world
• The Hague Convention on the International Protection of Adults
• The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
• Other

6.    Other

The submission of material for presentation is by a three-stage process.

Step 1:
Abstract Submission

Please submit your abstract by 31 July 2019, identifying the appropriate theme.

The abstract must adhere to the following requirements:

• Word limit of 500 words, consisting of one or two summary paragraphs.
• Authors may indicate more than one affiliation if necessary.
• The abstract must be written in English and submitted through the online presentation portal.
• Online submission is the only method for submitting abstracts.
• Abstracts must be submitted in Word or PDF Format.
• No images can be uploaded, if you would like to have an image on your abstract please include it in the document format.
• Authors are eligible to submit more than one abstract.

Click here to download the SAMPLE ABSTRACT TEMPLATE

Notification

Following review, you will be informed by 30 September 2019 whether your abstract has been:

i.    Accepted for oral presentation
ii.   Not accepted
iii.  Offered the opportunity to be placed on a standby list or offered the opportunity to be a session moderator

Step 2:
Registration as a speaker

• All presenting authors will be required to register and pay to attend the Conference.
• If your abstract is accepted, you will be required to register and pay by 30 November 2019.
• It will be assumed any presenter not registered by 7 January 2020 has withdrawn their participation from the programme and the opportunity to speak at the 8^th World Congress will be offered to another presenter.
• A discounted registration fee will be offered to speakers and moderators, but registration fees cannot be waived.

Step 3:
Full Paper Submission

You will be required to submit a full paper by 30 May 2020.  By registering as a speaker for the 8^th World Congress on Family Law & Children’s Rights, you are giving your consent for the full paper and / or presentation slides, video, audio recording and photos taken during the oral presentation, to be used and published by the organisers, including being provided to conference delegates via a conference website.

The full paper must adhere to the following requirements:

• Word limit of 5,000 words.
• Authors may indicate more than one affiliation if necessary.
• The full paper must be written in English and submitted through the online presentation portal.
• Full papers must be submitted by the due date.
• Full papers must be submitted in Word or PDF Format.
• No images can be uploaded, if you would like to have an image on your full paper include it in the document format.

Please click here to see a sample full paper template: SAMPLE FULL PAPER TEMPLATE

PLEASE NOTE: Submissions will only be accepted through the online submission portal; no other format will be accepted.

If you have any questions, please email: [email protected]