My thanks to Elizabeth Hobson for this press release, published recently by the Ministry of Justice. The full content:

Panel members confirmed to steer call for evidence on how the family courts protect children and parents in cases of domestic abuse and other serious offences. On 21 May 2019 the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) announced a public call for evidence steered by a panel of key representatives from across family justice, to gather evidence on how the family courts protect children and parents in cases of domestic abuse and other serious offences. The inaugural panel meeting took place on Friday 14 June 2019, marking the start for the three-month call for evidence. The panel members represent key organisations from across family justice including the Judiciary, academia, social care, policy officials and third sector organisations which represent and advocate for victims of domestic abuse, (full details below). The call for evidence will specifically focus on the application of Practice Direction 12J, Practice Direction 3AA, The Family Procedure Rules Part 3A, and s.91(14) orders, and will build a more detailed understanding of any harm caused during or following proceedings in the family court. The panel members are: Melissa Case & Nicola Hewer, Director of Family and Criminal Justice Policy, MOJ (Chair)

Professor Liz Trinder, University of Exeter

Professor Rosemary Hunter FAcSS, University of Kent

Professor Mandy Burton, University of Leicester

Mr Justice Stephen Cobb, Judiciary

District Judge Katherine Suh, Judiciary

Nicki Norman, Acting Co-Chief Executive, Women’s Aid [J4MB emphasis]

[J4MB emphasis] Dierdre Fottrell QC & Lorraine Cavanagh QC (joint representatives), Association of Lawyers for Children

Isabelle Trowler, Chief Social Worker for England (Children & Families) The panel will also be supported by analysts, researchers and relevant policy officials from MOJ.

So 10 of the 11 members of the “expert panel” are women, one of them from Women’s Aid. Welcome to family justice (2019).

I picked one of the women at random to investigate online – an Australian, Rosemary Hunter FacSS, Professor of Law at the University of Kent. Her expression in this photograph, from her web page, is presumably her response to a cheery male photographer saying, “Smile, darlin’!!!”

Professor Rosemary Hunter

Professor Hunter is perhaps better known as her alter ego, the transvestite artist Grayson Perry:

From her Wikipedia page:

Hunter is also a feminist who has written books such as Indirect Discrimination in the Workplace. In this work she argued that many apparently neutral employer policies effectively disadvantage women and people from minority groups. For example, a height requirement for security guards would effectively exclude many women and Asians.

Using the same logic, an eyesight requirement for airline pilots would “effectively exclude” blind people, while a hearing requirement for music critics would “effectively exclude” deaf people. As a 100kg 61-year-old man, I am “effectively excluded” from the Olympics pole vault finals. Something must be done about these terrible injustices.

Ms Hunter’s university web page shows her to be a card-carrying radical feminist, and therefore – by definition – hostile to the nuclear family. The last person who should be on the Family Justice Panel.

And what of Mr Justice Stephen Cobb, the only man on the 10-person panel? This brings me to an excellent article from 2017 by Paul Apreda of FNF Both Parents Matter Cymru, Are the best interests of the child no longer paramount? Extracts: