Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Editors’ Preface
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Memoir
- Part I The Family Justice System and The Work of Family Lawyers, Judges and Academics
- Part II Developing Family Law and Policy: Culture, Concepts and Values
- Part III Horizontal Family Law: Relationships Between Adults
- Part III: Horizontal Family Law: Relationships Between Adults Marriage
- Part III: Horizontal Family Law: Relationships Between Adults Cohabitation
- Part III: Horizontal Family Law: Relationships Between Adults Financial Aspects and Property
- Part IV: Vertical Family Law: Children, Parents and Parental Figures Parentage, Parenthood and Responsibility for Children
- Part IV: Vertical Family Law: Children, Parents and Parental Figures Children’s Rights and Welfare
- Part IV: Vertical Family Law: Children, Parents and Parental Figures Post-Separation Parenting and Child Support
- Part IV: Vertical Family Law: Children, Parents and Parental Figures State Intervention
- Part V Individual Family Law
- Part VI Other Family Matters
- John Eekelaar’s Publications
- Index
- About The Editors
‘Justice in a Crisis’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 April 2023
- Frontmatter
- Editors’ Preface
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Memoir
- Part I The Family Justice System and The Work of Family Lawyers, Judges and Academics
- Part II Developing Family Law and Policy: Culture, Concepts and Values
- Part III Horizontal Family Law: Relationships Between Adults
- Part III: Horizontal Family Law: Relationships Between Adults Marriage
- Part III: Horizontal Family Law: Relationships Between Adults Cohabitation
- Part III: Horizontal Family Law: Relationships Between Adults Financial Aspects and Property
- Part IV: Vertical Family Law: Children, Parents and Parental Figures Parentage, Parenthood and Responsibility for Children
- Part IV: Vertical Family Law: Children, Parents and Parental Figures Children’s Rights and Welfare
- Part IV: Vertical Family Law: Children, Parents and Parental Figures Post-Separation Parenting and Child Support
- Part IV: Vertical Family Law: Children, Parents and Parental Figures State Intervention
- Part V Individual Family Law
- Part VI Other Family Matters
- John Eekelaar’s Publications
- Index
- About The Editors
Summary
The text of this chapter is the Blackstone Lecture I delivered at Pembroke College, Oxford on 21 January 2021. I am delighted to dedicate the lecture to John Eekelaar. The topic of the lecture aligns with John’s strong commitment to issues of family justice; and it is a particular pleasure to be able to dedicate a Blackstone Lecture to John, since in his time at Pembroke, he played a considerable role in the organisation and publication of the Blackstone Lectures.
The Blackstone Lecture 2021: ‘Justice in a Crisis’
On 5 January 2021, as the UK Government began to further develop lockdown restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Nuffield IFS Review of Inequalities chaired by the Nobel laureate Sir Angus Deaton produced a report as part of its review. Its message was stark:
The pandemic has widened existing social faultlines and created new ones. It is a fantasy to suppose that they will simply close and the economy and society will revert to some kind of pre-pandemic normal.
The key findings were described as follows:
We are not all in this together when it comes to our health;We are not all in this together when it comes to our livelihoods;We are not all in this together when it comes to education;Financially speaking, the young and the old are not in this together.
As Sir Angus commented:
Covid-19 has highlighted pre-pandemic inequalities more vividly than we could have imagined. It has cruelly exposed disparities in our abilities to weather threats to our livelihoods, to our children’s educational progress and to the physical and mental health of us all. These disparities reflect pre-existing inequalities in education, income, location and ethnicity…
The language of exclusion is worthy of note, given the political realities that have faced Western States since the financial crisis of 2008. At the inception of his review in 2018, Sir Angus raised the possibility that inequalities may prove a threat to our economic, social and political systems, unless they are tackled effectively. The evidence cited of differentially increasing mortality as one of the consequences of increasing inequality, and its exacerbated effect during this crisis, should be a clear warning to us of the seriousness of the political considerations that have arisen, and which may persist. Sir Angus added that, ‘[c]atastrophes can create space for reforms previously hard to imagine; they can also turn impossibilities into imperatives’. Only two days later, there were scenes at the heart of government in the United States that must concern any constitutional democracy.
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- Family MattersEssays in Honour of John Eekelaar, pp. 99 - 114Publisher: IntersentiaPrint publication year: 2022