Book reviews: February 2023

Thomson's Family Law in Scotland

8th edition

Katy Macfarlane

PUBLISHER: BLOOMSBURY PROFESSIONAL
ISBN: 978-1526513878
PRICE: £47 (E-BOOK £38.07)

The late Professor Joe Thomson was a highly regarded, well respected academic and Scottish Law Commissioner. Thomson’s Family Law in Scotland was consulted over the years by generations of law students and practitioners. The last edition, penned by Professor Thomson, was in 2014. In the intervening years to this eighth edition, there have been many significant legislative changes impacting child and family law in Scotland. This edition, by Katy Macfarlane, has taken into account these changes. It has also sought to reflect the shift in the landscape of child and family law that has occurred in these years.  

Katy Macfarlane and her team of young legal researchers (Morag McEwan, Molly Little and Gabriella Lipschitz) have produced a clear and comprehensive edition on Scots family and child law. It considers these legislative and social changes and provides us with a practical textbook which will be used by the next generation of lawyers just as surely as those who reached for previous editions penned by the late professor. 

This book provides a concise discussion of all the key topics required in any textbook seeking to cover child and family law in Scotland as at today’s date. Its chapters follow a logical sequence. It begins with the laws regulating the commencement of the relationships which may form the foundations of a family, the formalities of the creation of these relationships and the legal consequences which flow from them. Its discussion opens with those upon which families were historically built – engagement and marriage – then goes on to address civil partnerships and cohabitation. It then turns to the ending of these relationships, covering the basis on which their legal cessation is achieved and addressing the attendant impact on property and financial arrangements.   

The work goes on to consider the law relating to parents and to children. It covers this from the perspective of both the parent and the child. It also considers the private law and extensive public law engagement in the law relative to children. 

This eighth edition incorporates all recent legislative changes including the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, Children (Equal Protection from Assault) (Scotland) Act 2019, Age of Criminal Responsibility (Scotland) Act 2019, Children (Scotland) Act 2020 and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2020.

The strength of this work lies in its accessibility, clarity and brevity. Child and family law in Scotland is complex. Its regulation by Parliament (both UK and Scottish) is wide and frequent. Interpretation of this legislation, and dispute resolution by the Scottish and UK Supreme Court, has seen the law develop to seek to address the issues arising in child and family law in Scotland currently. Disputes arising within this specialisation frequently require consideration of other aspects of Scottish private law and public law. The logical, incremental approach to the law adopted in these pages does not allow itself to be distracted from its focus on the law as it is in practice rather than as it might ideally be. This all means that this book is likely to become a first stop for research for students and family lawyers going forward.

While its focus and brevity should be recognised as its strength, it might also be considered its only shortcoming. This is not a criticism. It would be impossible to write an up to date work which was relevant and useful but which exhaustively discussed the many and varied complexities arising in child and family law cases before the courts today. Scottish courts are wrestling with child and family law disputes involving complexities of national and international law. The financial arrangements of many modern families and the impact of the current economic crisis mean ever more difficult issues arising following the breakdown of family relationships, both economically and socially. The impact of criminal justice legislation on children and families adds additional dimensions to an already crowded topic. The minute any such tome was completed, it would be out of date and its size would deter any would-be reader!    

This book is well written, in engaging language designed to hold the interest of the reader. It will be an invaluable textbook for law students and should be on the shelves of everyone with an interest in child and family law in Scotland.  

Isabella Ennis KC