Abstract
This paper focuses on the relationships between grandparents and their grandchildren, and the ways in which those might best be preserved. In the event of family network fragmentation, the courts and legal frameworks of England and Wales have minimised and, in many cases, ignored the involvement that grandparents can have on an everyday basis within their grandchildren’s lives. Grandparents have no specific legal rights that are recognised within the jurisdiction, with a blanket preference instead being shown towards parents. Private children matters have, in this way, failed to accommodate children’s wider caring networks. When it comes to dispute resolution in this context, we argue that it is important to focus on these more extensive networks, rather than to view the family in such a restrictive way. Doing so would help to recognise not only that we, as people, are interconnected and interdependent, but also the importance of multi-generational bonds. We identify how stepping outside of the legal frameworks, vis-à-vis mediation, can more effectively foster greater ‘relationality’, reinforcing the connections not only between grandparents and grandchildren, but also with the parents themselves. This is both in the sense that mediation can be less confrontational than the court system, and in that it enables parties to reach outcomes that break away from a focus on the ‘nuclear’ family. Mediation offers important opportunities to ‘write in’ those that are ‘other’ to that binary model- such as grandparents- who are virtually unseen by the ‘formal’ law, and yet who perform crucial caring work.
Presenters
Charlotte BendallAssociate Professor, Law, Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2025 Special Focus—Aging, Intergenerational Solidarity and the Polycrisis
KEYWORDS
Family, Grandparents, Law, Mediation, Multigenerational, Relationality
