David Burrows reports on clarity, fairness & the judgment summons procedure
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Precedent and the common law apply to family proceedings as to any other case law.
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The role of precedent, predictability, clarity and fairness in judgment summons procedures under Debtors Act 1869, s 5.
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Committal proceedings: proof to the criminal standard and subject to European Convention 1950, Art 6(3).
Like any proceedings in an English court, family proceedings are governed by the rule of law. This assumes that court process is fair and governed by the common law. For example, in Richardson v Richardson [2011] EWCA Civ 79, [2011] All ER (D) 86 (Feb) Sir James Munby P—then Munby LJ—said: “The Family Division is part of the High Court. It is not some legal Alsatia [a lawless part of London just to the west of the City of London (alongside Blackfriars and Fleet Street), so named in the early 17th century when the Thirty Years War was raging in Alsace] where the common law and equity do not apply. The rules of agency apply there as much as elsewhere.”
Common law
