Conclusion

The teaching of indigenous issues in family law is something that will need to be further developed and improved on into the future, as it has been historically overlooked in family law teaching, particularly in colonised jurisdictions. Moreover, family law is an eclectic subject and diverse in scope. Family law can encompass a wide range of topics, including property law, the best interests of the child, family dispute resolution and international child abduction. The modern English family justice system can trace its origins to the legalisation of civil divorce in the mid-nineteenth century under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 that secularised legal access to divorce and established a nascent family law justice system in the form of the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes. Public policy plays a significant role in the shaping of family law and it is essential that students learn this along with the equally important doctrinal aspects of family law.