Assignment Instructions/ Description
Module Title: Family Law Assignment Number 2 Module Code: 386CLS Assignment Title Family Law Assignment 2 Module Leader: Maureen O’Hara Assignment Weighting 40% of overall mark Release Date: March 2021 Submission Date/Time: 8 th April 2021 by 18:00 With automatic extension to 22nd April 2021 at 18.00 Submission Time and Place: Submission through Turnitin ONLY Assessment Information This assignment is an individual assignment. This assignment requires you to answer the following question: Factual scenario: Background information (from Assignment 1) Carol and John have been married for thirteen years, and have two children, Johnny and Rosa, who are aged twelve, and ten years respectively. Since Johnny’s birth, John has been very controlling of Carol and has sometimes been physically violent towards her. John controls all the family finances, and closely monitors Carol’s expenditure. He has prevented Carol from seeing many of her former friends, which has made Carol very isolated socially. John has always been very strict with the children, but has not been physically violent towards them until recently. Johnny has started to challenge John’s authority, and in response to this John has hit Johnny quite hard on two occasions. On the last occasion, John caused bruising to Johnny’s face. Carol has now decided that she wants to divorce John. Carol and Johnathan live in Coventry, where John’s parents also live. Carol is from Leeds, and has no relatives in the West Midlands. She wishes to continue living in the family home, at least until divorce proceedings are completed, so that the children can keep attending their current schools. Carol fears that, after she tells John that she wishes to end the relationship, his controlling behavior will escalate, and he is likely to be more physically violent. Current situation Carol has now separated from John and has initiated divorce proceedings. John moved out of the family home after Carol obtained an occupation order under the Family Law Act 1996 requiring him This document is for Coventry University students for their own use in completing their assessed work for this module and should not be passed to third parties or posted on any website. Any infringements of this rule should be reported to acreg.fbl@coventry.ac.uk Assignment Brief Template Page 2 of 4 to do so. Carol also obtained a non-molestation against John. John is staying with his parents in Coventry. He has now made an application for child arrangements orders for contact with their children. Carol is afraid that, if John is granted contact, he will try to use it as a means of continuing to exercise control over her. Both of the children are nervous in John’s presence, and they have said they do not want to see him. Carol feels that contact with John would not be in their best interests. Explain the law governing John’s application, and discuss whether or not it is likely that the court will decline to make the child arrangements orders for which Jonathan has applied. Criteria for Assessment The Faculty’s Assessment Criteria, which can be found in the Assessment section of the module Moodle page, will be used. The key assessment criteria are: 1. Accuracy of the student’s knowledge and understanding of relevant statute and case law; 2. Ability to apply the law precisely and accurately to the factual scenario; 3. Ability to communicate clearly in writing, using a logical essay structure; 4. Accuracy of referencing (use of OSCOLA compliant footnoting and bibliography). This assignment is designed to assess learning outcomes 1 to 5, as set out in the MID: 1. Identify and confidently handle the key concepts and principles of law relevant to families and children, and the application of these concepts and principles in the case law. 2. Critically evaluate the legal rules and their consequences, together with criticism and proposals for reform. 3. Critically analyse the conflict between the principles of the child's right to make his/her own decisions and the parent's responsibility for the welfare of the child. 4. Critically assess the balance between the desire for the State to protect the vulnerable and the desire to avoid excessive intervention in domestic life. 5. Recognise and analyse both explicit and implicit policy arguments in the case law and evaluate the relative weight of such policy considerations. Word Count The word count is 1,250 There will be a penalty of a deduction of 10% of the mark (after internal moderation) for work exceeding the word limit by 10% or more. The word limit includes quotations and citations, but excludes the references list. How to submit your assessment The assessment must be submitted via Turnitin on Aula by 18:00 8 th April 2021. No paper copies are required. You can access the submission link through the module web. • Your coursework will be given a zero mark if you do not submit a copy through Turnitin. Please take care to ensure that you have fully submitted your work. • Please ensure that you have submitted your work using the correct file format, unreadable files will receive a mark of zero. The Faculty accepts Microsoft Office and PDF documents, unless otherwise advised by the module leader. • All work submitted after the submission deadline without a valid and approved reason (see below) will be given a mark of zero. This document is for Coventry University students for their own use in completing their assessed work for this module and should not be passed to third parties or posted on any website. Any infringements of this rule should be reported to acreg.fbl@coventry.ac.uk Assignment Brief Template Page 3 of 4 • The University wants you to do your best. However, we know that sometimes events happen which mean that you can’t submit your coursework by the deadline – these events should be beyond your control and not easy to predict. If this happens, you can apply for an extension to your deadline for up to two weeks, or if you need longer, you can apply for a deferral, which takes you to the next assessment period (for example, to the resit period following the main Assessment Boards). You must apply before the deadline. You will find information about the process and what is or is not considered to be an event beyond your control at https://share.coventry.ac.uk/students/Registry/Pages/Deferrals-andExtension.aspx • Students MUST keep a copy and/or an electronic file of their assignment. • Checks will be made on your work using anti-plagiarism software and approved plagiarism checking websites. GUIDELINES AND BACKGROUND TO THIS ASSIGNMENT Plagiarism As part of your study you will be involved in carrying out research and using this when writing up your coursework. It is important that you correctly acknowledge someone else’s writing, thoughts or ideas and that you do not attempt to pass this off as your own work. Doing so is known as plagiarism. It is not acceptable to copy from another source without acknowledging that it is someone else’s writing or thinking. This includes using paraphrasing as well as direct quotations. You are expected to correctly cite and reference the works of others. The Centre for Academic Writing provides documents to help you get this right. If you are unsure, please visit www.coventry.ac.uk/caw. You can also check your understanding of academic conduct by completing the Good Academic Practice quiz available. Self-plagiarism or reuse of work previously submitted You must not submit work for assessment that you have already submitted (partially or in full), either for your current course or for another qualification of this and any other university, unless this is specifically provided for in your assignment brief or specific course or module information. Where earlier work by you is citable, i.e. it has already been published/submitted, you must reference it clearly. Identical pieces of work submitted concurrently will also be considered to be self-plagiarism. Self-plagiarism is unacceptable because you cannot gain credit for the same work twice. The University VLE includes a plagiarism detection system and assessors are experienced enough to recognise plagiarism when it occurs. Copying another student’s work, using previous work of your own or copying large sections from a book or the internet are examples of plagiarism and carry serious consequences. If you are a business student and joined Coventry University in September 2020 or later please use APA 7th edition referencing, if you joined prior to this date you may use APA or the existing Harvard Reference Style (Coventry version) that you are familiar with. Law students should use OSCOLA. Please be consistent in the referencing style that you use and use it correctly to avoid a case of plagiarism or cheating being brought. If you are unsure, please contact the Centre for Academic Writing, your Progress Coach or a member of the course team. Return of Marked Work You can expect to have marked work returned to you within 2 weeks of the extended submission deadline. This document is for Coventry University students for their own use in completing their assessed work for this module and should not be passed to third parties or posted on any website. Any infringements of this rule should be reported to acreg.fbl@coventry.ac.uk Assignment Brief Template Page 4 of 4 If for any reason there is a delay you will be kept informed. Marks and feedback will be provided online. As always, marks will have been internally moderated only, and will therefore be provisional; your mark will be formally agreed later in the year once the external examiner has completed his / her review.
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