FAMILY LAW AS AN ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE: SOME THOUGHTS ON EFFECTIVE TEACHING

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of the family law as a branch of law that have an impact on the effectiveness of teaching family law as an academic discipline. However, the paper does not talk about the use of the technical means or the interactive teaching methods. It is noted that the subject of family law as the branch of law (or legislation) is defined by a list of its institutions. Instead, the subject of family law as the academic discipline is wider and should include a number of related institutions. These have to include resolutions of family disputes (by a court, by guardianship and custodianship authority, mediation and other alternative means), the cohabitation and its legal consequences, the phenomenon of domestic violence and measures to combat it. It is stated that the teaching of family law has to take into account and study the statistics on the relevant family institutions. It is provided the example of divorce cases, which account for half of all family cases heard by the courts of first instance and about 20% of all civil cases heard by the courts. Instead, the recognition of fictitious divorce prescribed by the Family Code of Ukraine is not applied in practice. It is concluded that in the study of family law institutes, emphasis should be made taking into account the prevalence of any institute. Emphasis is placed on the need to study current trends in family relations. It is noted that it is advisable to use data of sociological researches, in particular in foreign countries, taking into account the limited availability of such researches in Ukraine.