Mediation : its significance, technology and feasibility in social work services related to divorce issues

• Main Author: Cigler, Elaine
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: Support (Domestic relations); Divorce mediation; Divorced people - Counseling of; Divorce counseling
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/9639

D.Litt. et Phil. (Social Work) === The Commission of Enquiry in the Structure and Function of the Courts (1983) and subsequent legislation Family Court Act (Act No. 62 of 1985), Divorce Amendment Act (Act 63 of"1985) and the Mediation Divorce Proceedings Act (Act 63 of 1986) recommended and paved the way for a family court with attendant social services to be integrated with aspects of marriage dissolution in South Africa. These proposals and legislation proved both to be innovative and contentious and have occasioned much debate, and stimulated and motivated by the above, t;,e candidate in this dissertation undertakes I an examination of the parameters of the social services envisaged as regards divorce services, with particular reference to the construct of mediation, its significance, technology and feasibility. The research is formulated and structured around the research goals and objectives of acquiring information of an academic as well as a practice nature, with a view to increasing the knowledge base of such service ideology, in order to more effectively evaluate the need for the rendering of such service. The research questions formulated to-provide' both the information and the resultant answers are those that relate to the concept of mediation and the practice thereof; the range and type of social services in a divorce court service; the working of family law systems in other parts of the world and their comparison to proposals for South Africa; the integration of the social services within a court system and the professional equipment of the staff. needed to perform such services. In order to acquire the information to address the issues, the methodology embarked on by the candidate involved the undertaking of a literature study of the field of mediation and family/law courts; correspondence with social services and judico/legal bodies in the United States of America, England, Canada, Australia, New...