Custody Disputes From a Socio-Legal Perspective

Abstract

This chapter examines high-conflict custody disputes in court and discusses whether Swedish legislation is suited to providing for children’s rights and the best interests of the child in these disputes. With a qualitative and quantitative study of 33 Swedish court cases, this socio-legal contribution identifies and analyses the most common conflicts arising in family disputes, and to what extent the legal system can effectively solve them. For the author, conflicts in custody disputes can be divided into, first, conflicts of interest; and second, conflicts of value. The legal system is designed to deal with the former-concerning issues of residence, finance, time, and information. However, it is not well-equipped to deal with the latter, which dominate custody disputes: lack of childcare capacity, cooperation difficulties, violence, threats and abuse, access sabotage, among other conflicts of value. For this reason, the author concludes that the legal system is dysfunctional and that the best interests of the child remain insufficiently accounted for in custody conflicts.