best interests of the child

In making custody and visitation decisions, Pennsylvania courts look to various factors in determining what is in the “best interest of the child.” The factors weighed by the court include: (1) the well-reasoned preference of the child, based on the child’s maturity and judgment; (2) the need for stability and continuity in the child’s education, family life and community life; (3) which parent is more likely to foster a relationship between the noncustodial parent and the child; (4) each parent’s history of violent or abusive conduct; and (5) specific criminal convictions.

The appellant, a mother who shared two young children with the respondent, appealed a judgment awarding custody of the couple’s children to the respondent after their divorce. At the time of the original custody order, the children were residing with the appellant in Malawi, but the court granted custody to the respondent to raise them in England.

Arizona Revised Statutes § 25-403.03 governs how findings of domestic violence or child abuse impact parental rights and parenting time in family law proceedings. The statute prohibits joint legal decision-making when the court finds significant domestic violence or a significant history of domestic violence and directs courts to treat domestic violence as contrary to the child’s best interests, with the safety of the child and the victim as primary considerations.

The Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act (Victoria) aims to protect and promote the human rights set out in Part 2, including property rights and freedom from forced work (slavery), as well as the right to enjoy those human rights without discrimination. With respect to any proposed new law, the member of Parliament proposing the law must prepare a 'statement of compatibility', which must examine the proposed law’s compatibility (or incompatibility) with the human rights protected in the Charter.

In the case Chicoine v. Chicoine (S.D. 1992), the parties were married for three years before the wife engaged in a series of openly same-sex affairs. The husband obtained a temporary custody order for their two children and later filed for divorce on the grounds of extreme cruelty. The trial court awarded custody to the husband, granted the wife restricted visitation including unsupervised overnight visits, and imposed an additional condition prohibiting unrelated women or gay men from being present during the visitation.

The Divorce Act of 1997 governs the dissolution and nullity of marriage and related matters in Antigua & Barbuda. The Act sets out the grounds upon which a court may grant a divorce, it grants courts the authority to order the provision of support for a spouse or children, as well as to make orders regarding custody of children. The Act also outlines the duties of legal advisors and the court in divorce proceedings and the procedures for enforcement of court orders and appeals of court orders or judgments.

The Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Ordinance 1961, as consolidated in 2021, governs divorce, nullity, judicial separation, and related matters in Samoa. A marriage may be declared void for lack of consent, bigamy, or improper solemnization, and voidable for non-consummation, incapacity, venereal disease, or pregnancy by another person. A divorce requires proof that the marriage is irretrievably broken, generally after 12 months of separation, though domestic violence may justify dispensing with that requirement.

In Doe v. Doe, 222 Va. 736 (1981), the appellee, the child’s father and stepmother, had permanent custody and sought adoption of the child because the appellant-mother was in a lesbian relationship in the same household that the child visited in. The lower court granted the adoption and severed the appellant’s parental rights, stating that her lifestyle would cause detrimental harm to the child.

The Second Grade Magistrate Court in Machinga sentenced the appellant to nine months’ imprisonment  for the offence of negligently doing an act likely to spread a dangerous disease contrary to Section 192 of the Penal Code when she breastfed another woman’s infant while under treatment for HIV.

The Samoa Family Court Act 2014 ("The Act") establishes the Family Court as a division of the District Court and confers jurisdiction to hear and determine matters under key family laws, including the Infants Ordinance 1961, Family Safety Act 2013,