Collapse of nuclear family should be ‘welcomed and applauded’, says top judge

President of High Court division urges courts to adapt to the updated realities of modern life

SOCIETY should be prepared to “welcome and applaud” the collapse of the nuclear family, the most senior family judge in England and Wales has said.

Sir James Munby, president of the High Court’s family division, said in a speech that the modern family was “complex” and that it “takes an almost infinite variety of forms”.

He said that many people “live in families more or less removed from what would have been recognised as the typical nuclear family”.

He added: “This, I stress, is not merely the reality; it is, I believe, a reality which we should welcome and applaud.” Listing the changes in family relationships, Sir James said: “People live together as couples, married or not, and with partners who may not always be of the other sex.

“Children live in households where their parents may be married or unmarried. They may be brought up by a single parent, by two parents or even by three parents. Their parents may or may not be their biological parents.

“They may be children of parents with very different religious, ethnic or national backgrounds. They may be the children of polygamous marriages.

“Their siblings may be half-siblings or step-siblings. Some children are brought up by two parents of the same sex. Some children are conceived by artificial donor insemination. Some are the result of surrogacy arrangements.”

Office for National Statistics figures show about 10,000 same-sex couples in the UK have dependent children.

In his speech at Liverpool University in honour of social reformer Eleanor Rathbone, Sir James called for family law to “adapt itself to these realities” and called the existing pace of change “maddeningly slow”.

Last year, Sir James spoke out about mental health funding after finding that there was no secure place in the country for a suicidal teenage girl to go.

Recalling the case in his speech, he said judges should have more power to decide what happens to children in such situations.

The courts have to be “properly equipped for their problem-solving role,” he said, as judges are currently limited to the “blunted weapons of persuasion and shaming”.

Sir James, who is due to retire next month as he turns 70, is a well-known supporter of no-fault divorce.

Last year he ruled that laws that restricted surrogacy to couples were discriminatory, prompting the Government to change them.

He has also warned that too many children are being criminalised by the Crown Prosecution Service, and called for cohabiting couples to have the same rights as married people.