Specific issue order was unprincipled

In re P (a child) (Parent dispute: judicial determination) (CA TLR 5 November)

Where parents with shared responsibility for their child ask the court to resolve a dispute between them as to which school that child should attend, the function of the court is to reach a clear decision to resolve the dispute. The judge’s order that the mother should determine all future questions regarding their child’s schooling following consultation with the father, was unprincipled. Nothing justifies the court abdicating its primary responsibility to decide a fundamental dispute between the parents. The court could use its power and influence to steer the parents from unnecessary discord and had to have the broadest discretion, but the parents had a right to a judicial determination.