Dr Emma Hitchings
Emma’s main area of interest is family law, with particular focus on financial provision on divorce (also known as ancillary relief).
Emma’s most recent work concerned two research studies commissioned and funded by the Law Commission. These research reports are available on the Law Commission’s website and have been used and cited throughout the recently published Consultation Paper on Marital Property Agreements (more commonly referred to as pre and post nuptial agreements). Emma is also a member of the Law Commission’s Advisory Group on Marital Property Agreements.
The first study provided much needed research from a qualitative perspective into how legal professionals draft marital property agreements, advise clients and deal with existing agreements. The second, follow-up study investigated whether demand for legal advice on marital property agreements had increased since the original survey. Using the data collected from these studies, Emma is currently writing an article which considers that there has been an uneasy acknowledgement of pre-nuptial agreements in England and Wales and that the road to recognition remains littered with uncomfortable theoretical associations. The article explores the reasons for this ongoing disinclination to accept pre-nuptial agreements without any restrictions or limitations and draws on material from her recent empirical research as a basis for explaining this reluctance.
Previously, Emma’s work focused on the impact of the leading big money ancillary relief cases on the ‘everyday case’, for which she was awarded a Nuffield Foundation small grant. This work has been cited widely and was also used in the Law Commission’s recent Consultation Paper. The ‘everyday’ study was cited as evidence that in practice, needs are still addressed first in ancillary relief (p.6, Consultation Paper). Emma’s main argument and conclusion that flowed from this research was that the law concerning ancillary relief in the everyday case is not uncertain or chaotic, but remarkably consistent due to the fact that needs prevail for the vast majority of divorcing couples.
Emma’s current research interests lie in the area of private ordering on divorce. Over 90% of ancillary relief applications are already disposed of by consent orders (orders reflecting the parties’ agreement, rather than being imposed following adjudication). Along with Joanna Miles from Cambridge University, they have been awarded a grant worth £70,000 from the Nuffield Foundation to undertake empirical research to discover the stage within court proceedings at which consent orders are made. In addition, they will examine the characteristics of such cases and the content of consent orders resolved at different stages. It is hoped that the study will develop a richer understanding of private ordering of financial disputes in this jurisdiction and what factors help and hinder settlement of financial disputes following divorce in order to inform future reform and policy developments.