Scholarly Works - Robinson College
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Item Open Access Accepted version Peer-reviewed Finality vs Fathers: Undoing Adoption to Recognise Biological Ties(Cambridge University Press) Sloan, BD; Sloan, Brian [0000-0003-3468-8950]RE J (Adoption: Appeal) [2018] EWFC 8, [2018] 4 W.L.R 38 is a striking judgment in which Cobb J. was willing to set aside an adoption order made without the involvement of the relevant child’s biological father. J was born when his mother (“M”) and father (“F”) were still teenagers, and M was living with her own parents. M and F had a relationship lasting a few months. Initially F visited J, but his level of engagement varied due to periodic depression. When J was five years old, M married SF and gave birth to J’s step-brother. In 2012, SF gave the local authority notice of his intention to adopt J. In the course of local authority enquiries, both M and SF falsely claimed that they did not know F’s identity, whereabouts or contact details. M claimed that she had met F at a party and had a sexual encounter with him, and that she did not know whether he lived locally or further afield. It was “[i]ndisputably” true, Cobb J. held, that “M, SF and M’s family misled the local authority social worker, the Cafcass reporting officer, and ultimately the magistrates considering the adoption application”, and the parties accepted that they did (at [16]). The lies were described as “particularly egregious” (at [16]), and the conduct of M and SF as “disgraceful” (at [34]).Item Open Access Accepted version Peer-reviewed ‘The Observations We Made in the Indies and in China’: The Shaping of the Jesuits’ Knowledge of China by Other Parts of the Non-Western World(International Society for the History of East Asian Science, Technology and Medicine) Wu, Huiyi; Wu, Huiyi [0000-0002-1300-6693]Abstract. The Jesuits’ experience in China is usually analysed within the framework of Sino-Western relations. However, Jesuits’ writings often evoked their experience in and knowledge about China in association with other parts of the non-European world, including India, South-East Asia, the Middle East, Africa and America. Based on a prosopographical analysis of China Jesuits’ biographical data, we first demonstrate that the encounter with other non-European regions was an integral part of the China Jesuits’ itineraries; for they all travelled through intermediate areas on their way to China, and some also did so on their way back to Europe. Secondly, relying mainly on examples drawn from French Jesuits’ scholarship between the 1680s and the 1750s, we demonstrate how encounters with other non-European regions and the overseas interests of their home country shaped the Jesuits’ scientific agenda as well as the way they understood things Chinese. Lastly, we illustrate how Jesuits keenly studied historical and contemporaneous accounts in Chinese and Manchu on the neighbouring regions of the Qing empire. We argue that the body of knowledge produced by the China Jesuits should be studied in a spatial framework that goes beyond the China-Europe dichotomy since it was, on one hand, filtered by the Jesuits’ knowledge about other non-European regions, and on the other hand, concerned with a geographical area larger than the territory of China under the Ming dynasty We also argue that the China Jesuits’ scholarship was configured by the spatial dynamics shaping the Society of Jesus, Bourbon France and Qing China; thereby, we contribute to a better understanding of both the French Jesuit and Qing networks, and the interconnections between them.Item Open Access Accepted version Peer-reviewed Evicting the disabled spouse of a bankrupt person(Jordan Publishing) Sloan, BD; Sloan, Brian [0000-0003-3468-8950]When a person is declared bankrupt and the trustees in bankruptcy (‘TiBs’) apply for an order for sale of the bankrupt’s home under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996, the matter is governed by s 335A of the Insolvency Act 1986. In exercising its discretion whether to order sale, the court is directed to consider the conduct and needs of the bankrupt’s current or former spouse/civil partner, the needs of any children and all the circumstances except the needs of the bankrupt. Where the application is made more than a year after the vesting of the property in the TiBs, the court must ‘assume, unless the circumstances of the case are exceptional, that the interests of the bankrupt’s creditors outweigh all other considerations’ (s 335A(3)). The recent appellate judgment in Pickard v Constable [2017] EWHC 2475 (Ch) is a reminder that, even in the case of severe disability of the bankrupt’s spouse rendering the circumstances exceptional, a temporary postponement of sale is often the best that can be hoped for.Item Open Access Accepted version Peer-reviewed Burdens, presumptions and confusion in the law on want of knowledge and approval(Sweet & Maxwell) Sloan, BD; Sloan, Brian [0000-0003-3468-8950]In the context of an ageing population and numerous challenges to wills in England and Wales, this article considers the doctrine that a testator must know and approve of the contents of his will to ensure its validity. It analyses several ostensible fundamental principles related to it, particularly in light of the potentially difficult and contradictory Court of Appeal decision in Gill v Woodall. These principles include: (1) that the propounder of a will must “prove” it; (2) that a testator with capacity who duly executes a will is nevertheless presumed to know and approve of its contents; and (3) that (notwithstanding principle (2)) “suspicious circumstances” will require affirmative proof of knowledge and approval. The article investigates the origin, normative justifications and current status of the principles, and in particular whether they are compatible with each other. It suggests a number of reforms.