Dr Rae Kaspiew
Senior Research Fellow

BA (Melb), LLB(Hons) (Melb), PhD (Melb), GDLP (ANU)

Biography

Rae Kaspiew, Senior Research Fellow, Australian Institute of Family Studies

Dr Rae Kaspiew is a socio-legal researcher with particular expertise in family law and family violence. She is lead author on the AIFS Evaluation of the 2006 family law reforms. She managed the Legislation and Courts Project, one of the three main projects that contributed to the Evaluation research program. She was involved, with Associate Professor Juliet Behrens and Bruce Smyth from ANU, in a project looking at the experiences of parents after relocation decisions in the federal family law courts.

In addition to her role at AIFS, Rae is a member of the Family Law Council, a body that provides policy advice on the Family Law to the federal Attorney General. She is also a member of the Violence Against Women Advisory Group that advises the federal Minister for the Status of Women on the implementation of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and on the editorial board of the Australian Journal of Family Law.

Current research activities

• New developments in family law, child protection and family violence

Specialist areas

• Socio-legal research in family and criminal law
• Children’s interests in legal contexts
• Family violence

Selected recent publications

• Kaspiew, R, Gray M, Weston R, Moloney, L, Qu L & the Family Law Evaluation Team. (2010) The Australian Institute of Family Studies' Evaluation of the 2006 Family Law reforms: key findings, Australian Journal of Family Law, 24(1) 5-33.
• Behrens J, Smyth B & Kaspiew R. (2010). Outcomes in relocation cases: Some new data. Australian Journal of Family Law, forthcoming April.
• Horsfall B & Kaspiew R. (2010). Relocation in separated and non-separated families: equivocal evidence from the social science literature. Australian Journal of Family Law, forthcoming April.
• Kaspiew, R, Gray M, Weston R, Moloney, L, Qu L & the Family Law Evaluation Team (2009). Evaluation of the 2006 family law reforms. Australian Institute of Family Studies.
• Behrens J, Smyth B & Kaspiew R. (2009). Australian family law court decisions on relocation: Dynamics in parents' relationships over time. Australian Journal of Family Law, 23.
• Kaspiew, R (2008). Family Violence in children’s cases under the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth): Past practice and future challenges. Journal of Family Studies, 279, 14(2-3).
• Higgins, D & Kaspiew R. (2008). Mind the gap: Protecting children in family law children’s cases. Australian Journal of Family Law, 22, 235.
• Kaspiew, R (2007). Empirical insights into parental attitudes and children’s interests in Family Court litigation. Sydney Law Review, 29(1), 131.
• Kaspiew, R & Behrens, J. (2007). Chapter 5 - Family Violence: Fragmented Legal Responses. Australian Family Law: The Contemporary Context. Belinda Fehlberg and Juliet Behrens, Oxford University Press.
• Kaspiew, R. (2005). Violence in Contested Children's Cases: An Empirical Exploration. Australian Journal of Family Law. 19(2), 112-143.

Submissions

• (with Lixia Qu) Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs. Inquiry into the Family Law Amendment (De Facto Financial Matters and Other Measures) Bill. Submission on the characteristics of de facto families, 2008.