EDITORIAL NOTES

• Published date: 01 October 1997
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.174-1617.1997.tb00479.x
• Date: 01 October 1997

EDITORIAL NOTES

Well this is it-the last issue of the review

I

will edit. The new editor,

Andrew Schepard, will take over this journal. He and

I

will coedit the January

issue, and from then on, he will sail alone. We wish him well.

The journal’s editorial offices will be moving

to

the East Coast. For the

first time, an attorney and academic will be responsible for the review. Our

association is uniquely interdisciplinary and international in scope. The new

location and profession of the editor speak

to

these virtues. Our journal must

always transcend the petty boundaries of professions and narrow strictures

of national interests. We must speak to the broadest concerns of all families

and all children everywhere, underscored by our cosponsorship of the Second

World Congress on Family Law and the Rights of Children and Youth in San

Francisco this year.

These have been exciting and productive years. We have seen the elevation

of family law to its proper place in the spectrum of concern because our

professions-the judiciary, the legal, and the mental health-have learned to

work together for the benefit of families and children. We have participated

in reforms in California and Oregon and witnessed the evolution of a system,

recognizing that although the courtroom is the pinnacle of the resolution of

conflict, most of the resolution should take place elsewhere. This resolution

should take place-through good information provided through court-

connected education programs, through better conflict resolution models

such

as

mediation and attorney settlement, through nonadversarial child-

centered evaluations, and through fair court hearings-when necessary. We

have also recognized that divorce is not the end of the family-it is a

reorganization of the family. We have recognized and promoted the idea that

the respective professions of law and mental health have much to learn from

each other: the parties have adverse rights, but they also need to find new

ways

of

resolving conflict and working together

as

parents, if not as husband

and wife.

This

journal must always take a stand for children everywhere and for

families in every form. We must take a realistic look at the conditions we face

and the options required

to

provide a good life for all families and all children.

This weekend has been one

of

eclectic reading and film viewing, including

Daniel Jonah Goldhagen’s frightening

Hitler

5.

Willing Executioners: Ordi-

FAMILY AND CONCILIATION COURTS

REVIEW,

Vol.

35

No.

4,

October 1997 372-376

0

1997 Sage Publications,

Inc.

372