Compared with some others who have written of their memories of the ISFL for this volume, I represent a slightly younger generation of family law scholars who joined ISFL, not in its infancy, but when it was already well-established.

Although I was born and educated in Britain, I was, by the stage of joining the ISFL, a young academic in Australia, one of several British family lawyers who left Britain in the mid1980s when prospects in Australia were so much brighter (and the weather so much better). Two of them, Stephen Parker and John Dewar, together organised the World Conference in Brisbane in 2000. Both went on to distinguished careers in university leadership, as Vice-Chancellors of the University of Canberra and La Trobe University, respectively.

MY EARLY INVOLVEMENT WITH THE ISFL

My first World Conference was in Opatija, Croatia in 1991, a conference to remember, not least for being held in the shadow of war between Croatia and Serbia. The war did not finally break out until a few weeks later, but it was in my mind, like everyone else’s, when deciding whether it would be safe to travel there. Pictures in the newspapers of tanks on the street were a little confronting, but I was reassured enough by the press accounts that the road to Opatija would not be laden with mines, and so I made the journey.

The conference itself, ably organised by Petar Šarcević, was an immensely enriching experience. I reconnected with my family law tutor at Oxford, Ruth Deech, and John Eekelaar, both of whom played such an important role in the work of the ISFL in those years. I also met others from many different parts of the world. Predominantly, at that stage, the members came from Europe and North America, but even in a conference which had a reduced attendance due to the political situation, there was an impressive enough representation from other parts of the world to make it evident that this was truly an international society. The previous World Conference had been held in Tokyo.

As it happens, I gave a paper in the same session as Nigel Lowe and Gillian Douglas, an account of which is given in Nigel’s recollections in this volume.