Family Law scholar wins award for paper on parental alienation

Professor Nicholas Bala and Dr. Barbara Fidler accept the 2011 Meyer Elkin Award given by the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts in Orlando on June 2.

Professor Nicholas Bala and his co-author, Toronto psychologist Dr. Barbara Fidler, have received the 2011 Meyer Elkin Award from the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC). The editorial board of the Family Court Review chose their article, “Children Resisting Post-Separation Contact With a Parent: Concepts, Controversies and Conundrums,” as the best one published in the journal in 2010. 

The AFCC is an interdisciplinary and international association of researchers and professionals dedicated to the resolution of family conflict. The award was presented on June 2 at the AFCC Conference in Orlando. Among the 750 in attendance were: Ontario's Children's Lawyer, Lucy McSweeney, Law '93; Bala’s former graduate student, John Schuman, LLM '99; and classmate Margo Hallman, Law '77. 

"This award is important recognition,” says Bala of his and Fidler’s research. “So is the fact that we’re told the article is already influencing how judges, lawyers and mental health professionals in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom deal with these challenging cases.” 

“Dr. Fidler and I have just signed a contract with Oxford University Press to expand this article into a book,” he adds, “and we are looking forward to further developing our research.”