{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/magistrates-courts-family-law-act-1986-rules-1988/article-2",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/magistrates-courts-family-law-act-1986-rules-1988/article-2.json",
  "legislation": "uksi/1988/329",
  "legislation_title": "The Magistrates' Courts (Family Law Act 1986) Rules 1988",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/magistrates-courts-family-law-act-1986-rules-1988",
  "path": "article/2",
  "kind": "article",
  "number": "2",
  "heading": "Interpretation",
  "text": "(1) In these Rules the following expressions have the meaning hereby respectively assigned to them—\n“the Act” means the Family Law Act 1986;\n“commission area” has the same meaning as in the Justices of the Peace Act 1979;\n“custody order” means a custody order within the meaning of any of sections 1, 32, 40 and 42(5) and (6) of the Act;\n“the appropriate court” means, in relation to Scotland, the Court of Session and, in relation to Northern Ireland, the High Court;\n“the Deputy Principal Clerk” means the Deputy Principal Clerk of Session;\n“the Master” means the Master (Care and Protection) of the High Court in Northern Ireland.\n(2) Any requirement in these Rules for any matter to be entered in the register of a magistrates' court is a requirement that it be entered in the register kept by the clerk of that court in accordance with Rule 66 of the Magistrates' Courts Rules 1981.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f1",
      "text": "1979 c. 55."
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f2",
      "text": "S.I. 1981/552."
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [
    {
      "type": "words substituted",
      "affecting": "uksi/2001/615",
      "affecting_title": "The Magistrates' Courts (Transfer of Justices' Clerks' Functions) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Rules 2001"
    },
    {
      "type": "words inserted",
      "affecting": "uksi/1991/1991",
      "affecting_title": "The Family Proceedings Courts (Matrimonial Proceedings etc.) Rules 1991"
    },
    {
      "type": "words inserted",
      "affecting": "uksi/1991/1991",
      "affecting_title": "The Family Proceedings Courts (Matrimonial Proceedings etc.) Rules 1991"
    }
  ],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1988/329/article/2",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:11:05.382887+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}