Learn more about Barbara's involvement in the new law

10th November 2025

Image: Barbara Corbett

Advocate Corbett is a passionate advocate for change where it is needed to ensure fairness and provide better solutions for local people. When she moved to Jersey she determinedly campaigned for various changes to some discriminatory laws she discovered while training as a Jersey advocate.

Barbara became a Law Commissioner and one of the changes she pressed for related to laws affecting same sex couples. The expert family law barrister Marisa Allman was commissioned to write a paper on parentage and surrogacy. As a direct result, a new law in respect of parentage and equality for same sex parents is coming into force this month. 

The Bailiwick Express reported "The issue was first raised by Advocate Barbara Corbett, picked up by campaigner Kaye Nicholson, and progressed through the States Assembly primary by Deputy Louise Double."  "Milestone" law grants full parental rights to same-sex couples - Bailiwick Express News Jersey

Advocate Corbett said she was "so very pleased that this groundbreaking law is now in force. Initiated by the Jersey Law Commission and supported by Louise Doublet through the States." She also thanked Kaye Nicholson for all her support.

Gov.je has posted this update Jersey’s Children and Civil Status Reforms to come into force – a landmark step for equality and family rights (gov.je)

Principal changes

The new law will come into effect on the 24th of November 2025. It ensures that same-sex couples in Jersey have the same legal recognition and responsibilities that heterosexual couples have had. Practically speaking the most significant changes that previously led same-sex couples to feel discriminated against are

• Joint birth registration for same-sex female and mixed-sex parents who have children through fertility treatment using donor sperm. Previously, these families faced legal barriers to being recognised as joint parents. 
• Free re-registration of births for same-sex female parents whose children were born before 24 November 2025, allowing both parents to be officially named on the birth certificate. 
• Parental Orders for altruistic surrogacy arrangements for Jersey-born children, giving full legal parental rights and responsibilities to the intended parents through a court process. Parental Orders already granted in the UK for Jersey-born children can now also be recognised locally. Most of these parents will be contacted directly via letter. However, parents are advised to seek specialist legal advice. 
• New surrogacy guidance has been published to help families and professionals understand the process and what to expect. 
• Parental responsibility agreements for stepparents, allowing them to gain legal responsibility for their stepchildren with the agreement of the child’s other parents. 
• Abolition of the concept of illegitimacy, ensuring all children are treated equally from birth. This also allows corrections to historic birth records where the wrong father was named due to the mother being married at the time of her child’s birth. (Gov.je)

The Jersey Evening Post also reported on Barbara's key involvement "The issue was first raised by Advocate Barbara Corbett, picked up by campaigner Kaye Nicholson, and progressed through the States Assembly – with Deputy Louise Doublet playing a leading role in keeping it on the political agenda." Same-sex parental rights law to come into force eight years after key pledges - Jersey Evening Post.

Re-registration of births

Couples who had children prior to this law coming into force can apply to re-register existing births. Superintendent registrar Claire Follain was instrumental in putting the new procedures in place for registering and re-registering births and also for ensuring there would be no fee for couples needing to re-register their child's birth, having already paid to do so the first time. 

Judges McFadzean and O'Sullivan in the Family Division also worked on making the court applications more efficient so reducing time and costs.  

Work around

It takes time for changes to come into force and while waiting for the draft law to be debated and then implemented Barbara used a creative work around to provide a solution for same-sex couples with children, using applications for joint residence orders to continue until a child reached 18. This gave couples parental responsibility without having to use the much more complex route of adoption in order to get parental responsibility for both parents.

DIFERA Award

Barbara won the Ally of the Year DIFERA Award (diversity, inclusion, fairness, equality, respect and acceptance) on 2 February 2024 for this work.

More work to do 

Barbara wrote an article entitled Divorce Law Reform arguing that we need no-fault divorce in Jersey.  You can read the article here: DIVORCE LAW REFORM (jerseylaw.je)

The conclusion of that article was:

"Divorce law in Jersey needs to be reformed. A move to a no fault system would be in keeping with the general trend towards a more conciliatory approach to divorce law across the world and the encouragement of non-court forms of resolution of financial matters and arrangements for children. Bringing in a measure of certainty through binding marital agreements in certain cases would go some way to moving the law on as it relates to personal relationships. The promotion of conciliation and mediation will benefit individuals and also lessen the amount of court time needed to deal with what are personal matters which, in most cases will be better dealt with by the parties themselves, not by the court."

Corbett Le Quesne is still pushing for this reform. Ecrivain Jamie-Lee Morgan is also a keen advocate for reforming divorce law in Jersey and has worked with Barbara Corbett to pursue a less acrimonious system for many years. Hopefully this long awaited update to our law will follow in the not too distant future.