Tribute to Sir James Munby
by Pragna Patel
I was very saddened to hear of the death of Sir James Munby on New Years Day 2026. He was a wonderfully receptive and gracious man whom I shall never forget. He has made a huge difference to the lives of migrant women subject to domestic abuse.
I met him in 2016 when, as Director of Southall Black Sisters, I led on a campaign for the recognition of the rights of women abandoned abroad in contexts of domestic abuse and coercive control.
In those days, little was known about the phenomenon of Transnational Marriage Abandonment (TMA). It refers to the plight of women who, having been brought to the UK upon marriage abroad, are then abused and dumped in their home countries by their husbands and in-laws when no longer wanted, leaving them in situations of shame, destitution and precarity. Sometimes such women are abandoned with their children, and other times they are separated from their children who are kept in the UK. In those days, many faced considerable delays and obstacles in attempting to return to the UK to exercise their legal rights to protection, support and rehabilitation as victims of domestic abuse under family and immigration law in the UK.
All that changed after we met Sir James Munby to discuss our campaign to have TMA recognised as domestic abuse in family law. We wanted the courts to be able to issue orders for the return of the women to the UK so that they could be properly protected and supported in family and other legal proceedings.
When we contacted him, Sir James Munby – then the President of the Family Division of the High Court of England and Wales – agreed to meet us without hesitation. He listened intently to what we had to say, and he urged us to raise wider awareness of the issue amongst family law practitioners and judges. In accordance with his advice, we wrote about the subject in the Family Law Journal[1], and at his invitation we gave a presentation at a training conference for family court judges in May 2017. Soon after that judicial event, his office informed us that they were revising the Practice Direction on domestic abuse for family court judges and wanted to work with us to introduce TMA as a form of domestic abuse in the new draft[2]. This relatively small change to the Practice Direction set off a chain of events.
First, the Legal Aid Agency was compelled to accept that abandonment is itself a form of domestic abuse, resulting in the availability of legal aid for women abandoned abroad and thereby to some semblance of access to justice for them.
Secondly, and perhaps even more significantly, it provided the leverage we needed to challenge immigration rules and practice which remained an obstacle for women seeking to return to the UK.
Pointing to the underlying purpose of the Domestic Violence (DV) Rule[3] in immigration law, which is to protect women from domestic abuse, we argued that differential treatment of victims of TMA compared to domestic abuse victims in-country was discriminatory: but for their abandonment, such victims would be entitled to remain in the UK indefinitely if they met the relevant criteria under the DV Rule. Eventually, our persistent lobbying – supported by Rights of Women and the Immigration Law Practitioners Association – culminated in the landmark case of AM[4] in 2022 whereby the immigration rules on domestic abuse came to reflect the reality of TMA.[5] On 31 January 2024, new immigration rules and guidance came into force allowing abandoned victims to apply from outside the UK for permanent stay in the UK. [6]
By all accounts, these changes have transformed the lives of women who find themselves victims of TMA. They now have access to protection and rights such that their abusive partners no longer enjoy what was previously a virtual immunity from the law.
I will always be immensely grateful to Sir James Munby for agreeing to meet with us all those years ago despite his demanding schedule. My only regret is that I did not meet him again to show him just what a difference he made to the fight for justice on behalf of some of the most vulnerable and powerless women amongst us. In a world marked by growing inequality, cruelty and indifference, he stood with us.
[1] See Anitha, S., Patel, P., Handa, R. and Jahangir, S. (2016) Emerging issues for international family law Part 1: Transnational marriage abandonment as a form of domestic violence. Family Law Journal, 46 (10) 1247-1252
Jahangir, S., Anitha, S., Patel, P. and Handa, R. (2016) Emerging issues for international family law Part 2: Possibilities and challenges to providing effective legal remedies in cases of transnational marriage abandonment.Family Law Journal 46(11): 1352-56.
Patel, P., Handa, R., Anitha, S. and Jahangir, S. (2016) Emerging issues for international family law Part 3: Transnational marriage abandonment and the dowry question. Family Law Journal 46(12): 1443-1449.
[2] See Practice Direction 12J: Child Arrangements and Contact Orders: Domestic Violence and Harm.)
[3] See Immigration Rules Appendix Victim of Domestic Abuse - Guidance - GOV.UK
[4] See AM, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWHC 2591 (Admin) (14 October 2022)
[5] See A Victory for Victims of Transnational Marriage Abandonment — Centre for Women's Justice
[6] Immigration Rules - Immigration Rules Appendix Victim of Domestic Abuse - Guidance - GOV.UK
