Fight for Fathers' Rights; Dads say separation laws are stacked against them.

Byline: Rana Foroohar (With Tracy McNicoll)

A militant new movement is sweeping Britain, generating headlines and sparking protests. In one, a young man dressed as Spider-Man dangled himself from a crane near London Bridge late last year, holding up construction for six days. This July a handful of protesters dressed as vicars, nuns and monks stormed a Sunday service in York Minster. Not even Prime Minister Tony Blair has been able to avoid the onslaught: in mid-May, the P.M. was pelted with purple powder during a speech in the House of Commons. Is this a return of the poll-tax protesters? Rabid animal-rights activists? No--it's the Angry Dads.

British fathers are increasingly fed up with a system that they see as favoring mothers during custody battles. In 80 percent of cases, children end up living with their mothers after divorce; British law frowns upon shared parenting, citing the confusion that dual residences can cause a child. And while most cases are settled out of court--allowing parents to arrange their own solutions--British courts have little leeway to penalize parents who do try to thwart visits in contentious cases. The reason is that a judge's only recourse in such circumstances is to fine a mother or throw her in jail--which is rarely if ever in the child's interest. "There is much wrong with our system," said one judge after presiding over a case in which a tearful father abandoned his battle to see his daughter after his wife thwarted visits for five years. Too many dads find themselves locked in seemingly hopeless legal struggles as they try to exercise their court-ordered visitation rights. "We just want to see our kids," says Matthew O'Connor, founder of Fathers4Justice, a new lobbying group that boasts 10,000 members.

Authorities are starting to listen. Last week Blair's ...