This volume brings together essays on a range of issues in family law in the United States and England. It provides an unparalleled opportunity to examine how family law has reacted to a period of unprecedented change in family life. The legal analyses are set within critical accounts of wider social and family policy and against a fully explored demographic background.

How should our most intimate personal relationships be governed in a liberal society? Should the state encourage a particular model of family life, or support individuals in their pursuit of personal happiness? To what extent do people have the right to shape the lives of their offspring? This book examines the questions at the heart of family law, rethinking the ideas that shape our understanding of the family as a social unit, its purpose, and the obligations and rights that belong to family members.
The book explores how the governance of personal relationships has depended on the...

A set of essays describing changes in family law in various jurisdictions throughout the world.

This book examines the world of family solicitors and will allow a balanced assessment of the role and of the place of the law in this aspect of life.

This book examines the world of family solicitors and will allow a balanced assessment of the role and of the place of the law in this aspect of life.

Parenthood, rather than marriage, is emerging as the main mechanism for converting moral principles into legal and social obligations. However, this study shows that living with both parents gives children a social capital not found in other cases.

What kinds of obligations do parents have towards their children as family life becomes more complex? Many children pass through a number of different households, living with one or both parents, step-parents and step-siblings. The controversy surrounding the Child Support Act indicates that social norms do not yet sit easily with legal regulations. So how are new forms of family life accommodated in the legal system? This book argues that parenthood, rather than marriage, is now emerging as the central mechanism through which moral principles are converted into legal and social obligations.

The rights and obligations of parenthood are central to most people's lives. Yet their form and substance are caught up in the great demographic, social and economic changes of the late twentieth century. In this book, specialists from 22 countries examine fundamental issues confronting parenthood: these include social and biological conceptions of parenthood; the legal and moral obligations of parenthood; the legal and scientific establishment of parentage; rights to parenthood, including inter-country adoption; the effects on parent--child relationships of family change; the role of the...

Do lawyers make matters worse, or do they provide information, advice and support which can help to prevent disputes arising or manage them when they do? Do mediators enable parties to communicate and reach agreements tailor made to their needs? Or working outside the legal framework, do they find it difficult to protect weaker parties and access expert advice? What happens when lawyers become mediators? This book will describe the structure of service provision and the day to day work of lawyers, mediators, and lawyer mediators, drawing on empirical work carried out 2013-15 immediately after...