Obligation and Commitment in Family Law

Description

A tension lies at the heart of family law. Expressed in the language of rights and duties, it seeks to impose enforceable obligations on individuals linked to each other by ties that are usually regarded as based on love or blood. Taking a contextual approach that draws on history, sociology and social policy as well as law and legal theory, this book examines the concept of obligation as it has been developed in family law and the difficulties the law has had in translating it from a theoretical and ideological concept into the basis of enforceable actions and duties. Increasingly, the idea of commitment has been offered as the key organising principle for the recognition of family relationships, often as a means of rebutting claims that family ties are becoming attenuated, but the meaning and scope of this concept have not been explored. The book traces how the notion of commitment is understood and how far it has come to be used as a rationale for imposing the core legal obligations which underpin care and caring within families.

Gillian Douglas is Executive Dean and Professor of Law at The Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London.

Douglas provides an insightful overview of the changes in family demography and their impact on family law, which presents a good snapshot of the radical transformation to social life in the UK... Overall, the book is clearly presented and well written. It is essential reading for family law scholars. -- Henry Kha, Macquarie University * The Cambridge Law Journal * There are many different ways in which one can approach this subject, and individual preferences will vary. The one chosen by Gillian Douglas has yielded many insights and also allowed a masterly exposition of relevant law. It is a most valuable addition to the literature. -- John Eekelaar, Pembroke College, Oxford * Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law * Douglas concludes this fascinating book by highlighting, first, her original observation about the ill-fit of emotion and personal commitment within the legal domain and second, the way in which modern law's celebration of individualism and individual emotional fulfilment has tended to favour men and not women or children... Douglas's arguments are compelling and her analysis offers family lawyers a way of understanding both the successes and failures in reform of family law and policy over the last century. -- Alison Diduck, UCL * Journal of Law and Society *