Constructing the Family: Marriage and Work in Nineteenth-Century English Law

by Luke Taylor

Overview

In nineteenth-century England, legal conceptions of work and family changed in fundamental ways. Notably, significant legal moves came into play that changed the legal understanding of the family.

Constructing the Family examines the evolution of the legal-discursive framework governing work and family relations. Luke Taylor considers the intersecting intellectual and institutional forces that contributed to the dissolution of the household, the establishment of separate spheres of work and family, and the emergence of modern legal and social ideas concerning work and family. He shows how specific legal-institutional moves contributed to the creation of the family's categorical status in the social and legal order and a distinct and exceptional body of rules – Family Law – for its governance.

Shedding light on the historical processes that contributed to the emergence of English Family Law, Constructing the Family shows how work and family became separate regulatory domains, and in so doing reveals the contingent nature of the modern legal family.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781487546526
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	11/09/2022
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Luke Taylor is an assistant professor in the Lincoln Alexander School of Law at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgments
Introduction

Chapter 1: Ideology and Population Management
A. Ideology
B. Population Management

Chapter 2: The Invention of Family Law in English Scholarly Legal Thought
I. Introduction
II. Blackstone, Legal Science, and the Productive Household
A. The "private œconomical relations"
B. Master and Servant
C. Husband and Wife
D. Blackstone and Nineteenth-Century Legal Thought
III. Household and Marriage in the Early Nineteenth Century
IV. The Influence of Jurisprudence
A. The Analyst: John Austin
B. The Historicist: Friedrich Carl von Savigny
V. The Influence of Statutory Developments
A. Divorce and the Legal Character of Marriage
B. Decriminalization and the Legal Character of Work
VI. Classical Legal Thought in England: Abstracting Contract and Subtracting Marriage
A. Consolidating Contract by Distinguishing Marriage: Pollock and Anson
B. Translating CLT into Taxonomy: Holland
VII. The Emergence of English Domestic Relations Law
VIII. The Emergence of Family Law
A. Cementing the Family/Work and Status/Contract Distinctions: Salmond
B. Family Law and Employment Law Emerge and Diverge
C. Family Law in the Textbook Tradition
IX. Conclusion

Chapter 3: Law and the Disarticulation of Work from Family Life
I. Introduction
II. Property, Poverty, and Wage Labour
A. Property: Enclosure, Households, and Work
B. Poverty: The Discipline of Work
III. Wage Labour, Contract, and the Subordination of Workers
A. The Philosophical Basis of Coercion under Contract
B. Punishment and Performance
IV. Conclusion

Chapter 4: Women and Youth, Work and Family
I. Introduction
II. Women, Work, and the Domestic Sphere
A. Paid Domestic Labour
B. Unpaid Domestic Labour
III. Youth, Work, and the Paths of Apprenticeship
A. Early Modern Apprenticeship Law
B. Household to Employment: The Transformation of Traditional Apprenticeship
C. Household to Family: The Transformation of Parish Apprenticeship
IV. Conclusion

Chapter 5: Legislating Marriage
I. Introduction
II. Civilizing Marriage
A. Lord Hardwicke's Act
B. Lord Lyndhurst's Act
C. Civil Marriage Act
III. Incentivizing Marriage
A. Poor Laws
B. Compensation Statutes
IV. Stabilizing Marriage
A. Divorce
B. Married Women's Property
V. Conclusion

Chapter 6: The Public Importance of Marriage in English Common Law
I. Introduction
II. Stretching the Bounds of Contract: The Action for Breach of Promise to Marry
A. Heart Balm for Women (Only)
B. "It would be indelicate to expect that she should consent in words"
C. Expectations of Emotional Harm
III. The Status of Marriage in the Conflict of Laws
A. Marriage, Contract, and Deference to Lex Loci Celebrationis
B. Dissolution, Domicile and State Control
C. Domicile and Marital Validity
D. Dissolving the Status of Marriage
IV. Conclusion

Conclusion
Marriage, Family, and Work: Past and Present
Bibliography
Cases
Statutes
Books, Chapters, and Articles
Government Reports and Documents
Newspapers, Non-legal Periodicals, and Blogs
Parliamentary Debates

What People are Saying About This

David Sugarman

"This fascinating book presents an alternative history of how the separate spheres of work and family were established and maintained by the law. It offers many illuminating challenges to conventional wisdom in the field. Essential reading for those interested in the development of the legal-discursive framework governing work and family relations."

Joanne Conaghan

"Constructing the Family is a detailed study of the developments in English law that contributed to the disarticulation of work and family life and the privileging of productive over reproductive labour in the long nineteenth century. Encompassing not just labour law but also family and social welfare regulation, Luke Taylor's analysis sheds valuable light on the ideas and influences that shaped the emergence of the legal framework, converging in a formal narrative of social ordering that still holds sway today."

Editorial Reviews

"Constructing the Family is a detailed study of the developments in English law that contributed to the disarticulation of work and family life and the privileging of productive over reproductive labour in the long nineteenth century. Encompassing not just labour law but also family and social welfare regulation, Luke Taylor's analysis sheds valuable light on the ideas and influences that shaped the emergence of the legal framework, converging in a formal narrative of social ordering that still holds sway today."—Joanne Conaghan, Professor of Law, University of Bristol
"This fascinating book presents an alternative history of how the separate spheres of work and family were established and maintained by the law. It offers many illuminating challenges to conventional wisdom in the field. Essential reading for those interested in the development of the legal-discursive framework governing work and family relations."—David Sugarman, Professor of Law Emeritus, Lancaster University, and Senior Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London

From the Publisher