Family Law and Personal Life

by John Eekelaar

Overview

This second edition of John Eekelaar's classic work 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198814085
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/01/2017
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	238
Product dimensions:	8.70(w) x 5.50(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

John Eekelaar is Academic Director and Emeritus Fellow, Pembroke College, Oxford

Table of Contents

Table of Cases     ix
Power     1
Family Practices and the Diffusion of Power     1
The Open Society     6
The Welfarism Thesis     9
The case of divorce     17
Homosexuality     22
The New Era: From Family Law to Personal Law?     22
Friendship     32
Friendship and Brotherly Love     34
'Full' Friendship as a Paradigmatic Value     35
Friendship and Public Constraints     38
Marriage and Friendship     40
Friendship and Legal Rights     43
Betrayal and Loss     45
Friendship Plus     49
Why Consider Friendship at All?     53
Truth     54
'Physical' Truth and 'Legal' Truth     55
Truth, Kinship, and Manipulation     57
Truth and Personal Relationships     62
Truth and Identity     70
Truth and Justice     73
Conclusion: Truth and Shame     75
Respect     77
What is Respect?     77
Love     81
Community Values     86
Care and Nurture     89
Religion     94
Procreation     99
Respecting Children     101
Responsibility     103
Historical Responsibility: The Case of Divorce     105
Prospective Responsibility: Allocation     111
Prospective Responsibility: Exercise     118
Divorce     118
Parenthood     122
A Fuller Concept of Responsibility     127
Rights     132
The Central Case of Rights     133
End-states     135
Grounds for entitlement     137
Weight     139
Rights in Personal Law     140
Rights claimed through political action     140
Rights developed through judicial lawmaking     143
Human rights     148
Children's Rights     155
Personal Law and Cultural Rights     162
Group or collective rights     164
Cultural rights, personal law, and the open society     166
Community     174
The Fear of Individualism     175
Communities, Care, and Power     177
Hearing the Voice     181
Solicitors and Barristers     184
Community legal and advice services     186
Mediation      190
Communities, Responsibility, and Law     194
Bibliography     197
Index     213

Editorial Reviews

"Instructive, entertaining and thought provoking. John Eekelaar always manages to move the debate forward."
—Baroness Hale of Richmond

"Eekelaar's achievement in providing a succinct but coherent account, drawing on a vast range of scholarship, of such a diverse range for issues, is truly remarkable; an this book will certainly be invaluable in increasing the understanding of what the law should properly seek to do and in stimulating informed discussion ... certainly once opened it will prove totally addictive."
—Stephen Cretney, Family Law

From the Publisher