Family Matters - Readings on Family Lives and the Law

As debates over family values preoccupy politicians and the public, judges and legislators grapple with even more basic questions. What is a family? Who should count as a family member, and with what consequences for obligations and benefits? Interracial adoption, new reproductive technologies, and gay and lesbian relationships provide merely a few of the settings in which these questions take on contemporary urgency. Law also has to address such thorny issues as how an individual can form a family or leave one; how to prosecute and minimize violence within families; and how children can obtain the emotional and financial support owed to them, even by absent parents.

The materials assembled here provide a basis for studying these themes and many others in U.S. family law and family lives. The materials also expose the assumptions behind legal rules and shed light on the complex relationship between spheres of intimacy and public rules. Whether used to enhance personal insight or professional competence, this 424 page 1993 paperback book should provide food for thought and nourishment for the collective lives of families and communities.

Topics covered include:

One - What is a Family?

• Images of family as haven, family as hell
• Definitions of family: Who's in, who's out, and who decides

Two - Entering Families: Fact or Law?

• Becoming a parent
• Who may marry?
• Cohabiting without marriage

Three - Violence and Neglect

• Violence in families, neglect by the State
• Debates over "State Intervention"
• Medical Treatment decisions

Four - Family Break-up and Reorganization

• Why should the State care?
• Child custody, visitation, and support
• Access to Lawyers, access to court, access to law

Five - Alternatives to court, Alternatives to Law, Alternatives to Family Law

• The new mediators
• Divorce mediation: A critical overview
• Love is not the problem

Condition: Good, with minor wear. Some scuff marks and scratches on the covers, a few crimps along the edges, bumped spine and bent corner tips.

We frequently list books about law and families, please see our other listings for details.

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