Taking Responsibility, Law and the Changing Family

This volume considers the impact that changing family norms have had on the responsibilities that the law allocates to people in family relationships. Contributions are drawn from a wide variety of jurisdictions in which scholars, lawyers, judges and policy-makers have been trying to discern what the appropriate correlation should be between the responsibilities that people undertake in family settings and the law that regulates family responsibilities. Part I looks at the changes that have occurred in adult relationships and what they have done for our sense of the family responsibilities that adults take for one another. Part II reflects on the changing nature of the parental relationship in order to reconsider the way in which changing family structures affect the responsibilities we think people raising children should have. The third part brings the rights discourse that has dominated jurisprudence for much of the last fifty years into the discussion of family transformation and the responsibilities to which it gives rise. In the final section the authors reflect on the difficulties of trying to resolve the meaning of responsibility in a world of changing families. The collection brings together some of the most eminent and imaginative scholars and judges working in this area. It will be a valuable resource for all those interested in the legal regulation of the transforming family.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Foreword, Albie Sachs; Taking family responsibility or having it imposed?, Craig Lind, Heather Keating and Jo Bridgeman; Part I Conceptualizing Responsibility in an Era of Changing Families: Family responsibility: where are we now?, Brenda Hale; Responsibility, family, and the limits of equality: an American perspective, Martha Albertson Fineman; Passions, dependencies, selves: a theoretical psychoanalytic account of relational responsibility, Polona Curk; Power and the taking of responsibility: shifting the legal family from marriage to friendship, Craig Lind. Part II The Intimate Relationships of Adults: Using sexual orientation demographics to predict and harmonize family responsibility transformation, Todd Brower; The responsibility of the EU: familial ties for all, Jackie Jones; 'A marriage by any other name...': on the responsibility of naming, Anél Boshoff. Part III Responsibilities in the Changing Families of Children: The cuckold's cause: men claiming damages for deceit against mothers who got their child's paternity wrong, Hannah Robert; Biology, parentage and responsibility in Australian family law: accounting for the 'vagaries of nature', Aileen Kennedy; The (im)possible parents in law, Caroline Jones; Assisted reproductive technologies and family formation: womb transplant technology and the allocation of family responsibilities, Amel Alghrani. Part IV Rights to Family Responsibility: The parental right to make 'mistakes' and Irish constitutional reform, Laura Byrne; Competing rights and responsibilities in intercountry adoption: understanding a child's right to grow up in the context of her family and culture, Shani King; Feminist fundamentalism at the intersection of government and familial responsibility for children, Mary Anne Case; Index.

About the Author :
Craig Lind, Heather Keating and Jo Bridgeman are Senior Lecturers in Law in the Sussex Law School. Jo Bridgeman's research employs feminist legal theory to analyse the law relating to care of children. Heather Keating's research focuses upon the criminal law relating to children both as offenders and victims. Craig Lind's research interests are in the areas of gender and sexuality, children in law, and family regulation across cultural divides Albie Sachs, Craig Lind, Heather Keating, Jo Bridgeman, Brenda Hale, Martha Albertson Fineman, Polona Curk, Todd Brower, Jackie Jones, Anel Boshoff, Hannah Robert, Aileen Kennedy, Caroline Jones, Amel Alghrani, Laura Byrne, Shani King, Mary Anne Case.

Review :
'Taking Responsibility, Law and the Changing Family provides a sustained and rigorous analysis of substantive controversial issues in family law and, more importantly, of the key concepts that underlie them. Thinking widely and critically about "responsibility", this collection challenges too often unquestioned assumptions and imaginatively redraws the boundaries of the discipline.' Daniel Monk, University of London, UK 'Drawing on an impressive array of diverse expertise from around the world, this book exposes the changing landscape of 'family' and dynamically engages with the practical, theoretical and social challenges which this fast-moving area of law is facing globally. It is an invaluable resource to anyone interested in this field.' Anne Barlow, University of Exeter, UK