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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2010

Robin Fretwell Wilson
Affiliation:
Professor of Law, University of Maryland School of Law
Robin Fretwell Wilson
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, Baltimore
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Summary

The family has undergone almost revolutionary reconfigurations over the past generation. In the space of a few decades, we have seen the universal recognition in the United States of no-fault divorce, the legal recognition of nonmarital fathers, the establishment of registration schemes and other claims between cohabitants, both heterosexual and homosexual, and the recognition as parents of adults who have neither a biological tie to a child nor an adoptive one. Recently, the pace of these changes has become almost frenetic. Just this year, Canada legalized same-sex marriage through national legislation, as South Africa did by judicial opinion; New Zealand's Law Commission has recommended major changes to the legal rules that determine status as a parent so that certain egg or sperm donors could become a child's third parent; and Belgium formally recognized its first polygamous marriage.

Family law is red hot. These subjects – divorce, cohabitation, same-sex relationships, and the nature of parenting and parenthood – are now the subject of intense public debate in newspaper articles, editorials, television talk shows, and legislation, at the federal, state, and local levels.

In this volume, you will find the first major critique of the intellectually formidable and influential Principles of the law of family dissolution: analysis and recommendations (“Principles”) developed by the American Law Institute (“ALI”) over an eleven-year period, ending in 2002. In the Principles, the ALI carefully considers many of the significant and very controversial questions raised by these changing family forms.

Type
Chapter
Information
Reconceiving the Family
Critique on the American Law Institute's Principles of the Law of Family Dissolution
, pp. 1 - 8
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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  • Introduction
  • Edited by Robin Fretwell Wilson, University of Maryland, Baltimore
  • Book: Reconceiving the Family
  • Online publication: 25 January 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511617706.002
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  • Introduction
  • Edited by Robin Fretwell Wilson, University of Maryland, Baltimore
  • Book: Reconceiving the Family
  • Online publication: 25 January 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511617706.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Edited by Robin Fretwell Wilson, University of Maryland, Baltimore
  • Book: Reconceiving the Family
  • Online publication: 25 January 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511617706.002
Available formats
×