This edition marks an unusual year for the International Society of Family Law, in which the Executive had to postpone the triennial World Congress due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While this loss was a sad one for us, it of course does not compare with the tremendous loss of life and great suffering that have affected so many worldwide. The pandemic also struck the authors of this Survey, disrupting their research activities and even hospitalizing some.

Nevertheless, the 24 chapters from all over the globe remind us of our rich intellectual heritage, our many similarities, and deep friendships. As is typical, the chapters discuss matters ranging from assisted conception, adoption, and surrogacy to treatment of the elderly and inheritance. Several chapters deal with international or regional conventions and treaties and others are are of a more comparative nature. As is customary, some authors hold leadership positions within the Society or their own countries; others are completing their graduate studies.

This edition also marks the last for which I will serve as General Editor, since I have retired and wish to ‘pass the baton’ to a younger generation of scholars. The 2022 edition will be edited by my compatriots June Carbone of the University of Minnesota and Robin Wilson of the University of Illinois. For 2023, the aim is to highlight the developments in family law over the 50 years our Society will have been organized. My thanks and admiration go to the scores of authors who have contributed such fine work over the years, as well as to the fine people at Intersentia who turn the manuscripts into such lovely volumes. And, of course, Christine Bidaud and Dominique Goubeau have been invaluable and patient with their translations of the abstracts.

One of the things I did not expect when I agreed to serve as General Editor was the extent to which I would come to know these many talented people. Over the years, I have been party to their triumphs, both personal and professional, and their struggles. I have come to know not only about career successes, jealousies and failures, but about births and deaths, child and marital problems, and illnesses both physical and mental.

The year 2020 will long be remembered for the international appearance of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. As it spread throughout the world, it affected nations, communities, families and individuals in dramatic and tragic ways. Though clearly not in the same league as the deaths, grave illnesses, family violence and economic challenges wrought by the virus, COVID-19 impacted the International Survey. While some of the manuscripts had been completed by the close of 2019 or very early in 2020, a number promised never materialized. In one case, a country's central leadership which needed to approve a piece suffered major illnesses and political unrest. In another, the author herself became quite ill with the virus and had to struggle to complete the chapter. In many cases, sources available only in hard copy from libraries suddenly became difficult to obtain. For these reasons, I send this slightly smaller than usual version along with my admiration and great thanks to the 18 authors or teams included. They deserve our gratitude for their dedication and perseverance. And, as usual, I thank Dominique Goubeau and Christine Bidaud for their expertise in translating the abstracts into French, especially when so many came in simultaneously in the last days. Dominique informs me that this will be his last year on the Council of the ISFL, so we all need to thank him for his constant help and good humor in undertaking this project over many years.

In the end, the chapters again come from every inhabited continent, though a number of important jurisdictions (Russia, India and Japan) have no entries this year. I would ask for suggestions of new authors from these and other countries (such as the USA, which is part of a comparative chapter only) for future editions.

Two of the chapters concern the work of international bodies, the European Court of Human Rights (on paternity matters, written by Ledina Mandija from Albania) and the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (Part 2, dealing with children's rights and written by Olga A. Khazova (Russia) and Benyam Dawit Mezmur (Ethiopia), two members of the Committee). A related piece by Mary Welstead concerns the treatment of international couples in England and Wales.

The 2019 International Survey of Family Law again contains contributions from all inhabited continents, from both junior and established scholars, from industrialized and third world countries. Despite the tendencies toward pluralism, several themes seem to emerge, though not all of the 21 contributions involve one of these themes.

The first theme is the issue of pluralism itself, whether because a former colonial power is now ceding authority to a country with its own traditions or whether the state has both civil and customary law involving families. These issues characterize the contributions from the Faroe Islands, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.

A second theme involves various nations’ attempts to deal with domestic violence, sometimes in cases involving shared parenting. Various contrasting solutions on these matters are presented by authors of the contributions from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the Seychelles.

The contributions on Ireland and Hong Kong focus on the third strand, which concerns the problems of more traditional societies (at least in family law) now dealing with contemporary family law issues.

Finally, some contributions discuss the issues relating to assisted reproductive technology and the related issues of LGBT identity. This concern characterizes the contributions from Korea, Serbia and the United States.

My profound thanks go to Dominique Goubau and Christine Bidaud-Garon for their invaluable work in translating (and sometimes helping create) French abstracts for each chapter. The abstracts make the survey more accessible to Francophone countries around the world. Translating becomes still more of an art when the legal language is taken out of context, as it frequently is in these summations.

For those desiring to learn more about the Society, its goals and history, or how to join the Society, the place to look is the ISFL website, www.isflhome.org.