Family Life and the Law: Under One Roof

The family as a subject of legal regulation transcends both traditional law school and legal practice categories. This fascinating collection of essays, which draws together an array of legal disciplines to explore various definitions and treatments of family throughout the law, reminds us that we are all, to some extent, family lawyers. Jo Miles, Fellow in Law, Trinity College, University of Cambridge. A truly eye-opening and ground breaking book. With immense scholarship, it draws on a huge range of material to prompt thought - and suggest realistic solutions - for the legal problems of real families in the real twenty first century world. Anyone working with families or interested in the law affecting them will find this book indispensable both as a stimulus and a reliable and practical guide. Dr Stephen Cretney, All Souls College, Oxford This collection brings together experts from a wide variety of legal disciplines to comment on the way in which different areas of law affect the functioning family today. This collection brings together experts from a wide variety of legal disciplines to comment on the way in which different areas of law affect the functioning family today. It refocuses attention on the intact family and the legal issues that affect it. The volume brings a modern critical approach to bear on the broad range of subjects that used to constitute 'family law.' A key consideration in this collection is the way in which law itself is premised upon, and in turn constructs, a particular image of the family. By bringing different areas of law together, it is possible to explore how differing ideas about 'the family' inform different areas of law. This approach allows Family Life and the Law to analyse the extent to which the law is (in)consistent in its concept and treatment of the family, both within and across disciplines. This is particularly timely in view of the passage of the Civil Partnership Act 2004, the implications of which reverberate throughout family law and allied disciplines, and the current reconsideration of the position of cohabiting couples. Contents: Under one roof: law's interactions with family life; Keeping a roof over the family; The security of the home and the home security; Violence in a family context: the criminal law's response to domestic violence; Medical negligence; Contract - a justifiable taboo; Family law and social security; Income tax and family life; Work-life balance and employment law; Home or home; International families; Immigration law and family life; The asylum-seeking family; Families and European Union law; Bibliography; Index. About the Author: Rebecca Probert is Senior Lecturer at the University of Warwick, UK.