Harmonisation of Family Law in Europe: A Historical Perspective A tale of two millennia

This book provides an overview of the developments in family law in Europe during the last two millennia. It aims to examine the so-called 'cultural constraints argument', which suggests that family law is unsuitable for harmonisation because the family laws of the European countries are deeply imbedded in their unique national cultures and history. It follows the path of the greatest-ever harmonisation event in European legal history: the creation of the medieval canon family law, and shows how, under the impact of pan-European economic, cultural and ideological trends, medieval uniformity turned into present-day diversity. Everywhere in Europe the evolution of family law generally followed the same pattern - from a traditional restrictive family law, built upon communitarian, transpersonal premises, to a more permissive family law, based upon modern personalistic ideology - yet national differences seem not to be disappearing. It appears, however, that this has little to do with the

Masha Antokolskaia graduated in law at Moscow State Law Academy and at University of Amsterdam and was awarded a PhD in 1988. Form 1989 till 1998 she taught civil and family law at Moscow State Law Academy. In 1993-1995 she was member of the drafting team of the New Russian Family Code. From 1998 until 2005 she was KNAW-senior research fellow at the Molengraaff Institute of Private Law, University of Utrecht. Since 2005 she is professor of family law at the VU University Amsterdam. In 2009 she became head of the Department of Private Law. In 2011 she initiated the Amsterdam Centre for Family Law (ACFL).