Subjects:

Jurisprudence, Family Law

Contents:

Part One.
1. Introduction (JK and MM)
2. Privatising the Polish Family after Communism (JK)
3. Dilemmas of Family Policy in Liberal States (Robert Dingwall) Part Two.
4. Private Law and the Post Totalitarian Family: Keeping promises and giving help (Iwona Jakabowska)
5. What do family members and friends expect from one another at the transition to democracy? (Joanna Smigielska and Astur Czynczyk)
6. Family responsibilities and inheritance in Great Britain (Janet Finch and Jennifer Mason) Part Three.
7. Allocating Resources at times of Crisis: Divorce and separation in Poland (Andrez Szlezak)
8. Delegalising Child Support (Mavis Maclean)
9. The Social Problem of child abuse in Poland: The conflict between privacy and control (Robert Sobiech)
10. Children's rights and adoption (Anna Kwak)
11. Implementing the Children Act 1989: The changing relationship between local and central government (Judith Masson)
12. Social work, Law Jobs, and the Form of Modern Law: The Children Act 1989 (Suzanne Gibson)
13. Does the law protect Polish women (Malgorzata Fuszana)
14. Women, family and poverty: British songs of innocence and inexperience (Ann Bottomley)
15. Family benefits and social security policy in Poland (Beata Bugaj)
16. Marriage, motherhood and old age security in the U.K. (Heather Joshi)
17. Divorcing Children: Roles for parents and the State (Martin Richards) Index.

The family has become a political battleground in both East and West. In the West, interventionist policies designed to encourage equality of opportunity and to eliminate the problems encountered by disadvantaged members of the traditional family (usually women, children and the elderly) have been replaced by a fresh quest for individual freedom from interference by the State. Once again inequality of economic power is determining decisions such as whether or if at all to seek divorce or abortion in situations where previously the State regulated by means of offering economic support. The process of 'rolling-back' the influence of the State has been dubbed 'privatisation' of the family, and the consequences of this shift by the State are here examined in considerable detail by a group of experts. The same examination of family in the East throws up similar terminology ('privatisation' for instance appears frequently) but the motivating forces and processes are intriguingly different. In the East concern to retain welfare provision, to reject the past, and to reflect national values without reducing individual liberty now requires a balancing act of extreme delicacy.;This book is intended for family lawyers, scholars of social policy and sociology.