Subjects:

Family Law

Contents:

Table of Cases

Table of Statutes

Table of Statutory Instruments

An Explanatory Note on Parliamentary Procedures

Introduction

PART I. THE LEGAL FAMILY: MARRIAGE

1 Weddings

2 Marriage: Eligibility

3 Legal Consequences of Marriage: Property Regimes

4 Other Legal Consequences of Marriage: Conjugal Rights and Remedies

PART II. THE ENDING OF MARRIAGE: DIVORCE

5 Ending Marriage by Judicial Divorce under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857

6 The Campaign for Reform of the Victorian Divorce Law

7 The Ground for Divorce under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1937

8 The Family Justice Process 1900-1970

9 Irretrievable Breakdown as the Ground for Divorce: The Divorce Reform Act 1969

PART III. ENDING RELATIONSHIPS: THE LEGAL CONSEQUENCES

10 Marital Breakdown: The Financial Consequences

11 Maintenance, the Magistrate's Court and the State

12 The Ending of Relationships by Death: The Financial Consequences

13 Unmarried Couples: The Legal Consequences of Ending the Relationship

PART IV. CHILDREN, THE FAMILY AND THE STATE

14 Parentage

15 Children's Legal Status: legitimate or Illegitimate?

16 Parents and Children: Legal Authority in the Family

17 Legal Adoption of Children, 1900-1973

18 The State, Parent and Child: 1) before the Welfare State

19 The State, Parent and Child: 2) the Welfare State and Child Care Legislation

20 The State, Parent and Child: 3) Child Care Legislation at a Time of Transition, 1969-1989

PART V. THE FAMILY JUSTICE SYSTEM AT THE MILLENNIUM

21 The Family and the Law: Reform of the English Family Justice System Towards the End of the Twentieth Century

Bigraphical Notes

Sources and Select Bibliography

Index

The law governing family relationships has changed dramatically in the course of the last century and this book - drawing extensively on both published and archival material and on legal as well as other sources - gives an account of the processes and problems of reform. Much of the work of the courts was concerned with marriage and divorce, but there were also major changes in the legal position of married women and reform in all these areas was hotly controversial.

Family Law in the Twentieth Century gives full accounts of how the law has dealt with the relationship between children and their families, and the increasing involvement of the state in seeking to prevent abuse of children and providing for the needy. The book gives a revealing account of the processes of change and of the influence of pressure groups, civil servants, and judges, as well as individual campaigners.