2 results
Remembrance of Things Past
- Edited by Robin Fretwell Wilson, University of Illinois, June Carbone, University of Minnesota
-
- Book:
- International Survey of Family Law 2023
- Published by:
- Intersentia
- Published online:
- 03 April 2024
- Print publication:
- 31 October 2023, pp 33-36
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
It was certainly serendipity that I should be an Associate at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge in the spring of 1973, when I received a letter from Ze’ev Falk, which was forwarded to me from my home institution, Boston College Law School. In the letter Ze’ev proposed a meeting of family law scholars in Birmingham, England. Since I was in England, a trip to Birmingham, a city I had never visited, sounded interesting. I had no idea what to expect, nor who would be in attendance. My wife Joan, and my two young sons, drove to Birmingham, never realising that the meeting would have an enormous impact on me, both professionally and personally. Indeed, the meeting would change my life.
It also changed the course of family law. One of the consequences of the meeting was the decision to create a society – the International Society of Family Law (ISFL) – that would hold an annual meeting and bring together family law scholars on a global basis. Of the scholars present at the meeting, Ze’ev Falk, J. Neville Turner, Tony Manchester, Frank Bates, Alastair Bissett-Johnson, Aidan Gough and John Eekelaar stand out in my memory. Little did I realise at that time that John Eekelaar would become not only a co-author in a number of publications, but a very close friend. What is so interesting about the meeting was the fact that all of us, mostly young scholars, were seriously interested in family law as an area for research and teaching. That is particularly noteworthy because in the United States, at that time, family law was not considered an important part of a law school curriculum, even though it was, and is, a subject found in most American bar examinations, and is a major area for law practice. That has changed, and family law now takes its place with contracts, torts, property, business associations, constitutional law and procedure in the teaching of fundamental principles of law. Indeed, it encompasses contemporary social issues in American society, like same-sex marriage, reproductive technologies and abortion.
Marriage and Adoption Laws in America
- Edited by Jens Scherpe, Aalborg University, Denmark, Stephen Gilmore, King's College London
-
- Book:
- Family Matters
- Published by:
- Intersentia
- Published online:
- 20 April 2023
- Print publication:
- 22 September 2022, pp 295-306
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
In 2023, John Eekelaar and I will be celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of our friendship. We met in 1973 in Birmingham, England, when I sat next to him at a meeting set up by Zehv Falk, an Israeli family law scholar. Professor Falk had written to me at my home institution, Boston College Law School, and the letter had been forwarded to me at Clare Hall, Cambridge University, where I was an Associate. Professor Falk wanted to establish an International Society of Family Law, and the Society was formed at that meeting. I became President of the Society ten years later, and John Eekelaar followed me in 1985. Together we have co-authored articles and co-edited books.
1. MARRIAGE
In Stephen Cretney’s 2003 masterwork, Family Law in the Twentieth Century, the first 150 out of 775 pages are devoted to marriage. In Homer Clark’s 1988 masterpiece, The Law of Domestic Relations in the United States (2nd edition), the author devotes about 200 out of 938 pages to marriage. The number of pages in each book does not include the discussion of divorce. The point is that marriage is given such attention because it has been considered the foundation of the family, both in the United Kingdom and in America.
What is meant by ‘foundation of the family’ is that it is the source of family relationships. In American law, the family is not considered a legal entity like a corporation or a trade union. Rather, it is a bundle of relationships, like husband and wife, parent and child, or sibling and sibling, that are legally recognised. Marriage laws have been untouched by change for hundreds of years, except for outlawing polygamy, 1 and until recently, restrictions on interracial marriage 2 and same-sex marriage.
Closely associated with religious institutions, the secular characteristics of marriage are frequently lost sight of: that it is comprised of a woman and a man, in a monogamous and affectionate relationship, making a public commitment, either oral or in writing, for life companionship. Although framed somewhat differently from the view of the Roman Catholic Church, whose pope stated 89 years ago that ‘marriage is for the sake of generations’, marriage does provide the enclosure for having children and raising them.