This collection consists of nine contributions on situations where the interests of society, family, faith and culture concerning the child's welfare are in conflict. The focus is thus on one of the burning issues of any pluralistic, multicultural society encountering a diversity of norms, whether legal, cultural or faith-based. The English summary of the Swedish Law Commission's report Strengthened Protection against Forced Marriages and Child Marriages, which formed the basis of Sweden's 2014 law reform in the field, is included in order to demonstrate societal responses to encountered problems.

My thanks go to all the speakers, chairpersons, and participants at the “Families, Faith and Functions, The Child in the Intersections between Family, Society, Faith and Culture” symposium, held at Uppsala University in May 2013 on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the university's multidisciplinary research programme “The Impact of Religion: Challenges for Society, Law and Democracy”. One of the most vital themes of this research programme, funded as a Linnaeus Centre of Excellence (2008–2018) by the Swedish Research Council, is “Family and Society”. I wish to thank, in particular, my dear colleague and co-convener of the symposium Professor Anna Singer, as well as the Wenner-Gren Foundation and FORTE Research Council. Thanks are due also to Karolina Markgren LLM who assisted me with the drafting of the index and the final editing of this volume. All the presentations have been updated and rewritten for the purpose of this publication.