Family Law

Family Law

Introduction

Family law deals with the ways in which family groups are created, ordered, and dissolved. Primary issues in family law are marriage, separation, and divorce, legitimacy, child custody and support, alimony, and adoption, as well as questions of parentage associated with such reproductive technologies as artificial insemination and surrogate parenting.

Throughout history, family law has been closely connected to property law and laws of succession. This connection probably originated with the property issues that arose when a woman left her family of origin to become a member of her husband's family. Questions of who is a legal spouse and who is a legitimate heir are also related to matters of property law. Since the social hierarchies on which many cultures have been structured were reinforced by marriage and property laws, family law has often been used to promote the interests of the dominant class. Revolutionary movements have often focused, therefore, on changing family law. The socialist revolutions in Russia and China, for example, rewrote traditional family laws that supported quasi-feudal regimes. Similarly, Japan's introduction of the Meiji code in 1898 led to the emergence of a new social structure.

It is likely that the scope of family law will continue to widen, as complex social problems influence family structure. Population growth, for example, which has already led China to establish family size limits, may cause further state regulation of fertility. New reproductive technologies will raise legal questions regarding family relationships. Increasing global migration and urbanization are also expected to affect traditional structures of family law. This paper discusses whether it is true to say that the rights of cohabitees have been assimilated to those of married couples and those in a civil partnership.

Discussion

Cohabitation around the world:

Currently, the vast majority of nations around the world do not offer the same social and legal protections to unmarried partners that they offer to married partners. In China, for example, contraception needs for unmarried women are not being met. There are approximately 13 million abortions performed every year in China for young single women (and 10 million abortion pills sold annually to them), often because young single women know little about contraception; the state widely promotes and subsidizes contraception for married women but tends to ignore the needs of unwed women. There are no rights for unmarried same-sex partners in most Muslim-majority countries; homosexual activity in many Muslim-majority countries is considered a crime and can be punished by death, imprisonment, fines, or corporal punishment. Since the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, at least 4,000 individuals charged with homosexual acts have been executed by the government. In Saudi Arabia, gays and lesbians can be publicly executed if found participating in lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) movements. On the other hand, there are some relatively secular Muslim-majority countries where same-sex partnerships are tolerated, such as Turkey, Indonesia, and Jordan.

Cohabitation is U.S. and U.K.:

The growth in the rate of cohabiting couples reflects changes in the institution of marriage and concerns about its stability over the life ...