Making Law for Families is the result of a workshop organized by Mavis Maclean and held between May 26 and June 2,1999, at the international Institute for the Sociology of Law (IISL) in Onati, Spain.

This book analyzes the concept of the family in the context of increasing challenges and questions created by multicultural societies in ever more complicated international and transnational legal contexts.
How is the family defined across cultural and national divides? To what extent and under what conditions should any particular state intervene? The collected essays in this volume seek to answer these and other difficult questions through grounded empirical research and insightful appreciation of how political systems function in various countries.
An underlying concern is to explore to what extent and under what terms will the family endure in the future as a basic unit of social management and control.

This book is part of the Oñati International Series in Law and Society.

1. Introduction
Mavis Maclean

PART ONE - FRAMING FAMILY LAW: THE NORMATIVE ASPECT

2. Uncovering Social Obligations: Family Law and the Responsible Citizen
John Eekelaar

3. Marital Bargaining: Implications for Legal Policy
M.M. Slaughter

PART TWO - THE POLITIQUE OF THE LAW-MAKING VENTURE

Section 1: The Out of Court Agenda

4. Making Family Law New? Property and Superannuation Reform in Australia
John Dewar

5. Administrative Divorce in France: A Controversy Over a Reform, that never reached the Statute Book
Benoit Bastard

Section 2: The Party Political Agenda

6. Regulation of Same-Sex Partnerships from a Spanish Perspective
Encarna Roca

7. “Pro-Family Policy” in Poland in the Nineties
Malgorzata Fuszara and Beata Laciak

8. The Bulgarian Children Act: A Battlefield for Adult Policies or a Genuine Commitment to Children?
Velina Todorova

Section 3: The Rights Agenda: Rhetoric and Reality

9. Legislating for the Child's Voice: Perspectives from Comparative Ethnography of Proceedings Involving Children
Anne Griffiths and Randy Francis Kandel

10. Family Law-Making and Human Rights in the United Kingdom
Claire Archbold

“It is an excellent idea to incorporate analytical and empirical work within one volume
all of the chapters of this collection have their merits and some will be thought-provoking for the academic as well as the student.
” –  Bev Clucas, University of Hull, Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law

“a series of fine articles” –  Geraldine Horwood, The Woodbridge Partnership New Law Journal

“This is a most interesting collection of pertinent material.” –  Penny Booth, University of Sunderland, The Law Teacher

“The book is unique because it focuses on the family law making process. Collectively, their perspectives provide an invaluable text for all family law academics and socio-legal scholars alike. ... the book should be recommended for family law and child law undergraduates. this collection provides an eye-opening account of how law is made for families. highly readable and incisive text.” –  Yvette Tan, International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family

“…this fascinating and readable bookThis book is important because it reminds us of the complex and highly political task of making law for families in all societies.” –  Francis Regan, Alternative Law Journal