FAMILY LAW AND FAMILY VALUES Oñati International Series in Law and Society A SERIES PUBLISHED FOR THE OÑATI INSTITUTE FOR THE SOCIOLOGY OF LAW General Editors William L F Felstiner Johannes Feest Board of General Editors Rosemary Hunter, Griffiths University, Australia Carlos Lugo, Hostos Law School, Puerto Rico David Nelken, Macerata University, Italy Jacek Kurczewski, Warsaw University, Poland Marie Claire Foblets, Leuven University, Belgium Roderick Macdonald, McGill University, Canada Titles in this Series Social Dynamics of Crime and Control: New Theories for a World in Transition edited by Susannah Karstedt and Kai Bussmann Criminal Policy in Transition edited by Andrew Rutherford and Penny Green Making Law for Families edited by Mavis Maclean Poverty and the Law edited by Peter Robson and Asbjørn Kjønstad Adapting Legal Cultures edited by Johannes Feest and David Nelken Rethinking Law Society and Governance: Foucault's Bequest edited by Gary Wickham and George Pavlich Rules and Networks edited by Richard Appelbaum, Bill Felstiner and Volkmar Gessner Women in the World's Legal Professions edited by Ulrike Schultz and Gisela Shaw Healing the Wounds edited by Marie-Claire Foblets and Trutz von Trotha Imaginary Boundaries of Justice edited by Ronnie Lippens Family Law and Family Values Edited by Mavis Maclean Oñati International Series in Law and Society A SERIES PUBLISHED FOR THE OÑATI INSTITUTE FOR THE SOCIOLOGY OF LAW OXFORD AND PORTLAND, OREGON 2005 Published in North America (US and Canada) by Hart Publishing c/o International Specialized Book Services 5804 NE Hassalo Street Portland, Oregon 97213–3644 USA © Oñati IISL 2005 Hart Publishing is a specialist legal publisher based in Oxford, England. To order further copies of this book or to request a list of other publications please write to: Hart Publishing, Salter’s Boatyard, Folly Bridge, Abingdon Road, Oxford OX1 4LB Telephone: +44 (0)1865 245533 or Fax: +44 (0)1865 794882 WEBSITE: http://www.hartpub.co.uk British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data Available ISBN 1–84113–547–X (cloth) ISBN 1–84113–548–8 (paper) Typeset by Compuscript Ltd, Shannon Printed and bound in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd, www.biddles.co.uk ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The International Institute for the Sociology of Law in Oñati has enabled this group of scholars who share an interest in family law and family poli- cy, but come from a variety of academic disciplines and countries, to meet, to argue and to develop their ideas over almost a decade. We are grateful for this opportunity and proud to present our third volume of essays. This follows on from our first volume, Family Law and Family Policy in the New Europe, published in 1997, which looked at the development of fam- ily law in a period of rapid transition in Eastern Europe when norms and values were re-examined and a great deal of legislative activity was taking place. This led us in our second volume, Making Law for Families, pub- lished in 2000, to look closely at the law-making process, with which some of us had become closely involved. Looking at this process and at the strug- gle of law reformers to respond to changing family forms has brought us full circle to look again at the purposes and values underlying family law, and at the relationship between ‘Family Law and Family Values’. We are particularly grateful to Malen Gordoa for her impeccable organ- isation of the meeting and to Jenny Dix for her editing skills. [...]... Tomé—on Family Law and Family Values on Portugal’—looks across at the pre-eminence of the family as an institution enshrined in the constitution, and affected by both canon and civil laws But the concept of the family underlying the legal norms is far more homogeneous than the diversity of social reality She argues persuasively for the rethinking of family law in terms of the functions we want the family. .. welfare and employment for the different ethnic groups due to substantial differences in their educational and qualification levels The key values for Bulgarian society remain the protection of children, family honour and preservation of health, and moral and human dignity Finally, Masha Antokolskaia brings to our attention in chapter 17 the question of family values and the harmonisation of family law. .. legal adviser to the Portuguese Central Bank Her research interests include family law, social security law and financial law Wolfgang Voegeli is Professor of Civil and Economic Law at HWPHamburg University of Economics and Politics He has conducted a number of interdisciplinary socio-legal studies in the field of family law, and is currently programme director of the Master of European Studies at HWP... within societies and attempts to build harmonisation of family law in Europe The volume closes with a contribution addressing the overall topic of the book, the relationship between Family Law and Family Values today In the first part of this section (chapter 14) Jean van Houtte and Jef Breda raise the question of where responsibility lies for the maintenance of older people in need: with the family or with... Committee on the Sociology of Law and one of the founding fathers of the International Institute for Sociology of Law in Oñati His research interests and publications relate to the administration of (civil) justice, family law, and legal professions in Belgium and Europe Maria João Romão Carreiro Vaz Tomé teaches at the Portuguese Catholic University School of Law in Porto and works as a legal adviser... Families and Divorce (with B Neale and A Wade, Cambridge, Polity, 2001), Family Fragments? (with B Neale, Cambridge, Polity, 1999) and The New Family? (edited with EB Silva, London, Routledge, 1999) Velina Todorova currently teaches Family and Inheritance Law at the Plovdiv University and works for the Bulgarian State Agency for Child Protection She has been a member of the International Society for Family. .. Society for Family Law since 1997 Her research interests include family law, children, parent–child relationships, state intervention, public care for children, and personal obligations deriving from family relations Jean van Houtte is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Sociology of Law at the University of Antwerp (UFSIA) He is the founding director of its Centre for Sociology of Law, and an honorary... often hear, ‘I thought about this and this is what I wanted to do’, but this would often be swiftly followed by ‘my parents really wanted us to marry’ or ‘I am Catholic/Muslim and this is what we do’ We are as yet unclear as to how the law fits into this contextualised individualism The volume has four parts Part I is concerned with the framing of Family Law and Family Values The first chapter by John... apparent breakdown of family values described by American and British writers, and the growth of self-seeking behaviour This has been countered by Etzioni in the call for a new communitarianism and an embargo on new rights Eekelaar sees instead the development of a new individualism based on autonomy requiring negotiation with others holding similar values The question for family lawyers is how far this... of family status could be taken away, or alternatively that preferential treatment should be extended to all who are close and practise the traditional family values of support and care The final chapter (4) in this first part from Jane Lewis explores the changing context for the family obligation to care and to earn at the macro level from a social policy perspective The traditional two-parent family, . Legislation and Practice VELINA TODOROVA 257 Part IV. B Harmonisation of Law and Diversity: the Fit Between Family Law and Family Values 16 Ethnicity and Expectations Concerning Family Law and Family Values. respond to changing family forms has brought us full circle to look again at the purposes and values underlying family law, and at the relationship between Family Law and Family Values . We are. Family Values in Bulgaria STEFKA NAOUMOVA 277 17 Family Values and the Harmonisation of Family Law MASHA ANTOKOLSKAIA 295 18 Family Law and Family Values in Portugal MARIA JOÃO ROMÃO CARREIRO VAZ