Rethinking Law’s Families and Family Law

This multi-faceted book combines theoretical, empirical and practical approaches to explore how family law is responding to the ever-changing social dynamics of the family. Bringing together a broad range of experts with innovative perspectives from across the globe, it highlights family law’s current challenges and presents key avenues for future research.

Editors Frederik Swennen, Elise Goossens and Tine Van Hof recognise the multiplicity of family constellations in the 21st century and the subsequent need for family law to recalibrate. Chapter authors explore a variety of subjects, such as nontraditional adult relationships, the role of surrogacy, the division of shared labour between parents, and parental responsibility with respect to children’s rights in the digital age. The book offers invaluable insights into the global academic endeavour to rethink law’s families and family law. Ultimately, the book acknowledges that family law is at a crossroads between the concept of the normative family and the actuality of ‘doing family’.



This book is a vital resource for academics and students in family law, gender law and private international law. Its incisive exploration of family dynamics is also of interest to legal practitioners, social policymakers and students of sociology, social policy, psychology and anthropology.