Each individual experiences obligations arising from personal relationships. These are often hard to fulfil and give rise to tension between the demands of various relationships, between meeting current or future needs, but also between private norms and the demands of a public set of rules. The international contributors to this volume consider the relationship between family law and family values in the way law is framed, the way we are developing the legal context for new kinds of relationships such as cross-household parenting, same-sex partner relationships, and the obligations of adults to elders, and closes with a plea to rethink family law in terms of the functions we want it to perform.

Contributors include Masha Antokolskaia, Benoit Bastard, John Eekelaar, Lisa Glennon, Jacek Kurczewski, Jane Lewis, Carol Smart, Velina Todorova and Jean van Houtte.