The second edition of this casebook has been updated and trimmed, although it retains a wide range of topics and materials. It covers a variety of private international law issues, including child abduction, child custody, adoption, child support enforcement, and recognition of marriages and divorces. The book also explores the impact of public international law on both domestic and international regulation of the family, using topics such as family violence and the rights of the child. Finally, the book uses comparative law materials to examine traditional family law topics, such as the regulation of marriage, the rights of same-sex couples, adoption, reproductive freedom, and more.

Focusing on Florence, Thomas Kuehn demonstrates the formative influence of law on Italian society during the Renaissance, especially in the spheres of family and women. Kuehn's use of legal sources along with letters, diaries, and contemporary accounts allows him to present a compelling image of the social processes that affected the shape and function of the law. The numerous law courts of Italian city-states constantly devised and revised statutes. Kuehn traces the permutations of these laws, then examines their use by Florentines to arbitrate conflict and regulate social behavior regarding such issues as kinship, marriage, business, inheritance, illlegitimacy, and gender. Ranging from one man's embittered denunciation of his father to another's reaction to his kinsmen's rejection of him as illegitimate, Law, Family, and Women provides fascinating evidence of the tensions riddling family life in Renaissance Florence. Kuehn shows how these same tensions, often articulated in and through the law, affected women. He examines the role of the mundualdus—a male legal guardian for women—in Florence, the control of fathers over their married daughters, and issues of inheritance by and through women. An ambitious attempt to reformulate the agenda of Renaissance social history, Kuehn's work will be of value to both legal anthropologists and social historians. Thomas Kuehn is professor of history at Clemson University.

J. Shoshanna Ehrlich’s Fundamentals of Family Law, Second Edition is a concise version of Ehrlich’s Family Law for Paralegals, developed for use in shorter paralegal courses. The Fundamentals version provides students with the knowledge and skills they will need to be effective paralegals in a busy family law practice. Without sacrificing intellectual integrity and depth of topical coverage, the text is streamlined in order to emphasize the material that is essential for the transition from classroom to office. New to the Second Edition: Marriage (Ch. 1) includes new sections on: The retroactive application of Obergefell v. Hodges to backdate marriages of same-sex couple to when they would have married had it been allowed The debate over whether merchants can refuse to provide wedding-related services and goods to same-sex couples based on religious objections Whether the marriage consent age should be raised to protect minors from being forced into marriage against their will. Domestic Violence (Ch. 3) now covers: The use of electronic monitoring in domestic violence cases The possibility of allowing minors who are being forced into marriage to obtain civil orders of protection. Children coverage expanded to include: In Chapter 5, new sections on the appointment of attorneys to represent children in contested custody disputes and considerations of parental disability in best interest determinations In Chapter 11, new section on same-sex couples and the establishment of legal parenthood In Chapter 12, consideration of the emergence of medical child abuse and forced marriage as new categories of harm; expanded definitions of abuse and neglect, including medical child abuse and forced child marriage; and new section on “legal orphans” and the reinstatement of parental rights. Economic Issues updated with: New section in Chapter 6 on the due process rights of low-income parents in civil contempt cases for non-payment of child support. Chapter 7 expanded to include the backlash against “permanent” spousal support awards and the tax treatment of spousal support payments. Coverage of virtual assets in Chapter 8 Professors and students will benefit from: The full range of family law topics in a more concise format—including marriage and divorce, non-marital families, child abuse and neglect, and same sex marriage Practice-based assignments, real-life examples and sample forms Clear pedagogy--including chapter summaries, key terms defined in the margins, and review and discussion questions--helps students better understand the material and develop their critical thinking and writing skills. Up-to-date coverage of all the key topics in family law, with a consistent focus on the work of the paralegal

In terms of the South African Constitution of 1996 there is a general need for an introduction to comparative law and one that covers what is technically known as applied comparative law; more particularly applied comparative law that involves a study of the bills of rights in other countries.

This book examines how developing law and policies in England and Wales simultaneously promote and undermine children's rights.