Obligation and Commitment in Family Law

Gillian Douglas is Executive Dean and Professor of Law at The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London.

1. The Ties that Bind?
I. Introduction
II. Care and Caring
III. Legal Obligation
IV. Obligation as a Social Norm
VI. The Rationale for Obligations Upon Family Members
VII. Obligation or Commitment
2. Family Change and Individual Commitment
I. Family Changes
II. A Demographic Picture
III. From the Family to the Individual
IV. Change and Commitment
3. To Have and To Hold
I. Compelling Cohabitation
II. The Concept of Consortium
III. The Suit for Restitution of Conjugal Rights
IV. The Modern ‘Duty’ of Cohabitation
V. Marriage as Personal Commitment
4. A Clean Break
I. A Duty to Maintain
II. Maintenance During Marriage
III. Post-Divorce Maintenance and the Clean Break
IV. Triumph of the Clean Break?
5. Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!
I. Duty to State, Mother or Child?
II. Limiting the Burden on the State
III. Protecting the Position of Mothers
IV. Supporting the Child
V. A Culture of Non-Compliance
6. Parenthood is for Life
I. Obligation or Right?
II. Paternal Right and Maternal Concession
III. A Right of Both Parents
IV. A Right of the Child
V. A Parental Responsibility
VI. Enforcing Contact
VII. A Presumption of Continuing Parental Involvement
VIII. An Obligation to be ‘Involved’?
7. Who Cares?
I. Care-Giving as an Obligation
II. Care-Giving as a Claim to a Remedy
III. Caring Relationships
IV. Recognition of Caring Relationships, or Recognition of Care?
8. The Law of Family Obligations
I. Care, Obligation and Commitment
II. Altruism, Family Obligation and Non-Justiciability
III. The Gendered Legal Approach to the Family Unit
IV. Obligations and Commitments in Family Law
V. Obligation and Commitment