Vulnerabilities, Care and Family Law

Julie Wallbank, Jonathan Herring

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136003448
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Droit
• Subtopic: Théorie et pratique du droit

While in the past family life was characterised as a "haven from the harsh realities of life", it is now recognised as a site of vulnerabilities and a place where care work can go unacknowledged and be a source of social and economic hardship. This book addresses the strong relationships that exist between vulnerability and care and dependency in particular contexts, where family law and social policy have a contribution to make.

A fundamental premise of this collection is that vulnerability needs to be analysed in a way that gets at the heart of the differential power relationships that exist in society, particularly in respect of access to family justice, including effective social policy and law targeted at the specific needs of families in mutually dependent caring relationships. It is therefore crucial to critically examine the various approaches taken by policy makers and law reformers in order to understand the range of ways that some families, and some family members, may be rendered more vulnerable than others.

The first book of its kind to provide an intersectional approach to this subject, Vulnerabilities, Care and Family Law will be of interest to students and practitioners of social policy and family law.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Notes on contributors
• 1. Introduction: vulnerabilities, care and family law
• 2. The contours of ‘vulnerability’
• 3. Making family law more careful
• 4. Why care? ‘Deserving family members’ and the conservative movement for broader family recognition
• 5. Universal norms, individualisation and the need for recognition: the failure(s) of the self-managed post-separation
• 6. Autonomy and vulnerability in family law: the missing link
• 7. Mediation and vulnerable parents
• 8. Child protection and the modernised family justice system
• 9. Child support, child contact and social class
• 10. Labour law, family law and care: a plea for convergence
• 11. Relational vulnerability, care and dependency
• 12. Safeguarding and the elusive, inclusive vulnerable adult
• 13. When are adult safeguarding interventions justified?
• Index