Family Law for Family Life: Rethinking the Boundaries of Family Law

A key function of family law is to regulate family breakdown and conflict. Consequently, family law has been characterized as under threat as family disputes have been diverted from courts and lawyers, and its norms have become inaccessible to many. This article questions the scale of the threat. It argues for a rethinking of the boundaries of family law to shift focus away from dispute resolution and towards more constructive and anticipatory approaches. It shows how family law norms and rules might usefully be understood at the beginning of, or during, relationships. As such, the relevance of family law can be recaptured by seeing it as a tool for better informed-and perhaps normatively better-relationships over time; family law can be for family life, as well as family conflict. Finally, the article considers how contemporary shifts in the modalities of family law might be embraced and extended to accommodate a family law for family life agenda.