Family law is an area of the law that deals with family-related issues and domestic relations including, but not limited to:

• the nature of marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships;
• issues arising during marriage, including spousal abuse, legitimacy, adoption, surrogacy, child abuse, and child abduction
• the termination of the relationship and ancillary matters including divorce, annulment, property settlements, alimony, and parental responsibility orders (in the United States, child custody and visitation, child support awards).

This list is by no means dispositive of the potential issues that come through the family court system. In many jurisdictions in the United States, the family courts see the most crowded dockets. Litigants representative of all social and economic classes are parties within the system. Because the family courts are notoriously underfunded and see a relatively large proportion of economically dependent litigants, a common criticism levied is that the system inherently prejudices the needs of these disadvantaged parties.

For the Conflict of Laws elements dealing with transnational and interstate issues, see marriage (conflict), divorce (conflict) and nullity (conflict).

See also

• Algerian Family Code
• Family Court of Australia
  • Australian family law
• The Children Act
• Fathers' rights
• Marriage strike
• Sir Morris Finer - Report on One Parent Familes
• Mudawana (The Moroccan Family Code).
• Same-Sex Marriage
• Family law system in the UK

Research

• Current marriage and divorce rates statistics
• Recent court report that indicates 86% of order of protections were awarded to females and 7% of these petitions were denied in the same forty-six month period
• Government banking report linking divorce to bankruptcy
• Christian Biblical law

Further reading

• Testimony of Barbara DaFoe Whitehead, Ph.D, Co-Director, National Marriage Project Rutgers University, before US Senate Subcommitee

External links

International

• International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers

USA

• American Bar Association - Family Law Section
• American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers
• Representing Children Worldwide: How Children are Represented in Protective Proceedings (Yale Law Resource)
• Southern California family law attorney search and resource
• LII resources on Family Law
• Americans for Divorce Reform -- Cultural and legislative efforts to reduce divorce
• Federal Rules: U.S. District Court Northern Illinois
• State Rules I: Illinois
• State Rules II: Illinois
• Local Rules for Cook County
• Court Forms for Cook County
• Family Court Information for Westchester County
• Common Sense Divorce and Custody Information - Free information about divorce.
• National Alliance for Family Court Justice - Information on women losing custody of their children and mothers' rights
• National Fathers' Resource Center (NFRC) - Tools, advice, online courses, links to state family codes, and information for fathers. Parenting and father's rights advocates as an outreach branch of the Fathers for Equal Rights, Inc. organization in Texas.

Australia

• Family Court of Australia Web Site
• The Family Law Act 1975
• Child Support (Assessment) Act, 1989
• Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988

England

• The Children Act 1989
• Family Proceedings Rules
• Judicial Studies Board Family Bench Book
• All of Dr. Lowenstein's publications on the PAS

Scotland

• Children (Scotland) Act 1995
• Scottish Executive announcement, Wed 9 February 2005.

Japan

DivorceFamily lawMarriage

Семейно право | Familienrecht | Derecho de familia | Droit de la famille | דיני משפחה | Personen- en familierecht | Prawo rodzinne | Direito de família | Družinsko pravo | Familjerätt