Family law

Family law (also called matrimonial law or the law of domestic relations) is an area of the law that deals with family matters and domestic relations, including:

• Marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships
  • Entry into legally recognized spousal and domestic relationships
  • The termination of legally recognized family relationships and ancillary matters, including divorce, annulment, property settlements, alimony, child custody and visitation, child support and alimony awards
• Adoption
• Surrogacy
• Child protective proceedings, as may result from state intervention in cases of child abuse and child neglect
• Juvenile court matters, including status offenses, delinquency and juvenile adjudication
• Paternity, including establishing and disestablishing paternity, and paternity testing

This list is not exhaustive and varies depending on jurisdiction.

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

See also

• Alimony
• California Child Actor's Bill, or the Coogan Law
• Legitimacy (family law)
• Merger doctrine (family law)
• Supervised visitation

Specific jurisdictions

• Algerian Family Code
• Family Court of Australia
  • Australian family law
• Family Law Act (Alberta, Canada)
• Family law system in England and Wales
  • Children Act of 1989
• Malian Family Code
• Mudawana, the Moroccan Family Code
• The Philippines' Family Code of 1987
• Nashim, the order of the Mishnah outlining Jewish family law

References

Further reading

• Testimony of Barbara DaFoe Whitehead, Ph.D, Co-Director, National Marriage Project Rutgers University, before US Senate Subcommitee
• Wallerstein, Judith, Ph.D., "The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce", an analysis of the long-term effect of divorce on children; NPR interview (2001)
• R. Partain, "Comparative Family Law, Korean Family Law, and the Missing Definitions of Family", (2012) HongIk University Journal of Law, Vol. 13, No. 2.
• Finer, Sir Morris (1974). Report of the Committee on One-Parent Families: presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Social Services by command of Her Majesty July 1974. H.M.S.O.