The Reform of Family Law in Europe

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

   PDF

2. General Introduction

   • K. H. Neumayer

   Pages 1-17

3. The Reform of Family Law in the Netherlands

   • Jan de Ruiter

   Pages 19-41

4. The Reform of Family Law in England

   • Joseph M. Thomson

   Pages 43-74

5. The Reform of Family Law in France

   • Jacques Foyer

   Pages 75-109

6. The Reform of Family Law in Germany

   • Dieter Giesen

   Pages 111-138

7. Reform of Family Law in Greece

   • Alkis Argyriadis

   Pages 139-149

8. The Reform of Family Law in Italy

   • Vito Librando

   Pages 151-182

9. The Reform of Family Law in Luxembourg

   • Gaston Vögel

   Pages 183-200

10. The Reform of Family Law in the Scandinavian Countries

    • Ake Lögdberg

    Pages 201-226

11. The Reform of Family Law in the Socialist States

    • Tibor Pap

    Pages 227-254

12. Civil Procedure and the Reform of Family Law. The View of Socialist Law

    • Savelly Zilberstein

    Pages 255-281

13. Private International Family Law in Europe

    • Alfred E. von Overbeck

    Pages 283-322

14. Problems of Migrant Workers in Europe

    • Tugrul Ansay

    Pages 323-338

15. Back Matter

    Pages 339-349

    PDF

In the last few years European Family Law has undergone considerable changes. Although in the past law reform was slow, since 1969 the impetus for reform has gathered momentum. It is no exaggeration to say that the changes that have occurred in Europe in the last six or seven years have radically altered the very concept of the family in Europe. As a distinguished scholar and former editor of the Family Law volume of the International Encyclopaedia of Com­ parative Law, Professor Max Rheinstein, has put it: 'These transformations are not fully completed anywhere. They have gone farthest in the countries of highest industrialization and in those of socialist rule. But they have set in wherever industrialization has obtained a foothold. The degree of 'modernization' offamily law may indeed be used as an index of a society's degree of Westernization. 'l Yet, such is the force of traditional patterns of thought that, although we are aware of distinct changes in various legal systems, the underlying and implied assumption is that family law can still move within the traditional framework. This is not surprising for, until comparatively recently at least family law was not thought of as a suitable subject of unification. It was claimed that there is a peculiar and distinct element which derives from the mores and innermost beliefs of each people, from a sort of family Volksgeist that renders impossible the approximation or unification of family law.

• Family Law

• University of London, UK

  A. G. Chloros

• Centre of European Law, King’s College, UK

  A. G. Chloros

Policies and ethics