Family Law

Most Western legal systems have a body of law known as family law. This body of law concerns itself with defining familial relations, attaching and defining of legal consequences to those relationships and their dissolution, and the transition of individuals into new family formations. In concrete terms, this translates into marriage and its effects, divorce, the law of the parent-child relationship, including postseparation parenting and child support, and the recognition of nonmarital relationships. Other matters often included in family law, but depending on the local distribution of legislative powers and not discussed here, include domestic violence, adoption, and child protection.