Law, Law Reform and the Family [Hardcover]

This collection of essays examine the process and problems of law reform with special reference to the development of family law. The author, Stephen Cretney, who is one of the UK's most distinguished family lawyers, demonstrates the different pressures and influences that affect the development of the law, including the views of judges, the advice of civil servants and the requirements of Parliamentary drafting to an extent which has not previously been appreciated.

Preface
Table of Cases
Table of UK Statutes
Introduction
1. The Law Commission: New Dawns and False Dawns
2. Putting Asunder and Coming Together: Church, State and the 1969 divorce reforms
3. The Forfeiture Act 1982: A Case Study of the Private Member's Bill as an Instrument of Law Reform
4. `Disgusted, Buckingham Palace . . .': Divorce, Indecency and the Press, 1926
5. Marriage Saving and the Early Days of Conciliation: the role of Claud Mullins
6. Tell me the old, old story - the Denning Report fifty years on
7. `What will the women want next?' The struggle for power within the family, 1925-1975
8. Adoption - From Contract to Status?
9. The State as a Parent: the Children Act 1948
10. Dividing Family Property on Death: Approaches to Reform of Intestacy
Index

Stephen Cretney was a practicing solicitor in the City of London from his graduation until 1965. He then taught at the Kenya and Southampton before becoming Quarrell Fellow and Tutor in Law at Exeter College, Oxford. Between 1978 and 1984 he served as a Law Commissioner before becoming Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Law at Bristol University. Since 1993 he has been Senior Research Fellow at All Souls' College, Oxford. He has served on a number of Government Committees.