Family Law, Seventh Edition

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Family Law, now in its seventh edition, is a modern and teachable casebook, offering comprehensive coverage and a mix of interdisciplinary materials. It compares innovative developments in some states with the reaffirmation of traditional principles in others and does so in the context of a wider focus on family and the state, the role of mediating institutions, and the efficacy of law and particular methods of enforcing the law. The casebook deals with the complexity of family law both in the organization of the chapters—separate units on family contracts, jurisdiction, and practice, for example, can be shortened, skipped, or taught in almost any order—and the diversity of material within each chapter. Each unit combines primary cases with comprehensive notes, supplemented with academic and policy analyses that provide a foundation for evaluation. Detailed problems extend the coverage or apply the commentary to real-world examples. 

New to the 7th Edition:  

• The reversal of Roe v. Wade and constitutional protection for abortion rights 
• Discussion of the growing class divide in family formation, and of tensions between relatively conservative versus relatively liberal states about the foundations for family law, including how varying forms of families are recognized and defined 
• The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on family law practice 
• The changing law of parentage with an emphasis on diverging developments across different states on issues such as the recognition of functional parenthood 

Benefits for instructors and students: 

• Comprehensive notes 
• Current cases 
• Detailed problems 
• Flexible, modular organization 
• Balanced presentation of materials 
• Coverage of relevant doctrines, such as property, contracts, torts, criminal law, conflict of laws, and constitutional law 
• Materials on cross-disciplinary topics, including financial principles, genetics/statistics, clinical psychology, social history, policy discussions, counseling, negotiation, ADR, and ethics