ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relationship between two significant trends in family law. It describes what the law, and legal system, does have to offer families making contact arrangements. Before considering the relative 'effectiveness' of the legal and non-legal route in establishing contact, the chapter examines the extent to which law and the legal system informs privately ordered contact decision-making. In a highly influential paper published in 1979 Mnookin and Kornhauser argued that despite the move towards private ordering, the role of law continued to provide 'a framework within which divorcing couples can themselves determine their postdissolution rights and responsibilities'. In a US study of divorce bargaining, Jacob concluded similarly that the shadow of the law does not form a universal backdrop, and that again it is how the issue is presented to solicitors, as problem or non-problem, that determines whether or not legal rules are sought and elicited.
