ABSTRACT
Family law has come a long way in the twentieth century. When the century opened there was divorce for adultery only—aggravated adultery where wives were the petitioners. In the name of family values the Family Homes and Domestic Violence Bill was killed off in the autumn of 1995. The family values movement is also associated with an anti-gay backlash and a moral panic about AIDS. The 'right' is also opposed to modern trends in divorce law. It would not see a link between a moral campaign on family values and the family justice embodied in the latest divorce reform. The law of marriage was firmly in place: reforms in 17538 and 18369 had opened the institution to public scrutiny and provided for a centralized system of state regulation. As the century opened there was no academic discipline of family law. For this we had to wait until after the Second World War.
