ABSTRACT
The task of jurisprudence for legal realists is a practical aim to ensure that judicial decisionmaking promotes social welfare and increases the predictability of legal outcomes.1 This focus on the functional effects of judicial decisionmaking requires sufficient knowledge of the social sciences to enable judges to understand social policy implications when fashioning legal remedies.2 Legal realism has dominated judicial decisionmaking in most areas of the law.3 Family law4 jurisprudence, however, reflects the law’s inconsistency with families real life experiences and with relevant social science research in child development and family relations.5 Historically, judges have attempted to fashion morality in the determination of family legal issues rather than to devise legal remedies that accommodate how families live.6 This approach to decisionmaking must change if family law jurisprudence is to effectuate the well-being of families and children. A new approach to family law jurisprudence can assist decisionmakers to account for the realities of families lives when determining family legal issues.
