ABSTRACT
Family law is a young academic subject, having been recognised as such since the 1950s. There is no statutory or common law definition of ‘the family’, nor any clear boundaries to the topics and issues to be studied on a family law course. The subject area divides naturally into, first, a law of adult relationships and, secondly, child law: the former tends to cover marriage, nullity, divorce and judicial separation (and financial relief following or without decree), and some introduction to the law of unmarried relationships, and the latter a study of the Children Act 1989, and of wardship, children’s rights, child abduction, adoption, and human assisted reproduction.
