ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the evolution of family life and Family Law, both public and private, from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I through the mid-twentieth century. Although its focus is on the Anglo-American family and Family Law, most of the developments recounted can be traced in other advanced European societies. The chapter charts the transition from a monarchical, to a contractarian, and then an individualist Family Law and explains how these transitions reflect economic, technological, political, and social change. The chapter also describes how Family Law in action deviated from Family Law in the statute books and explains the class-based differences in family formation and dissolution that ground today’s socioeconomic divide in family life.
