ABSTRACT
The need for examination is all the more pressing given the prominence pervasively accorded family relations. In face of the most varied social ills and cultural depredations, the cry gets increasingly repeated that the integrity of the family is under siege and that only a reaffirmation of family values can rescue the quality of life. The incommensurability between marriage, parenting, and property entitlements is indicative of the problem the family presents for liberalism of any stripe. Prenuptial agreements and other limitations upon joint marital property can serve traditional agendas at odds with domestic freedom, such as retaining property within a patrilineal or matrilineal family line rather than submitting it to the co-determination of spouses. In addition to this concern, two further non-traditional issues motivate the principal departures from communal property regimes in modern family law: the separation of assets, the community of gains, and deferred community systems.
