ABSTRACT
Alterity is innate to the construction of identity as the experience of being identical with oneself. Boundaries between identity and otherness are common ground wherever and however they occur. While there is no ontological approach or espistemological gateway to the idea of alterity, exploring its boundaries and venturing over them from time to time does bring us closer to ourselves. If family law follows the path of otherness, there will be consequences. Discourse on the legal recognition of cultural identity and diversity points way beyond its subject. Agony in the face of the puzzle which the encounter and engagement with the other poses. And yet, in Emmanuel Levinas's words, it is in this encounter, in this engagement, that language and responsibility have their origins. In fact, that encounter and engagement form the essence of mutual cultural understanding in family law.
