ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the relationship between law and the family responsibilities that people take and avoid. It discusses 'family' as an overarching term to encapsulate the whole range of personal relationships in which people live. The book considers responsibilities in both their historic and prospective forms. It offers some fruitful commentary on law's role in framing the family responsibilities undertaken in practice and in resolving the disputes of people whose responsible behaviour is being challenged by their changing personal relationship. The book offers discrete, individual reflections on the responsibilities that people in a cross-section of altered family relationships have undertaken and might, in future, undertake. It focuses upon the intimate relationships of adults; it explores the hallmarks of the modern family lives of adults, of partnership, mutual interdependence, the sharing of lives, of caring, love and commitment.
