Family Life, Family Law, and Family Justice: Tying the Knot, Marsha Garrison

Abstract

‘Politics,’ said Bismarck, ‘is the art of the possible’. The same can be said of family law. Families come in all shapes and sizes, and family life is a messy, complicated, and frequently unpredictable affair. The policy maker who wishes to regulate family life must therefore be a pragmatist. She must be realistic about the goals that she can feasibly attain, and clear-sighted about the capacities and limitations of the legal means by which she can pursue them. Only by adopting this pragmatic stance can she create a system of family law that works for families. In Family Life, Family Law, and Family Justice: Tying the Knot, Marsha Garrison argues that contemporary Anglo-American family law does not work. It has ‘failed to keep up with shifts in family life’1 and is no longer fit for purpose. Family law—‘all of it’2—therefore needs to change. If we are to transform family law ‘into the useful animal modern families need’3 then we must adopt a pragmatic approach that recognises the reality of modern family life, and the extent and limitations of the law’s ability to change it. As Garrison puts it, ‘we must tie a firm knot between contemporary family life and family law’.4 This is the task that Garrison pursues in this ambitious, illuminating, and thought-provoking monograph.