Belinda Fehlberg

Australian Family Law: The Contemporary Context 2nd Edition encourages critical thinking and a wide understanding of contemporary Australian family law. Description and analysis of the law is set in a broad context that includes policy debates surrounding the law and the family as well as discussion of relevant empirical and research literature. Recent years have seen a burgeoning of empirical research relevant to family law and policy, and this research enables the authors to convey a rich sense of the law in action, social norms (both attitudes and behaviours), and the contexts of the field. This second edition has been comprehensively updated to reflect the latest changes in family law. It continues to take a thematic approach, and its use of interdisciplinary materials presents the substantive law in a highly contextualised way. This new edition includes a separate chapter on financial disputes, and expanded coverage of parenting and property disputes.

This book is the first major study of an increasingly evident legal and social problem: spouses and partners (particularly wives) who provide third party loan security for the business liabilities of their other spouse or partner. Unlike other texts in this field, Fehlberg specifically considers the legal rules which apply to surety wives in England, with reference to other Commonwealth jurisdictions, particularly Canada and Australia. The law is then considered in the context of sociological literature relevant to surety experience. The particular uniqueness of this book is that legal and sociological literature are then tested against empirical research involving interviews with sureties, and other main parties involved in surety transactions. Significantly the latter underlines the discrepancy between the 'public' legal perspective on providing security and 'private' complex experiences and motivations which pertain within intimate relationships. Given this situation, the author considers various legal reforms which could improve the position of sureties, but emphasises that the ultimate solution for sureties involves more fundamental social change.