The study explores the situation of women in the indigenous villages in Hong Kong during the post-colonial era, with particular reference to the walled villages in the New Territories. I look at how the legitimization of women inheritance right has an effect on gender dynamics since the ruling. The research is the first detailed ethnographic study that takes on an important Issue about how the indigenous women status and gender dynamics have evolved in the post-colonial Hong Kong, an understudied topic by contemporary scholarship. It makes a valuable contribution to the study of rural women in conditions of post-colonial transformation and to Hong Kong studies. The thesis is a comparative study of two walled villages based on a 24-month of archival research and fieldwork between 2008 and December 2011. Through chapters that provide analyses of the women inheritance women movement, the political and socio-economic transformation in Hong Kong. I elucidate the indigenous women's struggles that result from their intersectional position in the Hong Kong context. This context includes the long standing patriarchal dominance of the walled villages; a colonial history that promotes patriarchy in contradiction to the legal institution that legalizes women's right to inherit and government policy that obstructs indigenous women from exercising their full rights. The findings demonstrate that change in the inheritance law serves as an important statutory rather than an active agent in promoting changes in gender relations in the walled village. Rapid urbanization and commoditization of the walled villages and wider opportunities for walled village women in education, jobs are important factors that led to a shift in gender dynamics within the two villages. Difference in gender relations are salient across generations in both villages. In the walled villages, women, whether they are indigenous inhabitants or not, are both the products of political and socio-economic transformation within the greater Hong Kong context and the agents that induce changes to the walled villages since the legitimization of women inheritance rights in 1994.

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This thesis argues that the legal understanding of ‘family’ is underpinned by a particular idealised image of the family; the ‘nuclear family’,comprising the nexus of the conjugal relationship and the ‘parent/child’relationship. I contend that this model of family is premised upon the traditional, distinct, gendered roles of ‘father as breadwinner’ and ‘mother as homemaker’, which in turn are associated with the historical, liberal understanding of the ‘public/private’ divide and the orthodox construction of the legal subject as rational, autonomous and self-interested. Theinfluence of the nuclear familyis notedin several different contexts: various specific legal definitions of ‘family’, the legal regulation of adult, conjugal relationships, the attribution of legal parenthood and the construction of the role of the ‘parent’ within the law. This examination of the law’s model of the‘family’has been prompted by the substantial reforms undertaken in family law in recent decades and the significant evolution in both social attitudes and familial practices that has occurred in parallel over that time. Ultimately, this thesis concludes that while these reforms have resulted in additional categories of relationship coming to be situated within the nuclear family model (notably unmarried cohabitants and same-sex couples), there has not, as yet, been any fundamental alteration of the underpinning concept of the nuclear family itself.

This thesis examines the insights which may be gained from analysis of the potential for establishing a normative regime in English law for cohabitants, who now form a substantial constituency as an established alternative family unit, headed by apparently committed cohabiting couples, who are neither married nor in registered civil partnerships. The thesis critically analyses the 2006-7 work of the Law Commission in London, the apparent government reluctance to take this further despite Scottish implementation of a similar relationship generated compensation scheme on breakdown of such relationships, and the experience of other jurisdictions which have provided dedicated legislation for such families. The thesis also includes the results of some empirical fieldwork in qualitative studies with practitioners in a small number of key jurisdictions, including some comparative analysis of these experiences, and presents a theory which addresses the practical adverse impact of the lack of such a normative scheme in England and Wales. The thesis makes an original contribution to the debate on this area of English Family Law by providing a theoretical basis for legislation likely to be acceptable within the current modernisation of Family Justice in the recently established Family Court. It aims to meet both the drivers of that modernisation and most of the historic arguments against formally recognising (and discretely addressing the needs of) the substantial and continually growing cohabitant community. It makes further original contribution in analysing experience in the key jurisdictions which have introduced cohabitant legislation, both within our own geographical neighbourhood of the UK and EU and within the common law states of the Commonwealth, which were originally British settlements importing English law with them. Another original contribution is provided by an analysis of how such legislation could fit within the English legal system to provide a pragmatic solution to the escalating numbers of such families who now form a significant group expecting to find clarity in legal provision for their circumstances.

The Children Act 1989 recognized for the first time, in statutory form, that children can apply, with the leave of the court, for orders relating to their upbringing including an order relating to where he or she might wish to reside. This ability has led to the suggestion that children can 'divorce' their parents. This work considers these changes in two parts. Part I contains a theoretical examination of the relationship between children and the law. It is argued that children, like all human beings and because they are human beings, are radically autonomous (are ends in themselves) and thereby are the holders of strong (ontological) rights which provide the moral basis for law. It is posited that it is the responsibility of the superior courts to uphold the ontological rights of citizens (including children) and to ensure that all human beings are treated as ends in themselves. Attitudes to children in law are, however, at present predicated on welfare concerns which are underpinned by the philosophy of paternalism which sits in contradistinction to the proposition that children be treated as ends in themselves. This is true both in various mainstream theoretical analyses of how the law should look at children and, as is shown in Part II, in past and current practice of how the law has and is looking at children. In Part II the theoretical position advanced in Part I is used to assess whether the Children Act itself and its interpretation in the courts accords with the strong rights thesis. It is argued that as the Children Act is predicated on welfare and not autonomy that it does not accord with this thesis and it is suggested that the courts in considering the new legal rules are doing so paternalistically; a position which is ontologically indefensible.

This thesis explores the relationship between the problems that parenting has presented in lesbian families and family law. Through a series of theoretical and empirical observations, the thesis suggests that a 'heterosexual parenting paradigm' continues to pervade law and society, notwithstanding numerous changes in the legal status of non-heterosexual relationships. Drawing from interviews with sixteen lesbian parents, it is demonstrated that this heterosexual parenting paradigm has a significant impact on the how lesbian families are embraced politically, culturally and institutionally. The thesis goes on to illustrate that the heterosexual parenting paradigm has also constrained the general effectiveness of legal responses to the changing nature of parental relationships. As a result, it is suggested that the common law and legislative approach to defining parent/child relationships has become anachronistic. In pmticular, law has not yet established means of reflecting adequately the fragmentation of parenthood into its genetic and social components. This in tum has created some confusion and inconsistency in the legal framework for recognising parents. In relation to lesbian parents it is concluded that, notwithstanding positive developments, law has done little to erode the hegemony of the heterosexual parenting paradigm and the problems presented by lesbian parenting have not been satisfactorily dealt with. Finally, the thesis calls for a review of the way in which parenting is recognised in law, arguing that a more functional definition of parenthood is necessary and would benefit both lesbian families and family law.

It is almost axiomatic in Cameroon that a succession decision would engender one social problem or the other. It is either open confrontation or the scare of witchcraft which inhibits the peaceful enjoyment of the property by the victorious parties. Most excluded persons resort to crime as a means of livelihood, and the propagation of HIV/ AIDS is partially blamed on the rules of succession which drive women into prostitution. The problem is that the intestacy rules are far removed from the reality and hence exclude meritorious family members. They ignore the fact that the deceased’s duty of maintenance towards certain members of the immediate and extended families needs to be continued by the estate, and enshrine instead, the principle of precedence which favours the nuclear family, to which customary law even ascribes a restricted meaning. Wills are an unreliable alternative. Few persons make them, and when made, there is no guarantee of their success in doing what the intestacy rules fail to do. This study proposes to remedy this by examining the structure of succession law, with a view to discovering the weaknesses and identifying possible areas for reform, within the context of an imminent family code for the country.

In this thesis I explore how ageing, gender and sexuality intersect to influence equality in later life, in relation to older lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals and non-labelling individuals in same-gender relationships (LGBN). In particular I argue that temporality and spatiality shape uneven outcomes in later life by informing the discursive and performative production of ageing, gender and sexuality, which in turn influence access to resources, recognition and representation in older age contexts. Taking a feminist socio-legal perspective, my thesis addresses four questions: 1) How are the lives of older LGBN individuals framed in regulatory contexts?; 2) How do these regulatory frameworks inform ageing LGBN subjectivities and kinship formations?; 3) What are the main concerns of older LGBN individuals in relation to ageing?; and 4) How are the lives and concerns of older LGBN individuals represented by activists working on their behalves? To address these questions, I analyse the regulatory contexts relevant to LGBN ageing (Chapter Two). Methodologically, I expand understandings of ageing, gender and sexuality in later life through utilising qualitative data from interviews with older LGBN individuals and activists working on their behalves (Chapter Three). I analyse data from these interviews to consider: LGBN ageing subjectivities (Chapter Four), kinship constructions (Chapter Five) and anticipated care futures (Chapter Six), and to explore activists’ representations of older LGBN individuals’ lives, issues and concerns (Chapter Seven). In the final chapter I consider the implications for social policy and future research (Chapter Eight).

English matrimonial law until the mid-nineteenth century was administered by the ecclesiastical courts. The high legal fees charged by these courts restricted the number of matrimonial disputes which came before them. Moreover they were not empowered to grant divorce a vinculo. This matrimonial relief could be obtained only from Parliament but few husbands could meet the heavy expenses of a Private Act. The transfer of divorce hearings to a civil court in 1857 benefitted the middle class, though the mass of the people still remained debarred by inability to pay legal and court fees. Wives were additionally handicapped by economic and legal disadvantages. The need to provide working class wives with a quick, cheap and accessible means of protection from cruel husbands led to the establishment of the matrimonial jurisdiction of magistrates' courts in 1878. Study of the resort to divorce before the Second World War shows that it was the de facto non-availability of divorce rather than the lack of acceptable grounds that resulted in the great majority of broken marriages being dealt with in the summary court. Concern over evidence that the inability of working class spouses to obtain divorce resulted in the formation of illicit unions, led to the development of legal aid provisions culminating in the Legal Aid and Advice Act of 1949. This Act has been of special benefit to wives seeking divorce. Legal Aid, higher real wages and greater acceptance of divorce within the community have allowed an increasing number of broken working class marriages to be dissolved. Findings from a sample of 1961 divorce petitions show that social class and the rate of divorce are inversely associated. However, a broad breakdown into a non-manual/manual dichotomy hides variations within individual class groupings. Thus, white-collar workers have a higher rate of divorce than do manual workers. The social class of petitioners was also found to be associated with such demographic characteristics such as age at marriage and divorce. Although the divorce courts have been opened to all sections of the population, the criminal courts continue to hear the matrimonial disputes of the very poor. Evidence from a survey of maintenance orders held in magistrates' courts in 1966 suggests that some 165,000 marriages are neither martially united nor legally dissolved. Half of these separated spouses never seek divorce.

La maison, en tant que lieu d'habitation, est aujourd'hui un espace juridiquement protégé tant par le droit civil que par le droit pénal. En matière pénale, la maison est le lieu du paradoxe. Elle possède une criminalité qui lui est propre, avec cette particularité que tout se déroule dans le plus grand secret. Il s'agit d'un espace de l'intime où aucun fait contraire à l'ordre public ou aux bonnes moeurs ne doit être dévoilé, mais si l'affaire sort de cette enceinte, elle doit nécessairement subir une sanction majeure. Protégée par une série de circonstances aggravantes, elle reste un endroit où la justice doit montrer patte blanche pour pénétrer. La maison est, de surcroît, un milieu protéiforme où se mêle parfois à la famille, des individus considérés comme des tiers. Dans cet univers domestique, certaines infractions ont connu une évolution telle qu'elles sont aujourd’hui totalement repensées : le parricide, voire même abrogées : l'infanticide et le vol domestique. Tandis que d'autres ont évolué en faveur d'une plus grande fermeté répressive : violences et les infractions sexuelles commises contre les mineurs et au sein du couple. L'intérêt essentiel est de présenter très précisément des infractions éclairantes sur la protection des valeurs au sein de la maison et de rendre compte de leur évolution, sous l'impulsion à la fois des politiques pénales, de la jurisprudence, et de l'opinion publique. Un regard critique mérite également d'être porté sur le système répressif actuel en matière de protection de l'état de vulnérabilité intra-domestique et d'émettre des hypothèses de transformations constructives de l'état du droit positif / ...