Parental status in statute law and case law: The development from 1800 to the present day - social, legal and methodological aspects

Abstract

This thesis deals with the law of parental status in England from the beginning of the 19th century until the present time. It is concerned with the changes of the substance of law as well as of the methods of statutory drafting and judicial reasoning against the background of changing social conditions. Undergoing these changes the traditional English common law system acquires some features of a civil law system. Chapter I contrasts the traditional common law approach with the traditional civil law approach. Chapter II describes the general legal and social developments of the relevant period as far as family life is concerned. Chapter III deals with the development of substantive law on parental status, thereby mainly concentrating on the status of the mother and the father rather than on the parent/child relationship. Finally, in Chapter IV, methods of statutory drafting and judicial reasoning are considered. In the first part, it is shown how the changes take place in society and the law, it is also shown from which quarter the changes are initiated, which branches of society as a whole, including Parliament and the legal profession, shows themselves particularly in favour of or opposed to reform. In the second part, particular emphasis is laid on the mutual influence of judge-made and statutory law during the period, it is shown that this mutual influence can take different guises. In the last part, possible mutual influences of the methods of statutory drafting and legal reasoning are considered, in particular showing the effects of increasing use of statutes which leads to a system of law which thus seems to take an appearance that shows some similarities with civil-law systems. It is finally considered how the different threads of development relate to each other.