Laws Relating To Family Situations

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Question: Laws relating to family situations are becoming more difficult to determine because of the difficulty in defining ‘family’. Explain how the laws have had to change to reflect changing social values about families. It is thus difficult in modern times to define what a family is. Society of the past always thought that a family did consist only of parents and their children who are blood related but now, through many technological and political influences, society have changed which dramatically affects the structure of the family. The family structure can be affected by the proliferation of divorce. This fact is illustrated today by the well-publicized "crisis" of marriage and family in our own society. Which have led to a "breakdown" of the family, and that this, in turn, will eventually lead to the breakdown of society itself. There are various forms or families now including: “Childless couple; defacto couples, homosexual partnership, single families, long-term foster children... etc and now laws are needed to ensure a stability of the family unit. One possible definition of a family might be a group of people who share a close emotional and financial bond. However, there can be many other definitions. Law now had to change to reflect changing social values about families. The first commonwealth legislation on the subject of divorce was the matrimonial causes act 1959. This legislation was known as a fault base divorce system. This system was reformed since it is too difficult for couples to be divorced so during 1975, the family law act was brought up to establish a new system, which is no-fault base system. The family act also recognizes and enforces rights and responsibilities between members in a family and also play a role in preserving the institution of marriage in society. Furthermore, the family law also treats defacto family the
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