Phillip Taylor MBE book review. International Survey of Family Law 2020

BOOK REVIEW

INTERNATIONAL SURVEY OF FAMILY LAW 2020
Edited by Margaret Brinig

ISBN 978 1 78068 973 9

INTERSENTIA LTD/International Society of Family Law (ISFL)

A SUPERB ANNUAL SURVEY OF INTERNATIONAL FAMILY LAW FROM MARGARET BRINIG, HER CONTRIBUTORS, AND INTERSENTIA

An appreciation by Elizabeth Robson Taylor MA of Richmond Green Chambers and Phillip Taylor MBE, Head of Chambers, Reviews Editor, “The Barrister”, and Mediator

The International Society of Family Law (ISFL) is an independent, international, and non-political scholarly association. It is dedicated to the study, research and discussion of family law and related disciplines which will of considerable interest to all who practise in the family law jurisdiction. They have collaborated with Intersentia to produce this new survey of family law for 2020.

The Society’s membership currently includes professors, lecturers, scholars, teachers, and researchers from more than 50 different countries, offering a unique opportunity for networking within a truly international family law community. And it is to the ISFL, linking up with Intersentia again whom we thank for the regular, annual updating of international family law matters. As many readers will know, family issues do cross borders although individual states can approach such problems in markedly different ways. Perhaps this is one of the main reasons why the survey is so valuable for the national and international insights it offers us.

“The International Survey of Family Law” is the annual review of the International Society of Family Law. The editor, Professor Margaret Brinig, together with her 35 eminent colleagues, bring together a reliable title with clearly structured insights into the latest and most notable developments in family law from all around the globe.

The chapters are prepared by an international team of selected experts in the field, usually covering 20 or more jurisdictions in each edition. And for 2020, the new survey is an important contribution to the devastation we face with the pandemic. Inevitably, Margaret’s Preface written in September 2020 states that “the year 2020 will long be remembered for the international appearance of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19”.

And, unsurprisingly, she continues, writing that “as it spread throughout the world, it affected nations, communities, families, and individuals in dramatic and tragic ways”. It is fair to say that everyone has been affected and there has been much suffering, including those involved with this work whom we all thank with gratitude for their dedication and perseverance during this difficult time.

The chapters come from every inhabited continent except Russia, India, and Japan. Also, two of the chapters involve the work of international bodies: the European Court of Human Rights on paternity matters, and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child covering, amongst other things, with children’s rights. Of interest to readers in England and Wales is the treatment of international couples in our own jurisdiction.

This survey is both interesting and illuminating covering particularly diverse areas this year from family formation, to the functioning on intact families, and families during or post-dissolution. We found the footnotes particularly helpful and the short individual chapter indexes an excellent navigational aid. Thank you very much Margaret, and your excellent and formidable team of contributors, for producing this survey in a year which many of us wish to forget.

The date of publication of this paperback edition is cited as 5th October 2020.

Do visit the publisher's website for recent developments and new titles.