Family law is an area of the law that deals with family-related issues and domestic relations including, but not limited to:

* issues arising during marriage, including spousal abuse, legitimacy, adoption, surrogacy, child abuse, and child abduction

* the termination of the relationship and ancillary matters including divorce, annulment, property settlements, alimony, and parental responsibility orders (in the United States, child custody and visitation, child support awards).

This list is by no means dispositive of the potential issues that come through the family court system. In many jurisdictions in the United States, the family courts see the most crowded dockets. Litigants representative of all social and economic classes are parties within the system. Because the family courts are notoriously underfunded [1] and see a relatively large proportion of economically dependent litigants, a common criticism levied is that the system inherently prejudices the needs of these disadvantaged parties.

For the Conflict of Laws elements dealing with transnational and interstate issues, see marriage (conflict), divorce (conflict) and nullity (conflict).


The Fathers' rights movement or Parents' rights movement is part of the men's movement and/or the parent's movement that emerged in the 1970s as a loose social movement providing a network of interest groups, primarily in western countries. It is primarily interested with family law and issues affecting fathers, and mothers, both custodial and non-custodial, and victims of paternity fraud, including child custody sometimes after divorce, child support, adoption, and paternity. The movement receives international press coverage as a result of high profile style activism of Fathers 4 Justice and other national organisations internationally.

A 'marriage strike' is the social phenomenon of men seeking to avoid marriage. The 'marriage strike' specifically refers to the action of men living within the Western world. Advocates of the marriage strike believe that after a considered cost-benefit analysis, the legal contract that is modern marriage no longer represents an attractive option for men living in the West's changed legal, economic, sociological, cultural and demographic environment.