In this radical critique, Professor O'Donovan challenges conventional textbooks which assume that marriage is the essential feature of family life and that the patriarchal unit remains dominant. She shows how the key players in family law discourse - women and children - are largely excluded and argues that it is the birth of children, rather than marriage, which is the constitutive element of the family. | Family Law Matters by Katherine O'Donovan, Paperback | Indigo Chapters