Scope of Family Law

What is Family Law?

Families are not only the most basic and oldest units of human society but also its smallest as well, and as such, have played a pivotal role in the creation of human civilization as we know it today. In fact, family units are the basic blocks on which the entire edifice of human society is based.

This is why laws governing family units are amongst the oldest of laws found in the statute books. Family law is primarily made up of a body of statutes that taken together govern all the legal responsibilities between two or more persons who share a domestic bond with each other.

These cases typically involve individuals who are related by blood ties or marriage; however family law may also affect those in more distant or casual relationships as well.

Purview of family Laws

Apart from annulment and dissolution of marriages, they also deal with the prevention of physical as well as emotional abuse. Here, domestic abuse (or its potential) is not limited to just relationships between current or former spouses as well as their children.  But precedents have been set in which judges have asserted their own jurisdiction to protect people outside the bonds of the typical nuclear family such as the elderly or the very young (grandparents aunts, uncles or nieces and nephews). A common method of dealing with abuse cases is to issue restraining orders so as to ensure no further contact occurs between the abuser and his or her victim.

In some cases, if domestic violence (DV) leads to grievous injuries or even death of the victim, then it may well lead to criminal prosecution.