Following the editors' introduction the volume gathers sixteen contributions (mostly unpublished), organised into five sections. These explore diverse aspects of the legal fields traditionally defined as family law and inheritance law, while more broadly extending to the realm of emotional and intimate relationships between individuals.
The editors have identified several thematic clusters around which the essays are grouped: 'Colonial Encounters' (four essays); 'Intergenerational Justice' (three essays); 'Intimacies in the Courtroom' (three essays); 'Marriage Regulation’ (three essays); and 'Everyday Violence' (three essays). The sixteen essays were written by scholars of different backgrounds and academic positions, based in diverse locations. The largest group consists of contributions concerning Canada, but the volume also includes studies on the United States, Australia, India, Latin America, and other regions of the world. Europe, too, is represented, with research on Britain, Russia, and France. Chronologically, the studies span two full centuries - the nineteenth and twentieth - offering a remarkable breadth of perspective both geographically and historically. This richness provides numerous insights for comparative reflection, even though comparison appears less straightforward from a strictly legal or normative standpoint, and proves more fruitful when pursued through broader, interdisciplinary perspectives.
From a general legal standpoint, it should be noted, for instance, that Fabienne Giuliani's study (Chapter 15), dedicated among other things to an 'extreme' social and legal figure - that of incestuous fathers in nineteenth-century France - represents, together with Juandrea Bates's work on Argentina (Chapter 6) and, to a lesser extent, certain analyses of Francophone Canada, a small minority of studies engaging directly with the codified systems of Civil Law countries. Indeed, while Europe's continental scholarship on family and personal law - often based on archival material such as private papers or judicial records - is already abundant, this very abundance makes the scope for technical legal comparison offered by the volume somewhat limited.
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DOI: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2049677X.2026.2671631
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