Marriage and Cohabitation

According to the law of england, marriage is the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others. however the law today encompasses a reality in which much has changed in family life. while marriage in this country must still compromise a voluntary union between one man and one woman the statistics of today's england speak for them selves , more than a million couples each year choose to live together rather than to marry, one in three children today is born to un married parents and even among those couples who do get married one in every three will seek a divorce

Again, nothing could seem more basic than the concept of parenthood itself - from both the biological and the social points of view. Yet today when we talk in terms of a child's nature parents we must also consider the legal implications of artificial insemination, in virteo fertilization, virgin birth and surrogate mother

Thus family law has to take account of rapid and dramatic shifts in our established patterns of life. of course this is far easier said than done.the issues raised are highly charged and very complex. how far must the law adapt to these changing patterns? or rather to what extent should it impose its own pattern of what is desirable in family life. can conflicting ideologies over family values be bridged at all, are the courts the right place in which to try and build these bridges?

No wonder then that profound difficulties arise for those who have to make the laws, for those who have to implement them and for those who have to turn to the courts for assistance. No wonder too that the law can sometimes appear helpless in the face of these problems, which it has to confront and en devour to settle on a daily basis