This book has been written to supply a need which I have personally felt as a teacher of law. In writing it I have kept my own students constantly in mind, and have endeavored to set forth those principles of the law which I thought they ought to know, in such a manner as to be most readily grasped by them. In all cases my aim has been to present and emphasize principles, rather than the details of their application, such details being supplied only so far as seemed desirable for purposes of illustration. In the apportionment of space among the several branches of the subject, I have acted according to my best judgment as to the relative importance to the student of each topic in the present state of the law; in some instances devoting to a particular topic more, and in others less, space, relatively, than is done in other works written specially for the practioner. -- Preface.

This volume examines the state of family law in America. Among its themes is the tension between individual autonomy and governmental regulation in all aspects of family law. It examines both conventional and new definitions of formal and informal domestic relationships.