Introduction: family – an international affair

Abstract

and Frances Raday Haim Striks School of Law, College of Management Academic Studies, IsraelThis collection of articles arises from a conference held in Tel Aviv in 2009 at the Concord Research Centre for the Integration of International Law in Israel, School of Law, College of Management Academic Studies. Delegates to the conference came from a variety of professions and areas of expertise and included academics and legal and welfare practitioners. What was common among us, however, was our interest in the international dimensions of both understandings of the family and of the normative systems that define and regulate it. We all believed that understandings of family are situated in and across cultural and economic manifestations of reproduction, dependency and care relations in a global context and that they are regulated in international and regional as much as in domestic law.Families are perceived to exist in all societies and in this sense are global phenomena. Even if no one form of family can be described as global, the work that it does can be described in that way. Care and dependency relations exist in all communities and all communities must ensure safe and reliable reproduction. Traditionally and pervasively, the imperatives of care and reproduction are carried out primarily in private contexts and, inevitably, these care and reproductive relations attract measures of regulation and protection by cultures, religions and legal systems both locally and internationally.Our participants noted, however, that the significant designation of those relations as 'family' is informed by, among other things, cultural and religious ideas of gender and generational relations (Raday; Büchler; this volume). These ideas range from the 'traditionalist', in which the functions of the family members and their rights and obligations are defined by status and are usually nonnegotiable, to the 'modernist', in which family relations are constructed and shifted according to individual choice, and are contractually binding at most. Traditionalist families tend to be rigidly formulated into hierarchical patriarchal units, often justified or even 'sacralised' by religious edict (Raday, this volume) and cultural practice (Tagari; Sandberg and Hofri-Winogradow; this volume), while the modernist family is amorphous and based on a conception of autonomous choice (Büchler, this volume). Given that these two 'types' of families not only represent the opposite ends of a descriptive spectrum along which many variations and combinations of relationships can exist, but can exist simultaneously in any particular society, our participants asked how any legal system, whether cultural, religious, international or national, can provide general laws which are appropriate for its whole range of familial relations.Other participants highlighted the relationship between family living and public living, in particular the relationships between ideas of citizenship, nation and family. Ronen, for example, notes in this volume how protection of famil...

Money, power, and inequality within marriage among Palestinian families in Israel

“…The patriarchal tradition, as a social context, is crucial to explaining the subordination of women, as it embodies the division of society into two distinct spheres. This is supported by Diduck and Raday (2012) who claimed that, throughout the spectrum of traditional and modern families, women are in a position of responsibility and lower status, while men are in a position of power and ownership. The discussion in this article emphasizes the complexity innate in an attempt to modify norms prevailing in family life because they encompass social, cultural, religious, and political implications (Diduck & Raday, 2012).…”

“…Aspects of family life and gender relations discussed above are regulated not only by the state and its civil legal systems but also justified and sanctified by religious edict (Raday, 2012). As such, economic practices between couples are constructed and shaped not only by individual choice and concepts of autonomy and human rights but also by cultural practices, religion, and tradition (Diduck & Raday, 2012), which prevent the implementation of international law aimed to promote egalitarian society and the integration of individual human rights within the family as cultural norms (Raday, 2012).…”

Exclusion Through Inclusion. Struggles Over the Scalar Regimes of Belonging Europe and the Family at the 1995 Fourth UN World Conference on Women and the Agency of (Polish) Women

“…16 In the mid-90s such as the Christian National Union (Zjednoczenie Chrześcijańsko-Narodowe, ZchN), Electoral Action Solidarność (Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność, AWS), and later the League of Polish Families (Liga Polskich Rodzin, LPR), as well as the still existing Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS). 17 For a discussion of human rights law and the relationship to religious norms, gender equality and the family see also e.g., Diduck and Raday (2012). 18 The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979.…”

“… 17 For a discussion of human rights law and the relationship to religious norms, gender equality and the family see also e.g., Diduck and Raday ( 2012 ). …”