The second edition of this comprehensive guide to family law, presents everything an undergraduate family law student needs in one volume. Drawing on their extensive experience, the authors offer a detailed and authoritative exposition of family law illustrated by materials carefully selected from a wide range of sources. The book has two principal aims: to provide readers with a thorough understanding of the law relating to the family, and to do so in a way that stimulates critical reflection on that law. Readers are encouraged to consider how and why the law has developed as it has, what policies it is seeking to pursue, whether it achieves the right balance between the rights and interests of individual family members and the wider public interest, and how it operates in practice. The text is supported by a substantial Online Resource Centre, which features regular updates on the law, supplementary materials, further reading suggestions, and study aids. The ORC also features two chapters, Introduction to Family Law, and Fundamental principles in the law relating to children.