Family, Law, and Community: Supporting the Covenant

by Margaret F. Brinig

In the wake of vast social and economic changes, the nuclear family has lost its dominance, both as an ideal and in practice. Some welcome this shift, while others see civilization itself in peril—but few move beyond ideology to develop a nuanced understanding of how families function in society. In this provocative book, Margaret F. Brinig draws on research from a variety of disciplines to offer a distinctive study of family dynamics and social policy.

Concentrating on legal reform, Brinig examines a range of subjects, including cohabitation, custody, grandparent visitation, and domestic violence. She concludes that conventional legal reforms and the social programs they engender ignore social capital: the trust and support given to families by a community. Traditional families generate much more social capital than nontraditional ones, Brinig concludes, which leads to clear rewards for the children. Firmly grounded in empirical research, Family, Law, and Community argues that family policy can only be effective if it is guided by an understanding of the importance of social capital and the advantages held by families that accrue it.

290 pages, Hardcover

First published May 15, 2010

About the author

Professor Margaret “Peg” Brinig is the Fritz Duda Family Chair in Law at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA.

She has been described as the quintessential interdisciplinarian, melding her expertise with law and social science in empirical studies of families, social capital, and social welfare legislation.

Prof. Brinig is best known for her expertise in family law. She sits on the executive council of the International Society of Family Law, and recently published Family, Law, and Community: Supporting the Covenant (University of Chicago Press, 2010), which offers a distinctive study of legal reform from the perspective of family dynamics and social policy. The book examines a range of subjects of current legal interest including cohabitation, custody, grandparent visitation, and domestic violence. She concludes that conventional legal systems and the social programs they engender ignore social capital: the trust and support given to families by a community.

Currently, Prof. Brinig is collaborating with another colleague, Dan Kelly, on a new Law, Economics, and Business seminar (beginning fall 2010). The seminar will feature speakers from within Notre Dame’s law school, economics department, business school, and other departments, as well as speakers from other law schools and universities. Law students and graduate students from other departments will have the opportunity to read, discuss, and comment upon seminal scholarship by leading academics while earning course credit for participating in the seminar.

At the University of Notre Dame, Prof. Brinig is a Fellow of the Institute for Educational Initiatives at Notre Dame, and works closely with the Institute’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) Program. She continues to conduct groundbreaking research with colleague Nicole Garnett on the negative impact of Catholic K-12 school closures on poor neighborhoods.

Prof. Brinig has been honored for her work at a Notre Dame football game, and won the Distinguished Professor Award at George Mason University. She is a member of the American Law Institute.