Failure to Flourish: How Law Undermines Family Relationships

Failure to Flourish: How Law Undermines Family Relationships argues that the legal regulation of families stands fundamentally at odds with the needs of families. Strong, stable, positive relationships are essential for both individuals and society to flourish, but from transportation policy to the criminal justice system, and from divorce rules to the child welfare system, the law makes it harder for parents to provide children with these kinds of relationships. Zoning laws can create long commutes and impersonal neighborhoods. Criminal laws can take parents away from home. The laws we have to "resolve" conflicts in families are heavy-handed and adversarial, pitting family members against each other and creating a climate of crisis at the very moment families need the greatest support.

Failure to Flourish contends that we must re-orient the legal system to help families avoid crises, and when conflicts arise, intervene in a manner that heals relationships. To understand the failures of the family law system and what we need to do to repair it, Failure to Flourish takes us from ancient Greece to cutting-edge psychological research, and from the chaotic corridors of local family courts to a quiet revolution under way in how services are provided to families in need. Incorporating the latest insights of positive psychology and social research, this book sets forth a new, more emotionally intelligent vision for a legal system that not only resolves conflict, but actively encourages the healthy relationships that are at the core of a stable society.