Family Law and Family Policy in the New Europe

This text examines both eastern and western Europe and the landscape of disarray and uncertainty that emerged in the aftermath of the dramatic de-volution of the binary divisions in Europe.

The practical aim of this work is to provide reference material for policy making in further Europeanization of the laws and policies.

It has a mirror-to-mirror approach; in order to achieve European integrity, the problems of the new-comers should be studied as well as consideration of the experiences of existing members.

It focuses on the fate of the family under such different political and economic regimes and the mutual understanding of these two worlds, which differ so markedly in their recent societal experience while sharing the same preoccupations.

The European Union cannot prolong forever the decision as to whether to extend its unity to include those in the waiting room.

However, the specific problems faced in central eastern Europe, their legislation, family structures and family policies need to be investigated in order to determine the feasibility of further extension in European unity.

Against the problem of "over-statisation" and "over-individualism" of policies. decades of totalitarian rule were possible in the context of the social security network that it argues, left people unaccustomed to individual responsibility and initiative. This demonstrated that there are vast areas of social life, where a wise mix of individual and public responsibility is needed.

If communitarianism is discussed as the most recent recipe for social concerns, the post-communist experience may be invoked in order to make the argument that, for any solution to be found globally, we must plot a careful course between the Scylla of totalitarianism and the Charybdis of institutional egoism with atrophy of public bonds between private individuals.