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383 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. ix (1969)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0383 and id is 1 raw text is: INTRODUCTION For a long time, the problems of American families have been matters of increasing concern to persons outside their immediate family group. Today a whole spectrum of professions addresses itself to these problems. In its own chosen sector, each of these professions has explored, tested, and armed itself with a variety of preventive and remedial devices to cope with the problems. Each profession has a core area in which its activities are effective, but not too much attention has been devoted to peripheral matters. Guidelines separating the domains of the professions are not always clearly drawn, and interprofessional co-operation tends to remain on what we may call the informal side. One of these professions is that of the law. Its activities have not, perhaps, been as widely publicized as have those of its neighbors. But its concern is just as genuine, and its contributions have been just as significant. Legal solutions of family problems, whether preventive or remedial, frequently differ from those proposed by the other interested professions. Force is one of the customary legal sanctions. When and how best to apply it is a constant problem in all fields, but where the subject matter of the controversy is the delicate tissue of family relationships, the law must constantly decide whether the immediate situa- tion calls for the use of blacksmith's tools or those of the watchmaker. The present issue of THE ANNALS comprises a series of articles discussing recent legal contributions of the field of law to the preventive and remedial solutions which have been built up interprofessionally to deal with modern American family problems. While the legal roots of many of these enterprises lie in the past, we are concerned particularly with what has been happening since about the beginning of the present century. While proponents of these activities find it easy to apply the word progress to describe what is going on, no doubt there are others of a less enchanted cast of mind who, more cautiously, prefer to use the word change. Obviously, those of us who have co-operated in the produc- tion of the present volume belong to the progress clan. We do not feel that all the problems are solved or that we may sit back complacently and assume that the present impetus will be enough, of itself, to insure continued improve- ment. But we do feel that we have come a long way and that we are headed in the right direction. In this introduction it seems proper to give an overview of the entire field of law relating to the family. The individual authors, each in his own separate part of the field, will call attention to locally relevant details. It is hoped that the reader will focus his attention both on the entire field and on each of its separate parts. There is an over-all pattern for those who enjoy considering the wider horizon. The first of the over-all concepts has to do with the name of the field. We start with the whole body of the law, and have come to regard it as a seamless web. However, for convenience in classification, for study, for a point of departure, for improvements, we have come to consider useful a somewhat arbitrary division into seven major parts. The traditional names of these seven parts are: persons, property, contracts, torts, crimes, remedies, and government. Of these, the first, ix

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