The Inaugural Conference of the Centre for Responsibilites, Rights and the Law, an international, interdisciplinary conference
10 – 12 July 2008
Brighton, East Sussex, UK
Changing family law is notoriously difficult. Part of the difficulty must relate to the forums for change; courts and legislatures (for different reasons) find decision making in this area troublesome: courts because the questions to be resolved have both personal implications and (often important) implications for social well-being which are best left to policy makers to decide; and legislatures because they are large bodies of people with very diverse, individual attitudes towards the rules that should govern family relationships. These difficulties are compounded by the fact that the family is perhaps the most important site for the social construction of gender. And that clearly is an important social attribute on which people (including judges) have very different views and which legislatures have an important role in attempting to manipulate.
The conference we will host in July 2008 will explore the family and its social place in the context of a desire to remedy problems of gender. It will reflect on the capacity of regulation (of both family life and other social activities – like work, sport and leisure, politics, health care, the environment, corporate management, education, entertainment, consumer interests, and others) to foster change in our perceptions of gender. It will also attempt to develop our understanding of what society – and the law – can do to enhance the responsibility that we believe should arise out of family relationships.
The conference will be held on the University’s Campus in the beautiful Sussex Downs, just outside of the seaside city of Brighton from 10 – 12 July 2008.
More Information at the Conference website