Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-2025
Abstract
In Parafamily, Chen and Mulligan have managed to cover vast terrain, to catalogue important developments in law, to canvass insights from generations of thinkers, and to propose an ambitious yet pragmatic approach to the laws that govern human relationships, directly and indirectly. They do all this in a relatively short article composed of unusually readable prose. Quite a feat.
The focus of the piece is Chen and Mulligan’s contribution to the field of legal scholarship dedicated to relationships that go beyond the traditional nuclear family. As their title reveals, the authors contribute a new term and concept to this literature: parafamily. How is parafamily defined? “We call close and committed connections a person’s parafamily,” the authors tell us.
Disciplines
Family Law | Family, Life Course, and Society | Law
Recommended Citation
Elizabeth F. Emens,
Mainstreaming Parafamily,
105
B.U. L. Rev.
443
(2025).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/4637