Family Law and Gender Politics

The project deals with the development of family law in Austria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and their respective predecessor states during the period from 1945 to 2000 in a comparative perspective. The study focuses on the interactions between public discourse and the establishment of legal norms, whereby the following aspects are crucial: we are interested in the political actors involved in the public discussion and the legislative process. We focus both on the various actors` mode of organization and on their strategies for structuring policies. Furthermore, we are interested in the extent to which political interest groups are able to influence political deliberations and law making. At the same time, the significance of political framework conditions for the possibility of participation in public debate and in the structuring of the development of law will be elucidated. The comparison of states with different political systems and forms of society forestalls the danger of universalizing the research results. The project analyses the concepts of family and society advocated by special interest groups and reflected in codified family norms in a historical longitudinal study. In our research we will start from legal initiatives. The material produced in the framework of the family law discourse will be examined using historical discourse analysis; interviews with important protagonists will be conducted. The comparative reconstruction of the development of family law in the European states in question is a novelty in historical research. The period of investigation ranging into the year 2000 enables multidimensional inquiries that go beyond an East-West dichotomy, providing an important contribution to transnational European historical research.

The project deals with the development of family law in Austria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and their respective predecessor states during the period from 1945 to 2000 in a comparative perspective. The study focuses on the interactions between public discourse and the establishment of legal norms, whereby the following aspects are crucial: we are interested in the political actors involved in the public discussion and the legislative process. We focus both on the various actors` mode of organization and on their strategies for structuring policies. Furthermore, we are interested in the extent to which political interest groups are able to influence political deliberations and law making. At the same time, the significance of political framework conditions for the possibility of participation in public debate and in the structuring of the development of law will be elucidated. The comparison of states with different political systems and forms of society forestalls the danger of universalizing the research results. The project analyses the concepts of family and society advocated by special interest groups and reflected in codified family norms in a historical longitudinal study. In our research we will start from legal initiatives. The material produced in the framework of the family law discourse will be examined using historical discourse analysis; interviews with important protagonists will be conducted. The comparative reconstruction of the development of family law in the European states in question is a novelty in historical research. The period of investigation ranging into the year 2000 enables multidimensional inquiries that go beyond an East-West dichotomy, providing an important contribution to transnational European historical research.