# The Family and the Future: Legal Perspectives

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-22 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: P. E. Ringwood, The Family and the Future: Legal Perspectives, bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> The Family and the Future:
> 
> Legal Perspectives
> 
> P. E. Ringwood
> published in The Family: Our Hopes and Challenges
> 
> Rosebery: Association for Bahá'í Studies Australia, 1995
> 
> Introduction
> 
> For well over a century, humanity has been experiencing a rate of
> change unique in history. Even more significant, the rate of change is accelerating on
> itself. This has had and is continuing to have momentous results, particularly in the
> important social unit of the family. Roles have changed, marriage as an institution has
> changed, social and personal demands on marriages have changed. At the same time, society
> is demanding more and more of families. As a result, however, people are no longer sure of
> what they can expect and what they should do. Values and standards are constantly
> changing, economic and social circumstances are pressing, varying cultural, gender, ethnic
> and other diversities are more or less accepted. This means that what could previously be
> decided on traditional grounds, must now be decided on. We are all lost, faced with
> problems we never dreamed of, in an uncertain future. Peter Ustinov in Dear Me
> expressed an aspect of this, when he said, that as parents, we try to avoid the problems
> our parents made, and we end up with problems they never experienced.
> 
> The significance of this is that we need to go beyond the particularity
> and detail of what is happening to us. In Trial by Sasswood, by Esther Warner, she
> tells of a journey she made with her African servants to their home village, to resolve
> two disputes. The disputes partly resolved themselves on the way. As they journeyed, out in
> the middle of nowhere, they saw an African sitting by the track. He was on his own, just
> thinking. She asked what he was doing. He replied: "I have been on a long journey. I
> am waiting for my soul to catch up with me." Our society is experiencing many
> journeys, some social, some psychological, economic, environmental, international,
> national, local, and personal. Our journeys have disoriented and both liberated and
> imprisoned us. We need to discover their spiritual perspective. We have a deep need to let
> our souls catch up with us, and to hear what they have to say.
> 
> Letting Our Souls Catch Up
> 
> As the spiritual perspective is fundamental to all the other aspects of
> life, it leads to more constructive judgment of what is happening. This requires us to
> deepen in our spiritual knowledge and to seek that inner stillness, in which the peace
> that passes all understanding is found.
> 
> What we learn in that stillness - the values of the spirit and the
> judgment, must be used to make sense of this kaleidoscopic world. This putting of wisdom
> into reality, creates order by basing action on the principles of the spirit and the
> values of peace. Consequently, we immeasurably enlarge the constructive forces within our
> world. To use modern jargon, we translate our responses from re-action which tends to be
> unthinking, to pro-action where a positive environment is created.
> 
> This is where we find the wisdom of Bahá'u'lláh's
> command, that we should not just deal with sciences which begin with words and end with
> words. Bodies of knowledge should not just be exploited for ego trips, but to illumine the
> world of being. At the present, the mass of information and conflicting interpretations,
> adds to the general confusion and disillusionment.
> 
> The Function of Law
> 
> From even before Shakespeare ("Kill all the lawyers"),
> to the present day, lawyers have often had a bad press and poor public relations. The
> technicalities, delays and injustices of law have antagonised many people in the community
> in a time of deep and vast changes placing heavy pressures on the ability of legal
> institutions to cope.
> 
> The real function of law is basic and vital to societies. It is to
> create a positive environment of order and stability which allows either constructive or
> destructive development, depending on one's values.
> 
> Moses' Revelation, bringing law and order to society, provided the
> basis for the development of further civilisations. Law is really not dry as dust
> technicalities but a living development of justice and equity. This releases energies,
> time and resources to be directed to a wider variety of purposes than just surviving.
> 
> Law does this in two ways:
> 
> i. by setting standards: by rules, legislation, custom, usages, so
> that society has guidelines for its behaviour. These guidelines are very important and can
> have profound effects. So the fact that married women were not legally regarded as
> "persons" for many centuries in English law, meant that their interests were
> often disregarded. They had no input either into policy or into the legal institutions.
> This only started to change in the l9th century. A bitter and long fight occurred in which
> both men and women finally obtained for married women, a degree of equality.
> 
> ii. by resolving disputes: We all know the penalties of unresolved
> disputes, - to name a few, Bosnia, Rwanda, the Mafia had their origins in a legal system
> which denied them justice and so on.
> 
> Traditionally, for a problem to have a legal remedy, it had to be one
> that society thought was important enough to provide a remedy through the Courts. Some
> important issues are not regarded as important enough. For instance, domestic violence was
> tolerated and regarded as scripturally acceptable. It is only very recently that both
> children and women have been receiving better recognition by the law and its institutions.
> Sexual abuse and cruelty was often hushed up because of the damage to the offender and the
> family. The legacy from this has been the incalculable damage done to trust, freedom from
> fear, and respect in the social relations between men and women.
> 
> Also with their adversarial approach to litigation, our Courts
> traditionally divide rather than heal. This is of critical importance particularly in
> family situations, where parenthood does not end with dissolution of the marriage.
> Unresolved emotional conflicts can destroy lives. The law is slowly turning to a way of
> resolving differences by co-operative rather than adversarial means. This is what is
> called the Alternative Dispute Resolution movement. It is still in its infancy and
> requires a great deal of thinking through and adjustment. It lies behind the Family Court
> initiative and a more sensible and sensitive approach by Family lawyers and others to
> family problems.
> 
> It has made us more aware of how our traditional law has shaped our
> attitudes and standards:
> 
> the way we resolve family disputes
> 
> the way we analyse the
> 
> the processes we see as appropriate to resolve them.
> 
> i. the way we resolve family disputes
> 
> The effect of English law, (on which Australian and New Zealand law is
> based), has accustomed us to think of the family as a collection of individuals, rather
> than as a group with social, emotional and personal cohesion and significance. The part of
> the law which laid emphasis on the family as a group, tended to be the part which was
> concerned with making family members financially responsible for each other.
> 
> The result often is that the legal process of resolving disputes within
> the family, can have worse repercussions on family relationships, than the dispute itself.
> We are trying to remedy this with less adversarial approaches, but are nowhere near a
> solution which combines justice with effectiveness.
> 
> A further consequence has been that since family law moved from the
> church to the civil courts in the l9th century, its approach has been secular, segmented, and
> dominated not by considerations of the family, but by the areas of law relating to the
> legal remedies. So rather than being a comprehensive and cohesive body of law, founded on
> principles about the family, it is a collection of laws reflecting aspects of the family
> relationship and the principles of the laws which give remedies. These are not all founded
> on a harmonious values base.
> 
> In seeking a more balanced, more harmonised body of law, it is
> important to look at the contributions indigenous people can make in enlarging our wisdom.
> One of the treasures of indigenous people and many ethnic minorities, has been that in the
> past they have been moulded by values that were based both on the importance of the family
> and the wider family. This is not to say, that all of their law will translate into modern
> conditions. It is more the thinking and the principles behind it, which can illuminate and
> develop our own approaches. It becomes more a matter of respecting and understanding the
> fundamental bases.
> 
> Perhaps what we should be looking for in our dialogue, is for a balance
> in which individual creativeness, initiative and fulfilment can be fostered and social
> objectives, such as the harmony of society and the security and development of families
> can be attained. We need a dynamic balance, developing and adjusting as society develops.
> To achieve this, we should use all the wisdom of the challenging and diverse society in
> which we live.
> 
> ii. the way we analyse disputes
> 
> Where families are seen as a collection of individuals, then one
> person's right often conflicts with some one else's. Rights have been an
> important step in the struggle towards equality. They have given the limits over which
> members of the family should not step. They do not however provide a good basis for
> resolving all disputes. By their nature, individual rights conflict with each other.
> 
> The Bahá'í approach is a step further on this and allows a more
> co operative approach. It is based on the view that all members of a family have
> obligations to each other and this network of obligations is an important function of the
> family. It creates a basis of respect and concern which is most important to the quality
> of family life. It is an aspect which needs re enforcing in today's individualistic
> society.
> 
> Families are much more than the sum of individuals. They provide
> a basis of love, security, guidance and resources which is invaluable to the quality of
> life. Local communities at their best, are like an extended family. When society begins to
> focus on the group as well as the individual potential of the family, much constructive
> energy will be released.
> 
> iii. processes we use to resolve family disputes
> 
> As can be seen, the traditional processes in the legal system, have
> been adversarial, interventionist and disempowering. The significant move to alternative
> systems which are more co operative and empowering, has still its own problems. Personal
> agreement or resolution of disputes needs an established boundary of fairness or justice.
> Our very diverse society is probably not able to crystallise such limits at this point.
> However it is important for communities and individuals, to really start to deepen on what
> family and social values are and what their balance is as respects individual rights. This
> is a question of great importance for the future of families and one on which diverse
> attitudes should be sought and used as a basis for deeper understanding.
> 
> A more co operative approach depends on mutual respect and an equality
> which must be created socially and individually, and not just taken for granted.
> 
> Conclusion
> 
> We are seeing a world in the making. A most important and influential
> part of that world is the family. What happens there stamps a person for life. We need to
> become informed, thoughtful, and above all else, wise, in order to promote constructive
> development of the family in our society.
> 
> Legal action and institutions must be developed which are positive, constructive and
> linked with community education and resources to improve the quality of family life. Most
> importantly, we must not forget that all life has a spiritual perspective and when
> spiritual and material worlds meet, then life has its greatest potential.
> 
> METADATA
> 
> Views7097 views since posted 2011-10-21; last edit 2024-07-09 05:03 UTC;
> 
> previous at archive.org.../ringwood_family_future
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> — *The Family and the Future: Legal Perspectives (Used by permission of the curator)*