1 LEGAL EVENTS AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

This paper centres on the distinction between norms related to family behaviour expressed through state law and practice and such behaviour itself. Such expression requires justification because it prescribes rather than describes social behaviour. It is maintained that a necessary condition for justification should be that the family-related norm enhances the well-being of individuals in the family, and that the application of this condition requires careful evaluation of empirical evidence, in particular, an appreciation of the relative effects of legal events and of social behaviour