Loading...
NEOLIBERALISM IN U.S. FAMILY LAW: NEGATIVE LIBERTY AND LAISSEZF AIRE MARKETS IN THE MINIMAL STATE
Alstott, Anne
Alstott, Anne
Files
Abstract
In this article, I document how neoliberalism dominates U.S. family law in three legal arenas. The first is federal constitutional law, where the Supreme Court has adopted a thoroughly neoliberal vision of the family. According to the Court, the Federal Constitution grants individuals wide latitude to assert negative liberty-that is, freedom from state intervention-in family life. But individuals have no constitutional right to claim any distribution of resources other than that produced by the marketplace. So strong is the Court's ideal of negative liberty, and so extreme is its skepticism about state power, that it has insulated the state from any responsibility to protect children-even against vicious and foreseeable parental attacks.