Household Interests

Household Interests is one of the first books to explore in-depth the nature of the Greek household (oikos) in classical Athens. Whereas the oikos traditionally has been defined as the household of the nuclear family in Greece, Cheryl Anne Cox reveals it as a much more fluid structure, taking care to distinguish between the concepts of "household" and "family." The legal basis of the typical elite household emerges as Cox describes marriage patterns or strategies among the families represented in Attic orations and funerary inscriptions: property interests were a strong motivating force, with the elite marrying within their kin, primarily through paternal lines in which property was transferred. The author ultimately shows that the household was not limited to "family" or kinspeople. Friends, neighbors, concubines or prostitutes, and slaves also shared in property interests and all could have a profound influence on the household. After first examining marriage patterns, Cox turns to inter-family relationships. Using anthropological sources and historical studies of European societies, she shows how property interest shaped often conflicted relations between parents and their children and among brothers, and yet it encouraged male charity toward sisters. Cox next considers how property transfer through adoption, guardianship, and remarriage, and the intervention of friends, concubines, and slaves, all contributed to expanding the boundaries of the household beyond kin. Originally published in 1998. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The purpose of this comparative study is three-fold. Firstly, it offers an analysis of and a comparison between the application and interpretation of Article 8 (often in conjunction with the anti-discrimination principle of Article 14) of the European Convention of Human Rights and the application and interpretation of the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, in particular with regard to family law. Secondly, it compares and analyses the answers to the specific questions regarding circumstances under which a legal parent-child relationship may be established and by whom, as described under Dutch (Chapter 4) and Californian, New York and Texas Law (Chapter 5). And thirdly, it compares and analyses the compliance with and influence of the European Convention as reflected in family law by the Dutch Supreme Court and the compliance with and influence of the U.S. Constitution as reflected in family law decisions - and filiation law in particular - by the courts in California, New York and Texas.