The common among most legal systems regarding property is the will, or testament ,that specifies the descendant's wishes as to such distribution ,but a surviving spouse or offspring may contest what appear to be unreasonable or inequitable provisions. There are also laws that recognize family claims in the event that proper is left intestate.

Legislation on child labour and child abuse asserts society's responsibility for a child's best interests.

Special family courts attempts to deal more fairly with sensitive issues such as custody of children when the parents tries to separate (divorce).

Modern marriage is best-described as a voluntary union, usually between a man and a woman.

Family law varies from culture to culture, but in its broadcast application it defines the legal relationships among family members as well as the relationships between families and society at large.

The change that occured in gender role in the modern family that emerged after the industrial revolution were the patriarchal rule began to give way to greater equality between the sexes. Similarly, family roles once considered exclusively male or female broke down. Caring for the home and children, once the exclusive duty of the female, is often a shared activity ,as, increasingly.is the earning of wages and the pursuit of public life, once the exclusive domain of the male.

Many unmarried youths left farms and went to urban centres to become industrial workers which caused the dissolution of extended families.

The features of medieval European families :

1.The families were male-dominated and extended.

2.Woman were rather of low status.

3. The male lead of a family were allowed to have several wives as well as concubines.

Family provides security to its members through the warmth , love, and companionship that living together generates between spouses and in turn between them and their children.

A family consisting of two married adults, along with their offspring, usually living in a private and separate dwelling is the type of family thought to be the oldest family.