This book reviews divorce in France today. Because of the increasing number of complex or difficult cases, judges are no longer able to refer to traditional models and are often obliged to rely on psychotherapists for advice. The difficulties encountered in divorce cases are perhaps symptomatic of a general feeling that the law is too frequently the enemy of individual freedom. Perhaps it is the law that must be reviewed in order to protect the life and privacy of the individual.

Irène Théry is a sociologist of law specialising in personal and family life, and a director of research at the EHESS. She is the author of a report on the family, Couple, filiation et parenté aujourd’hui, and will be publishing a new work in the autumn, La Condition sexuée.