Legal Regulation of Parental Responsibilities: An Analysis from the Point of View of Foucault’s Theory of Power

Authors

  • Paula Casaleiro Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18316/2318-8081.16.17

Keywords:

Disciplinary Power, Family and Children Law, Michel Foucault, Parental Responsibility Regulation, Power/Knowledge.

Abstract

This article develops a foucaultian analysis of the legal regulation of parental responsibilities, in Portugal. More specifically, through a critical dialogue with Foucault’s theory of power, it is argued that as Family Law recode the knowledge of disciplines such as psychology or social work in the legal regulation of parental responsibilities and adopts characteristics of a disciplinary power, it is also “colonized” by these disciplines through the forensic expertise. In the judicial regulation of parental responsibilities, in particular, judges make an individualized surveillance or observation and “normalizing judgments” of families and children behavior, increasingly supported by the “power-knowledge” of the forensic expertise, using small penalties and rewards, to create not docile bodies, but “docile families”.

Author Biography

Paula Casaleiro, Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra

Investigadora júnior do Centro de Estudos Sociais e doutoranda do programa «Direito, Justiça e Cidadania no Século XXI» das Faculdades de Economia e Direito da Universidade de Coimbra, com bolsa de Doutoramento atribuída pela Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia. Mestre em Sociologia pela Faculdade de Economia da Universidade de Coimbra.

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Published

2016-05-25

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 1 (2016)

Section

Articles

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