Parents and Adult Children: The Elusive Boundaries of the Legal Family

Abstract

The literature on the relationship between parents and adult children reveals an embedded tension. While the law typically characterizes parents and their adult children as legal strangers, several legal rules assume intergenerational altruism. This Essay argues that Someday All This Will Be Yours by Hendrik Hartog unpacks this dichotomy and offers a much richer depiction of intergenerational relations in an age of market economy. The book portrays an intermediate space where autonomous individuals engage in private ordering but the same parties also maintain a dynastic understanding of their commitments. This depiction provides a useful lens for the analysis of occurrences of informal care between parents and adult children. The Essay discusses intergenerational cohabitation in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis as an example of such an analysis.