Transforming Family Law 677 family life in contemporary China that their inclusion is essential.The current study therefore examines developments in this area,as well as in another and related mode of reproduction and recruitment to the family,namely adoption.It thus considers the nature and significance of the legal changes that have taken place in these four dimensions of family law since 1995.While highly important changes have occurred in all four areas,it is probably in the law of divorce that the most significant developments have occurred. The Reforms of 2001 The socio-political contexts within which the two most significant statutory developments since 1995 took place offer a strong contrast.On the one hand, much publicity proceeded and accompanied the revision in 2001 of the Marriage Law(hunyin fa婚姻法)I98O,with often heated debate among those doing the revision,and also a considerable degree of openly expressed controversy over some of the key issues.0 These included the nature of marriage,the notion of a “relative'(gingi亲戚)，and various aspects of divorce including the grounds for divorce,property and custody rights,compensation for morally blameworthy conduct leading to divorce,and the appropriate responses to domestic violence. Within these discussions,it was possible to discern shifting ideas about appropriate boundaries between the public sphere and private life -in particular,the appropriateness of state intervention in family matters.On the other hand,remarkably little fanfare surrounded the promulgation of the Population and Birth Planning Law(renkou yu jihua shengyu fa人口与计划生育 later the same year.In formal,legal terms this is perhaps best explained by reference to the different legislative tracks that the two developments were apparently assigned.Although both legislative advances were promulgated by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress,the Marriage Law revisions took place within a procedural framework clearly informed by some of the reforms encouraging openness and greater public consultation introduced by the 2000 Law on Legislation.In contrast,the family planning code involved a much more restricted approach,with virtually no public deliberation.This lack of openness reflected the politically-sensitive nature of population control,and such conservatism should be borne in mind,for example,when making judgements about the significance of family law in post-Deng China for an emerging civil society. Marriage As indicated in the earlier China Ouarterly article,in the PRC marriages are concluded in law by registration,not by celebration.The legal requirement of 10 For an admirable analysis of key aspects of the reform of the Marriage Law in 2001 see William Alford and Yuanyuan Shen,"Have you eaten,have you divorced?Debating the meaning of freedom in marriage in China,"in William C.Kirby (ed.),Realms of Freedom in Modern China,Vol.15,"Making of modern freedom"series (Stanford,CA:Stanford University Press,2004).                     !       $                 $    2                      %                ())* A              $                         
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