Elderly Care and Upwards Solidarity: Historical, Sociological and Legal Perspectives

The ageing population poses a huge challenge to law and society with important structural and institutional implications. This book portrays elder law as an emerging research area and brings together authors from different disciplines (sociology, history and law) and from different legal jurisdictions (Belgium, England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain). Topics discussed inter alia include: the recognition of informal care in private law and in inheritance law, the question of whether special consumer protection is needed for the elderly, the old institution of intergenerational support duty between children and their parents is considered in a new lights, and public law offering options to support informal care by means of leaves for employees. In doing so, this book reflects on the allocation of responsibilities between different actors and answers questions at an institutional level: what is the role of the state, the family and the individual in taking care of elderly?

This book will appeal to academic scholars and postgraduate students of law and social sciences.

Elisabeth Alofs is Professor of Family (Property) Law and Director of the Master of Laws in Notarial Studies at the Free University of Brussels. She is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Antwerp and is Vice President of the Flemish Association of Lawyers. Elisabeth publishes on family law and social security law and is an editor of several law journals and book series.