Legal Issues in divorce


Improving how we handle divorce disputes remains an important area of research and policy analysis.

Murphy, J. C., & Singer, J. B. (2015).  Divorced from reality:  Rethinking family dispute resolution.  New York, NY:  NYU Press.  ISBN: 9780814708934

Law professors outline ways to improve our policies and procedures to help families manage their disputes in more effective ways.  They suggest moving dispute resolution services out of the court and into the community, involving children more effectively in the decision-making process and insuring more time and involvement with both parents in post-divorce parenting plans.

Li, K. (2015). What He Did Was Lawful?: Divorce Litigation and Gender Inequality in China. Law & Policy. doi:

An examination of gender inequality in court proceedings before and during the divorce process.  This study examines the China legal system.

Divorce Science Research Update 5-29-2015


This week’s summary is a report in The Journal of Chinese Sociology about the role of children (number, age, etc.) in predicting divorce.  Also, below is a figure showing the growth in the Chinese divorce rate.

A more complete list of research report about divorce, remarriage and stepfamilies published in 2015 or between 2010-2015.

Xu, Q., Yu, J., & Qiu, Z. (2015). The impact of children on divorce risk. The Journal of Chinese Sociology, 2(1), 1. http://www.journalofchinesesociology.com/content/2/1/1

Chinese Divorce Rate-- 1979-2009

Divorce Rates in Asia– 2010


Divorce rates Asia 2010

The United Nations publishes an Annual Demographic Year Book for 2011 includes a table of divorce rates  for about 200 countries in the world.  The data in this table are from the 2011 yearbook.  Many countries have not reported their 2011 data, but some have made these reports.  More reports on divorce rates around the world are reported here….