Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2014
Abstract
This article develops a theoretical framework for analyzing the regulation of the household and its effects on the economy. Incorporating insights from family economics, comparative family law, legal realism, political economy and feminism, it describes the array of different legal regimes that can affect household composition and function. The article then analyzes the case of Greece using this framework. It argues that the role of households organized as families was a central element in the Greek debt crisis, overlooked by scholars and policymakers alike. It identifies the host of legal regimes that helped consolidate families as the main providers of both welfare and employment and analyzes the consequences of this organization for Greece’s economy. Finally, the article argues that a household based analysis offers useful comparative insights in the context of the euro crisis and its management. More specifically, it elucidates how the structural reforms now required through the European Semester necessitate a dramatic transformation of basic schemes of welfare provisioning. It argues that without additional support these transformations are likely to fail or have dramatic unintended consequences.
Publication Citation
Am. J. Comp. L. (forthcoming 2014)
Scholarly Commons Citation
Tsoukala, Philomila, "Household Regulation and European Integration: The Family Portrait of a Crisis" (2014). Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works. 1380.
https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/1380
Included in
Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics Commons, Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, European Law Commons, Law and Economics Commons