PhD Law - Family Regulation and Society (Relationships) in Exeter United Kingdom | University of Exeter

Pursuing a PhD offers an intellectually engaging and fulfilling journey, enabling you to explore a legal topic of personal interest. To earn a PhD, your dissertation must contribute fresh, original insights to legal scholarship, whether by introducing innovative doctrinal or theoretical approaches to the subject matter or through empirical studies that generate new understandings of legal issues. Romantic partnerships encompass diverse arrangements, from cohabitation (ranging from long-term committed unions to more transient relationships with uncertain futures) to civil unions and marriages—both ongoing and those that have dissolved through separation or divorce. These include both same-sex and heterosexual relationships, each with unique features that may influence their legal recognition within society or prompt debates about whether they should be regulated. Network researchers have investigated various relationship dynamics, examining topics such as: cohabitation trends, revisiting the common law marriage misconception, lesbian parenting structures, elements contributing to lasting and fulfilling partnerships, causes and consequences of infidelity in marriages, and the psychological impacts of divorce on adults. Their findings have informed legal frameworks, mental health interventions, policy development, and professional training for lawyers, therapists, and family support workers dealing with relationship breakdowns.