Unanswerable dilemmas? Legal regulation for cross cultural family norms

In this chapter I wish to examine the interaction between cultural norms and legal family regulation. I am interested in the way in which varying family norms found within individual legal jurisdictions are reflected in their legal regulatory regimes. How does the legal system cope with real, lived, family forms which the many, if not a majority, in a particular society would prefer not to see embraced? And what effect does this interaction of law with family norm have on the lived family lives and the individual self identities of those living in multicultural societies? While the paper is unlikely to resolve the problems that will be posed, it will seek to reflect critically on some alternative strategies that appear to be available to the legal system in regulating the family where cultures come into conflict on the issue of family form. It will pay particular attention to the fundamental rights discourse that serves as the background to legal reflection on the issues raised. The paper will use as its paradigm examples same-sex family regulation and polygamous family recognition. It will consider these family forms in the light of the legal and social positions operating, principally, in South Africa where most of the research for this paper has been conducted (although other jurisdictions will also feature in the work).