Abstract While Susan Marks’ trenchant critique of the family metaphor in international law in her EJIL Foreword will resonate with many readers, her repudiation will fail to persuade those whose experience of the family is not entirely bleak. Drawing from the African continent, where ideas of family anchor social cohesion and diverse public policies, and from the global climate debate, where intergenerational discourses are increasingly receiving formal legal recognition, I illustrate that the family is very much alive, if not always doing well. Rumours of its demise and obsolescence will remain unfounded as long as the family continues to inspire personal, social and global goods.
Barney Afako (2025) studied this question.