From a legal perspective, this book explores how "care" is valued and recognized, how it is regulated and restricted, and how the values of caring are reflected in the law. It does this by examining the law's interaction with caring in a wide range of fields, including family, medical, welfare, criminal, and tort law. At the heart of the book is the claim that the law has failed to recognize the importance of caring in many areas and doing so has led to the costs and burdens of care falling on those who provide it, primarily women. It has also meant that the law has failed to protect those who receive care from the abuse that can take place in a caring context. The book will promote an ethic of care as providing an ethical and conceptual framework for the law to respond to caring relationships.