MY EARLY AND LATER YEARS OF ENGAGEMENT WITH ISFL

I got acquainted with ISFL when I started my work as a lecturer at the university in Tilburg. My former boss and promoter was Prof. Dr Madzy Rood-de Boer, who had been nominated professor of family law at Tilburg University 1 and the University of Utrecht. She was one of the founding mothers (and fathers) of ISFL, in 1973. The other promoter from me was Prof. Dr. Jan Vranken. Madzy Rood-de Boer invited me to become a member of this society, and introduced me at my first ISFL conference, in Louvain-la Neuve (very close to Brussels) in 1985. Actually, this was the fifth ISFL World Conference, which was held in July 1985, on the theme ‘The Family, the State and Individual Security’. At that time Prof. John Eekelaar from Pembroke College in Oxford (UK) was the president of ISFL. The lectures gave me a good insight into the different law systems with regard to financial family support, alimony and social security. Brussels is not far away from Tilburg, and for me it was a very good opportunity to meet the officers of ISFL, and many ISFL members and other scientists (like psychologists and sociologists). It was a great experience to learn so much about other family law systems in our world. During the different international family law lectures, I also learned about aspects of animosity between several legal experts, and about professional jealousy between them. Nevertheless, it was a very interesting and inspiring conference, which was perfectly organised. The convenor of the conference was Professor Marie-Thérèse Meulders-Klein, who did a perfect job, together with her staff at the University of Louvain-la-Neuve. For me, it felt like joining a society with many other interested scientists in the field of family and child law. Later on, I not only felt I was a member of a society, but also a member of a second family. I will come back to this later.

At the conference in Brussels, it was announced that the next World Conference was going to be held in Tokyo, Japan, from 6 – 12 April 1988. The theme would be ‘Issues of Ageing in Modern Society’.