The authors identify a link between the law's colonization of child welfare and the steady depletion of resources throughout the 1980's. Using case histories, they highlight limitations of the law as an institution for promoting child welfare and argue that many cases would not come to court if adequate preventive facilities were available. The authors use the experience of several countries to demonstrate how conflicts can be minimized and resources more firmly directed at promoting the well-being of children and their families when the legal system is not used as the primary definer of child welfare issues. Legislative changes in England and Wales are reviewed that focus on child welfare law in the 1990's. Consideration is also given to social and economic factors associated with child welfare, different approaches of mental health clinics and courts to the problems presented by child abuse and neglect, the effect of marital breakdown on children, child sexual abuse, expert psychiatric witnesses, child protection, and limits of legal intervention. References and figures