“My child, my treasure”: underlying motivations in child custody judicial cases

 Portugal registered, since the mid-1990s, an exponential increase in family disputes over children. This article tries to frame and understand this growth, analysing the motivations underlying the child custody judicial cases, dividing them into three non-exclusive categories: access to children, alimony and administrative certification. The analysis reveals how change and continuity intersect in post-separation family and parental relationships and how parental and gender relations are produced and negotiated in family courts.