Private Ordering, Legal Ordering, and the Getting of Children: A Counterhistory of Adoption Law

In a practice termed "deplorable" by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, "revolting" by the British Home Secretary, and "disgusting" by an Arkansas judge, children in the United States may be sought and offered for adoption on the Internet. A recent high-profile fraud related to Internet-facilitated adoptions- the adoption by a British couple of the American "Internet twins"-has provoked calls on both sides of the Atlantic to close this apparent loophole in adoption regulation. That the absence of regulation of Internet adoption advertising is widely called a loophole and a problem that needs to be fixed, suggests that adoption generally is conceived of as an area of comprehensive legal ordering. If adoption is viewed as an area that is, or should be, completely regulated, then the absence of regulation represents a gap or omission.