Law Commons^™

Unexplained Fractures In Infants And Child Abuse: The Case For Requiring Bone-Density Testing Before Convicting Caretakers, Matt Seeley

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Domestic Relations, Barry B. Mcgough, Elinor H. Hitt

Mercer Law Review

This survey period' saw continued evolution of domestic relations law.2 Legislation passed during the 2010 and 2011 Regular Session of the Georgia General Assembly took effect during this survey period, and the Georgia Supreme Court continued to accept nonfrivolous appeals in divorce cases, which provide guidance to those interested in domestic relations law.

State Of Alaska V. Native Village Of Tanana: Enhancing Tribal Power By Affirming Concurrent Tribal Jurisdiction To Initiate Icwa Defined Child Custody Proceedings, Both Inside And Outside Of Indian Country, Heather Kendall-Miller

Alaska Law Review

This Article provides an overview of the significant cases that have defined state-tribal relations in Alaska as related to Indian child proceedings and further discusses various policies that have been implemented over time. After outlining these cases and shifting policies, the Article examines the current state of the law in Alaska with a focus on State v. Native Village of Tanana, which clarified confusion regarding the inherent jurisdiction held by federally recognized Alaska Native tribes to initiate the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA)-defined child custody proceedings. Finally, the Article discusses those jurisdictional questions left unresolved by Tanana to be decided …

Family Law, Ronald R. Tweel, Elizabeth P. Coughter, Jason P. Seiden

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Representing Children On Appeal: Changed Circumstances, Changed Minds, Judith Waksberg

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

Winning The Battle Or Losing The War: The Implications Of Boseman V. Jarrell On The Same-Sex Adoption Debate In North Carolina, Jacinta Jones

North Carolina Central Law Review

No abstract provided.

Saving Seaborn: Ownership Not Marriage As The Basis Of Family Taxation, Dennis J. Ventry Jr

Indiana Law Journal

One of the most famous Supreme Court tax cases celebrated its eightieth birthday last year. In Poe v. Seaborn, the Court reified two principles of the federal income tax: ownership determines tax liability and state law determines ownership. This Article affirms that family taxation continues to follow ownership, not marriage, despite the federal government’s position that the “ownership equals taxability” rule applies almost exclusively to heterosexual spouses. Verifying the vitality of this principle carries significant implications for all families, particularly nontraditional families. Under the aegis of Seaborn, the principle authorizes certain members of state-recognized relationships—marriages, domestic partnerships, civil unions—to file …

Reviled Mothers: Custody Modification Cases Involving Domestic Violence, Megan Shipley

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Enforcing A Parent/Child Relationship At All Cost?: Supervised Access Orders In The Canadian Courts, Fiona Kelly

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Supervised access has become a key component of Canadian custody and access decision making in recent years, in large part due to a shift in attitudes towards post-separation contact between non-custodial parents, typically fathers, and their children. While the sole criterion upon which an access decision can be made is the “best interests of the child,” the increased emphasis on ensuring that children have “maximum contact” with each of their parents post-separation, and the particular focus on maintaining paternal contact, has meant that orders for “no access” have almost disappeared. In an effort to unpack the themes underlying supervised access …

A Child-Centered Response To The Elkins Family Law Task Force, Amy M. Pellman, Robert N. Jacobs, Dara K. Reiner

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In Elkins v. Superior Court, 163 P.3d 160 (Cal. 2007), California’s Supreme Court asked the Judicial Council to form a task force to make recommendations to increase “access to justice” in family court, because it was concerned about rules, policies, and procedures that put self-represented litigants at an unfair disadvantage in parentageand dissolution cases.

Neither the task force’s report in 2010 nor the legislation that the report inspired the same year addresses children’s due process rights, even though children ordinarily have no access to justice. This Article shows that due process sometimes requires the trial court to appoint counsel for …

Home State, Cross-Border Custody, And Habitual Residence Jurisdiction: Time For A Temporal Standard In International Family Law, Todd Heine

Annual Survey of International & Comparative Law

This article addresses three jurisdictional standards that arise in every cross-border child custody dispute between European Union Member States and the United States: home state, cross-border, and habitual residence jurisdiction. These jurisdictional standards face uncertainty in many cases.

First, this article provides a history of family law jurisdiction in the United States and thoroughly reviews home state jurisdiction in United States domestic law. While domestic family lawyers know this standard, the standard’s rigidity and fragmented application among the states baffle many foreign family lawyers.

Second, this article offers an overview of the remarkable emergence of family law in European Union …

In Re: Adoption Of A Minor Child Circuit Court Of The 15th Judicial Circuit Palm Beach County, Florida, Jennafer Neufeld, Dalia Georgi

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

What Sex-Ed Didn't Teach You: Addressing The Inadequacies Of West Virginia Code Section 42-1-8 And The Future Of Posthumously Conceived Children, Andrew S. Felts

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

To Lynch A Child: Bullying And Gender Nonconformity In Our Nation's Schools, Michael J. Higdon

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Modernizing Marriage, Adam Candeub, Mae Kuykendall

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article proposes to modernize the archaic procedures states use to authorize marriages so as to provide legal flexibility, promote efficiency, and enhance individual choice. Almost universally, states require couples' presence within their borders, however briefly, for a ceremony. After considering the historical and policy rationales for this requirement and finding them either obsolete or incoherent, we propose that states offer marriages to those outside their borders. Such distance marriages could occur via video-conference, using the internet or even telephone, with readily available safeguards to prevent fraud. This simple reform would allow certain couples who cannot marry under local law …

Can You Really Be A Good Role Model To Your Child If You Can't Braid Her Hair? The Unconstitutionality Of Factoring Gender And Sexuality Into Custody Determinations, Christina M. Tenuta

City University of New York Law Review

No abstract provided.

Referenda And The District Of Columbia's Human Rights Act: Voting On Same-Sex Marriage In The Nation's Capital, Jacob Stewart

Legislation and Policy Brief

Beginning with Massachusetts in 2003, the courts and legislatures of many states have had to decide whether same-sex marriage is or should be a fundamental right under their respective constitutions. Although only five states and the District of Columbia legally perform same-sex marriages, a few other jurisdictions are in the process of proposing laws moving in that direction. However, the vast majority of states are holding fast to the traditional heterosexual definition of marriage. Thirty-eight states have adopted some sort of Defense of Marriage Act, constitutional amendment, or similar measure that defines marriage as the union between one man and …

Members Only: The Need For Reform In U.S. Intercountry Adoption Policy, Colin Joseph Troy

Seattle University Law Review

In the last five years, Americans have adopted nearly seventy thousand children from foreign countries. The trend of intercountry adoption, “the process by which a married couple or single individual of one country adopts a child from another country,” is representative of the new globalized world, where families are formed and dissolved beyond the bounds of national borders. Although intercountry adoption has enabled many adoptive parents to form loving families and provide caring living environments for countless children, intercountry adoption is not without its share of problems. Corruption and abuse, such as child trafficking, have in many cases marred the …

Divorce And The Best Interest Of The Child: Disputes Over Visitation And The Japanese Family Courts, Takao Tanase, Matthew J. Mccauley

Washington International Law Journal

The following is a translation of an article written by Professor Takao Tanase for the December 2009 edition of Jiyū to Seigi, a Japanese legal periodical. Divorce and familial breakdown has become a major problem in modern Japanese society, yet the law does not provide any meaningful protection for the noncustodial parent. Professor Tanase analyzes this issue from a comparative and theoretical perspective, looking at the current Japanese visitation laws in place today, while contrasting those with the system in the United States. He also looks at how those laws affect actual families, and how the courts have implemented …

Divorce And The Welfare Of The Child In Japan, Matthew J. Mccauley

Washington International Law Journal

Current Japanese legal institutions are ill-equipped to resolve the complicated issues surrounding visitation, custody, and divorce. Japanese views toward family and society have changed greatly since the post-World War II family law was enacted in the 1950s, but the law has not evolved accordingly. This is especially clear in the methods used to determine custody and visitation, as well as the kyōgi rikon, or divorce by mutual consent system. Policy makers and activists are both working to resolve this problem, but their ongoing struggle has yet to produce any tangible results. This comment argues that the Japanese legal system …

Cohabitation And The Restatement (Third) Of Restitution & Unjust Enrichment, Candace Saari Kovacic-Fleischer

Washington and Lee Law Review

The Restatement (Third) of Restitution & Unjust Enrichment clarified and modernized a field that had become muddled since the publication of the Restatement (First) in 1937. One area of modernization relates to the changes in law towards women, particularly changes in law toward female cohabitants. Published in 2011, the Restatement (Third) added a new Section 28, which rejected the view that it would be immoral for one cohabitant to bring suit against the other, and relaxed the restriction on recovery in unjust enrichment for “gratuitous” contributions. This Article reviews societal and legal changes for women since 1937 and notes that, …

Redefining Child Under The State Children's Health Insurance Program: Capable Of Repetition, Yet Evading Results, Elisabeth H. Sperow

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Should I Stay Or Should I Go: Why Immigrant Reunification Decisions Should Be Based On The Best Interest Of The Child, Marcia Zug

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cause Breaking Up Is Hard To Do: The Need For Uniform Enforcement Of Cohabitation Agreements In West Virginia, Emily E. Diederich

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

State V. Harden: Muddying The Waters Of Self-Defense Law In West Virginia, Devin C. Daines

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Artificial Insemination And The Presumption Of Parenthood: Traditional Foundations And Modern Applications For Lesbian Mothers, William M. Lopez

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This note traces the history of the presumption of parenthood and applies the traditional rationales underlying the presumption to support its application to married lesbian couples. Part I discusses the formation of the presumption in England and recognizes that the presumption was created for three important reasons: to protect the child; to protect the public purse; and to protect the biological family. Part II discusses state laws on artificial insemination and dissects the basic requirements for both same-sex and opposite-sex parents. This Part then applies the presumption's traditional rationales to lesbian couples having children, arguing that the same presumption should …

Resolving Conflicts Of Constitution: Inside The Dominican Republic's Constitutional Ban On Abortion, Mia So

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Gimme Shelter, Robert Leckey

Dalhousie Law Journal

Highlighting the family home's significance as shelter this paper challenges the prevailing view of the demands of the equality guarantee in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms regarding unmarried cohabitants. In Nova Scotia (Attorney General) v. Walsh, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected the claim that it was discriminatory to restrict rules dividing matrimonial property to married couples. By contrast, on many views it is discriminatory to exclude cohabitants from a support obligation. Scholars and judges assume that Walsh upholds all statutory rules regarding married spouses and their property, including measures protecting the family home as shelter But Walsh …

International Child Abduction And Children's Rights: Two Means To The Same End, Eran Sthoeger

Michigan Journal of International Law

The Hague Convention aims to deter future abductors and demonstrate mutual respect for the laws of its member states, while presumably serving the best interests of the child. It operates as a jurisdictional mechanism by reinstating the status quo prior to the removal through the prompt return of the child to his or her place of habitual residence. This return, as clearly stated in the Hague Convention itself, bears no effect on the merits of any existing or future custody dispute between the parents. The Hague Convention demands that contracting states respect past or future decisions pertaining to custody decided …

Same Sex Marriage: Does The Constitution Or State Constitution Support Same-Sex Marriages?, Sonja Seehusen

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

No abstract provided.