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Family Law

Selected Works

1997

Articles 1 - 5 of 5

Full-Text Articles in Law

Unmasking Undue Influence, Ray D. Madoff Jan 1997

Unmasking Undue Influence, Ray D. Madoff

Ray D. Madoff

The substantial passage of wealth that occurs upon death in the United States each year brings into focus the tension between the belief that people should be able to dispose of their wealth as they wish and society’s interest in maintaining social stability. Nowhere is this tension more apparent than in the doctrine of undue influence. The dominant paradigm presents the undue influence doctrine as providing a double benefit of protecting freedom of testation as well as preventing overreaching by others. In this Article, the author challenges the dominant paradigm by demonstrating how the undue influence doctrine denies freedom of …

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The Failure Of The Freedom-Based And Utlilitarian Arguments For Assisted Suicide, Scott T. Fitzgibbon Dec 1996

The Failure Of The Freedom-Based And Utlilitarian Arguments For Assisted Suicide, Scott T. Fitzgibbon

Scott T. FitzGibbon

In recent years, numerous initiatives have been launched to promote physician-assisted suicide. Numerous statutes have been proposed, and one (in Oregon) has been enacted. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit were recently persuaded to recognize constitutionally protected rights to assisted suicide, although their decisions have been reversed by the Supreme Court. An international organization called the World Federation of Right-to-Die Societies furthers such efforts in other countries. The two most common justifications for such initiatives are that assisted suicide enhances freedom or liberty, and that …

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Summary Judgment In Pennsylvania: Time For Another Look At Credibility Issues, J. Palmer Lockard Ii Dec 1996

Summary Judgment In Pennsylvania: Time For Another Look At Credibility Issues, J. Palmer Lockard Ii

J. Palmer Lockard II

Many Iawsuits are characterized by either minor or non-existent disputes over relevant facts, and such cases may be appropriately resolved by a more summary process than a full-blovvn jury trial. In recognition of this phenomenon, courts and administrators have attempted, since at least the eighteenth century, to fashion procedures that expedite civil litigation. Default judgments, judgments on the pleadings, summary judgments and directed verdicts allow courts to enter judgments at various points during the course of the proceedings prior to submitting the case to the jury. The most recent of these procedural devices to achieve trans-substantive application is summary judgment.

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Transracial Adoption (Tra): Old Prejudices And Discrimination Float Under A New Halo, Ruth-Arlene W. Howe Dec 1996

Transracial Adoption (Tra): Old Prejudices And Discrimination Float Under A New Halo, Ruth-Arlene W. Howe

Ruth-Arlene W. Howe

No abstract provided.

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Twisted Interests: People In Interest Of S.A.H. And The State Of Open Adoptions In South Dakota, Thomas E. Simmons Dec 1996

Twisted Interests: People In Interest Of S.A.H. And The State Of Open Adoptions In South Dakota, Thomas E. Simmons

Thomas E. Simmons

In People in Interest of S.A.H., the South Dakota Supreme Court held that open adoptions, or post-adoption visitation by the natural parents, while not prohibited under South Dakota law when in the best interests of the child, should only be mandated when the trial court finds that it is in the best interests of the child by clear and convincing evidence. The court also instructed trial courts to weigh the needs of the child, the effect on integration with the new family, and the potential effect on the pool of other prospective adoptive parents. This decision, while securing judicial enforcement …

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