Law Commons^™

Breaking The Seal: Ohio's Revised Adoption Law, Francis Y. Ake

Akron Law Review

This Comment will review the revised statutory scheme of adoption law in Ohio which permits access to identifying and non-identifying information about birth parents, and will analyze the rights and interests affected by these changes. The analysis will also include an overview of recent studies which may have influenced these changes as public awareness of the sealed record controversy has grown.

Ohio's "Sacred Seal Of Secrecy": The Rules Of Spousal Incompetency And Martial Privilege In Criminal Cases, Wilson R. Huhn

Akron Law Review

In the remainder of this essay the rules of spousal incompetency and marital privilege are compared and contrasted, the history of the rules in Ohio is traced, the underlying justifications for the rules are discussed, and a pitch is made for repeal of both rules, substituting the single rule of spousal immunity described above.

A Professional Degree Is Not Marital Property Upon Divorce: Stevens V. Stevens, Katherine Scheid

Akron Law Review

This Note first analyzes the Stevens court's opinion and concludes that it fails to give sufficient direction on how to determine the amount of the alimony award in order to sufficiently compensate the supporting spouse. Second, this Note explores the ways in which courts in other jurisdictions have attempted to compensate the supporting spouse. Finally, this Note proposes two alternative methods of valuing the supporting spouse's contribution. One method applies if the court, as in Stevens v. Stevens, holds that contribution toward a technical degree is not divisible marital property but should be considered when awarding alimony. The second …

Death Of The Family: What's Become Of The Parents And The Children, Ronald C. Griffin

Akron Law Review

If something isn't done quickly, America will become the first nation in history in which elderly people enjoy more security than children.

To that end I recommend that family obligations be analyzed in contractual terms. If the law encompasses what courts do with specific conduct, contract law can moderate parental behavior through vehicles such as family counselling. It can sort out family duties and supply legal rationales for resolving family disputes in a constructive way. This article begins with a background discussion - history, literature and insights - then addresses the law and legal analysis.

"Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe": Disestablishment Of Paternity, Vanessa S. Browne-Barbour

Akron Law Review

Part II of this Article provides a general historical overview of paternity rules. Part III summarizes the laws addressing paternity and its disestablishment in the United States and the European Union. It discusses related cases from the high courts of both jurisdictions, which highlight the broad range of issues, interests, and consequences associated with issues of paternity. Part IV considers the adverse effects of disestablishment of paternity on a child. It recommends nationally mandated genetic testing at birth or soon thereafter. This would eliminate altogether the need for paternity disestablishment procedures, thereby avoiding their harmful effects. Part V acknowledges that …

In Re Adoption Of Charles B. - A Tough Act To Follow, Deborah M. Arik

Akron Law Review

This Note first discusses homosexuality and examines Ohio's position on adoption, child custody, and custody disputes involving homosexual parents." The Note then reviews other states' positions on homosexual adoption. The remainder of the Note analyzes the Charles B. decisions" and discusses future questions that the Court will need to answer."

Cleaning Up With Banquo's Ghost In The Dairyland? A Brief (Economic) Analysis Of The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program's Unconstitutional Conditioning Of Its Aid On An Effective Waiver Of A Recipeint's Free Exercise Of Religion: Professor Richard A. Epstein's Bargaining With The State And Miller V. Benson, Michael E. Hartmann

Akron Law Review

If a state gives school-choice aid to individual parents, for instance, can it constitutionally attach a condition coercing, pressuring, or inducing such a parent to in return effectively waive the free exercise of religion by preventing the use of that aid - by, again, an individual - for tuition at a sectarian school? A pending federal lawsuit by Kansas City's Landmark Legal Foundation on behalf of five low-income parents and their children essentially asks this question of Wisconsin's four-year-old Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (M.P.C.P.), as does this short piece.' The following section, then, by way of further introduction, encapsulates law …

Desperately Seeking Status: Same-Sex Couples Battle For Employment-Linked Benefits, Sue Nussbaum Averill

Akron Law Review

This Comment will focus on the battles that gay and lesbian workers face in their attempts to attain benefit parity in the workplace and how these battles are linked to the fact that their relationships lack legal status. Part I will discuss recent judicial decisions on the issue of employment-linked benefit availability to the same-sex partners of gay and lesbian employees. Part II will review two recent decisions, which although unrelated to employment, may have set the stage for a legal redefinition of the family, and may provide a means by which same-sex couples could attain the legal status required …

Punishment By Family And Community In Katherine Anne Porter's Noon Wine, Robert Batey

Akron Law Review

So crime and death permeate Noon Wine, but the novel is also a story of family and community. With evocative detail, Porter portrays the lives and relationships of the defendant Royal Earle Thompson, his wife Ellie, and their sons Arthur and Herbert, who mature from childhood to adolescence during the story. As the novel focuses on the young boys' propensity to play with the prized possessions of the farmhand Olaf Helton, his harmonicas, the reader learns how father, mother, and farmhand (for Helton grows to be "'one of the family"') participate in the trying task of childrearing.

"Are You My Mother?": Ohio's Crazy-Making Baby-Making Produces A New Definition Of "Mother", Michelle Pierce-Gealy

Akron Law Review

Part I of this Comment introduces the roots of parental rights and responsibilities. Part II briefly describes modern reproductive techniques and their effect on parental rights. Part III explores the Ohio statutory definition of motherhood and analyzes the impact of Belsito on parentage determinations. It also analyzes the other cases defining motherhood and the proposed legislative responses. Part IV anticipates the legal repercussions of Ohio's new definition of maternity on each party's rights and responsibilities. Finally, the Comment concludes by advocating a new parentage paradigm that recognizes the important contributions of each party in collaborative reproduction.

State V. Nemeth: Equal Protection For The Battered Child, Joseph A. Shoaff

Akron Law Review

This Note analyzes the Court's decision in Nemeth. Part II presents a background of the battered child syndrome followed by a discussion of the admissibility of battered woman and battered child syndrome testimony in Ohio. In addition, it contains a brief overview of Ohio's ambiguous self-defense standard. Part III presents the facts, procedural history, and holding of Nemeth. Part IV analyzes the Court's holding.

This Note establishes why the Ohio Supreme Court should recognize the psychological equivalency of the battered woman and battered child syndromes and affirm the Nemeth holding on equal protection grounds. In doing so, the Court will …

C.R.B. V. C.C And B.C.: Protecting Children's Need For Stability In Custody Modification Disputes Between Biological Parents And Third Parties, Laura Beresh Taylor

Akron Law Review

This Note examines the collision of the “foundational policies” recognized by the Alaska Supreme Court. Part II provides an overview of the parental preference doctrine and custody modification standards. Part III presents the facts, procedural history, and the Alaska Supreme Court’s holding in C.R.B. Finally, Part IV analyzes the Alaska Supreme Court’s decision and its consequences. The Alaska Supreme Court properly rejected the use of a parental preference in custody modification disputes, and its holding produced a desirable outcome. However, this Note establishes why the court should adopt a more stringent modification standard to safeguard children’s need for stability in …

Law And The Boundaries Of Place And Race In Interracial Marriage: Interstate Comity, Racial Identity, And Miscegenation Laws In North Carolina, South Carolina, And Virginia, 1860s-1960s, Peter Wallenstein

Akron Law Review

This essay draws from case materials in three states to explore two of the main problems in enforcing—or escaping conviction under—laws in the United States against interracial marriage during the hundred years after the Civil War. Questions of interstate comity and racial identity, though not both involved in every miscegenation case, would remain issues in many such cases as long as laws against interracial marriage remained in effect. Only in 1967, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided Loving v. Virginia and declared such laws unconstitutional, would the boundaries of race and place no longer have any bearing on the law …

Chenault V. Huie: Denying The Existence Of A Legal Duty Between A Mother And Her Unborn Child, Edward Sylvester

Akron Law Review

When an unborn child is injured by its mother, and subsequently born alive, who should be protected? The Court of Appeals of Texas, in Chenault v. Huie, feared the slippery slope, and gave deference to the mother when it denied the existence of a legal duty between mother and fetus. Few cases have directly addressed a child’s tort action against her mother for prenatal substance abuse that resulted in injuries sustained while en ventre sa mere.

This Note discusses the general background of a child’s right to sue for fetal injury and the liability of the individuals that cause the …

Choosing Fame Over Family, Peter Mack, Geoff Mcnutt, John Vasuta, Michael Song

Akron Law Review

The fame of two or more commonly owned trademarks is a powerful weapon in the trademark owner’s enforcement arsenal if the trademarks have a particular feature or element in common. Indeed, recent developments in the law of trademarks suggest that the fame of the senior user’s group of marks with a common element is a more significant factor in a likelihood of confusion analysis than the senior user’s ability to establish that it owns a “family of marks.”

In deciding questions of likelihood of confusion, courts must often place themselves “in the position of an average purchaser or prospective purchaser …

Refusing To Remove An Obstacle To The Remedy: The Supreme Court's Decision In Town Of Castle Rock V. Gonzales Continues To Deny Domestic Violence Victims Meaningful Recourse, Nicole M. Quester

Akron Law Review

The Supreme Court’s opinion in Castle Rock illustrates that more conscious efforts must be made by every branch of the legal system to eradicate domestic abuse. The entire legal system must work together to raise the curtain on domestic violence. Legislatures must continue to promote social change in the area of domestic violence, and courts must enforce legislation without questioning the legislature’s policy determinations. Police departments must enforce strict policies aimed at protecting the abused, while being held accountable when failing to provide any measure of protection. The legal system must heed a woman’s pleas for help and prevent court …

Doma And Diffusion Theory: Ending Animus Legislation Through A Rational Basis Approach, David J. Herzig

Akron Law Review

The purpose of this Article is to expand the scope of the discussion from one of morality to include a sociological approach, called Diffusion Theory...Section II of this Article explains Diffusion Theory. Section III explores the background of DOMA and the factual background in which DOMA is being challenged by the states and private citizens. Section IV discusses the fundamentals behind the Florida adoption ban and how the change in the message by the challengers has proven effective. The final part, Section V, analyzes whether the approach should center on the inevitability of the change, as reflected in the Justice …

Biological Evaluations: Blood, Genes, And Family, Janet L. Dolgin

Akron Law Review

The next Part of the Article (Part II) provides a brief overview of the ideology in terms of which society understood the family during the nineteenth, and most of the twentieth, century. Part III then summarizes the increasing readiness of society and of lawmakers since the 1960s, openly to premise delimitations of family on values once associated with the marketplace, but not the home. Parts II and III provide background to Part IV. Part IV, the heart of the Article, focuses on contemporary understandings of family that preserve a central role for the biological correlates of domestic relationships. The Part …

Anna Moscowitz Kross And The Home Term Part: A Second Look At The Nation's First Criminal Domestic Violence Court, Mae C. Quinn

Akron Law Review

This paper seeks to inform current conversations about dedicated domestic violence courts by shedding light on Kross’s remarkable early efforts to treat domestic violence prosecutions differently from other criminal matters and handle them in a designated court part. The story of Kross’s Home Term Part – the first specialized criminal domestic violence court in New York and perhaps the United States—is an important chapter in the history of intimate violence policies in this country. Recognition of Home Term is crucial to any complete account and understanding of our criminal justice system’s renewed efforts at judicial innovation through specialized “problem-solving” courts. …

The Science And Statistics Behind Spanking Suggest That Laws Allowing Corporal Punishment Are In The Best Interests Of The Child, Jason M. Fuller

Akron Law Review

Were such a killing to occur in the U.S., the popular reaction would have been, “How can we prevent this from happening again?” In Sweden, however, youth violence and aggression has gotten so out-of control that the reaction was, “Shoot another [one].” Sadly, many policymakers fail to realize how Swedish laws have contributed to growing youth violence, and consequently, to public resentment of Swedish youths.

In 1979, Sweden started an international trend by becoming the first country to ban spanking. Since then, twenty-three more countries have outlawed it. The European Committee of Social Rights currently is urging all forty-five of …

Save The Children: The Legal Abondonment Of American Youth In The Workplace, Seymour Moskowitz

Akron Law Review

Part II of the Article sets out the basic facts regarding children in the contemporary American economy. These youths labor in a wide variety of work settings but are concentrated in the retail, restaurant, and service sectors. The existing protective statutes exclude large blocks of working children and provide few effective deterrents for violations. The results are as tragic as they are predictable. Working youths, particularly those working more than twenty hours per week, suffer numerous academic, physical, and other detriments. An additional problem particular to young workers is sexual harassment on the job. Part III analyzes the legal rules …

Jon & Kate Plus The State: Why Congress Should Protect Children In Reality Programming, Dayna B. Royal

Akron Law Review

One is forced to wonder whether any laws exist to protect minors whose personal lives are laid bare as their own parents thrust them into the paparazzi’s spotlight. This article addresses this question, considering the best legal regime for regulating employment of children in reality programming, and suggesting an alternative to the status quo. To that end, Part II begins by identifying the various harms reality programming causes, arguing that participating in reality programming is detrimental both to the individual children who participate and to society in general. Part III surveys the current legal landscape, addressing first the federal law …

Shari'ah Law As National Security Threat?, Cyra Akila Choudhury

Akron Law Review

The Article proceeds in three parts: in Part II, the Article describes three anti-shari’ah measures. It describes Oklahoma’s Save Our State amendment to show how these laws target Islam. It also reviews the recent decision by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals affirming the grant of a preliminary injunction against the certification of Oklahoma’s constitutional amendment. It then describes Arizona’s law that targets shari’ah as well as other legal traditions. It also examines the original version of the Tennessee bill to illustrate the motivations behind the revised, watered down version that was eventually passed by the legislature. Part II concludes …

Splitting The Baby: Immigration, Family Law, And The Problem Of The Single Deportable Parent, Timothy E. Yahner

Akron Law Review

The purpose of this article is not to suggest that the Fifth Circuit was wrong in upholding the dismissal of Monica’s case. Indeed, the court was faced with a dilemma that would give King Solomon pause: what to do when two parents claim one child. This article’s purpose is to show that a regulatory solution is preferable to forcing the courts to make impossible choices between parents. Part II discusses the factual and procedural history of Castro. Part III details the policies and rules of law of immigration and custody at play in the case. Part IV explains why the …