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Full-Text Articles in Law
Religion And Child Custody, Margaret Brinig
Religion And Child Custody, Margaret Brinig
Margaret F Brinig
This piece draws upon divorce pleadings and other records to show how indications of religion (or disaffiliation) that appear in custody agreements and orders (called “parenting plans” in both states studied) affect the course of the proceedings and legal activities over the five years following divorce filing. Some of the apparent findings are normative, but most are merely descriptive and some may be correlative rather than caused by the indicated concern about religion. While parenting plans are accepted by courts only when they are in the best interests of the child (at least in theory), the child’s independent religious needs …
Result Inequality In Family Law, Margaret Brinig
Result Inequality In Family Law, Margaret Brinig
Margaret F Brinig
To the extent that family law is governed by statute, all families are treated as though they are the same. This is of course consistent with the equal protection guarantees of the US Constitution as well as those of the states. However, in our pluralistic society, all families are not alike. At birth, some children are born to wealthy, married parents who will always put the children’s interests first and will never engage in domestic violence. Many laws benefit these children, while, according to some academics, they either further disadvantage other children or at best ignore their needs.
This presentation …
Mandatory Family Mediation And The Settlement Mission: A Feminist Critique, Noel Semple
Mandatory Family Mediation And The Settlement Mission: A Feminist Critique, Noel Semple
Noel Semple
North American family law conflicts are very often brought to mediation, in which a neutral third party attempts to bring about a voluntary resolution of the spouses’ dispute. Family mediation has many enthusiastic supporters, and has in many jurisdictions been made a mandatory precursor to traditional litigation. However, it has also given rise to a potent feminist critique, which identifies power imbalance and domestic violence as sources of exploitation and unjust mediated outcomes. This article summarizes the feminist critique of family mediation, and assesses the efforts of contemporary mediation practice to respond to it. Even in the absence of formal …
Result Inequality In Family Law, Margaret F. Brinig
Result Inequality In Family Law, Margaret F. Brinig
Margaret F Brinig
To the extent that family law is governed by statute, all families are treated as though they are the same. This is of course consistent with the equal protection guarantees of the U.S. Constitution as well as those of the states. However, in our pluralistic society, all families are not alike. At birth, some children are born to wealthy, married parents who will always put the children’s interests first and will never engage in domestic violence. Many laws benefit these children, while, according to some academics, they either further disadvantage other children or at best ignore their needs. This Article …
Taming The Tigers: Domestic Violence, Legal Professionalism, And Well-Being, Jill Engle
Taming The Tigers: Domestic Violence, Legal Professionalism, And Well-Being, Jill Engle
Jill Engle
Domestic violence kills thousands of American women every year. In 2013, one of them was my client. My law school clinic represented a woman divorcing her abusive husband after twenty years of marriage. Three days after we served him with the divorce complaint, he walked into the grocery store where she worked and shot her dead. He then turned the gun on himself, and died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds. The lead student working her case listened in horror as one of our local colleagues who had heard the breaking news described it to her in a phone call to the …
Promoting The General Welfare: Legal Reform To Lift Women And Children In The United States Out Of Poverty, Jill Engle
Promoting The General Welfare: Legal Reform To Lift Women And Children In The United States Out Of Poverty, Jill Engle
Jill Engle
American women and children have been poor in exponentially greater numbers than men for decades. The problem has historic, institutional roots which provide a backdrop for this article’s introduction. English and early U.S. legal systems mandated a lesser economic status for women. Despite numerous legal changes aimed at combating the financial disadvantage of American women and children, the problem is worsening. American female workers, many in low-paying job sectors, earn roughly twenty percent less than their male counterparts. Nearly forty percent of single mothers and their children subsist below the poverty level. The recession exacerbated this problem, mostly because unemployment …
Confronting Domestic Violence In Higher Education, Jill Engle
Confronting Domestic Violence In Higher Education, Jill Engle
Jill Engle
Panel presentation on Student Life, Relationships, and the Law. Panel presented at Pepperdine University.
Orders Of Protection In Domestic Violence Cases: An Empirical Assessment Of The Impact Of The Reform Statutes, Kit Kinports, Karla Fischer
Orders Of Protection In Domestic Violence Cases: An Empirical Assessment Of The Impact Of The Reform Statutes, Kit Kinports, Karla Fischer
Kit Kinports
The authors' concern that domestic violence reform statutes might not be having their intended effect sparked their decision to evaluate the protective order statutes empirically. The authors therefore distributed a lengthy survey to 843 domestic violence organizations nationwide that helped battered women obtain protective orders. The survey focused on three issues. The first issue was access to the courts: Is the protective order remedy accessible to battered women? The second issue related to the procedures for obtaining orders of protection: Are judges granting orders in appropriate cases, and are they awarding the full range of remedies contemplated by the reform …
Defending Battered Women's Self-Defense Claims, Kit Kinports
Defending Battered Women's Self-Defense Claims, Kit Kinports
Kit Kinports
This Article contends that many battered women who kill their abusive spouses can legitimately raise the standard self-defense claim. No substantial extension of self-defense doctrine is required to justify the acquittal of battered women on self-defense grounds. Furthermore, no special "battered women defense" is necessary or even desirable in such cases. Part I of this Article summarizes the results of psychological research studying abused women and battering relationships. It further explains the concept of the :battered woman syndrome" which describes the effects of sustained physical and psychological abuse by one's husband. Part II discusses the requirements of a successful self-defense …