Law Commons^™

Determining Legal Parenthood By Agreement As A Possible Solution To The Challenges Of The New Era, Yehezkel Margalit

Hezi Margalit

Over the past decades, we witnessed changes in the matrimonial and parenting institutions. Medical innovations have further created ethical-legal dilemmas. It is, therefore, essential to create a theory and framework that will determine ways to deal with the resulting dilemma in a fully developed manner. This paper surveys the current, conflicting shifts in family structure and the definition of legal parenthood. In it, I deal with the importance and various aspects of defining legal parenthood. I will also focus on the singularity of this dilemma as it is increasingly apparent in the various fertility treatments. I present the sociological-legal roots …

Penny Wise But Pound Foolish In The Heartland: A Case Study Of Decriminalizing Domestic Violence In Topeka, Kansas, Shelley Santry

Shelley M. Santry

Consensual Amorous Relationships Between Faculty And Students: The Constitutional Right To Privacy, Elisabeth A. Keller

Elisabeth Keller

Surveys of college students in the United States revealed that a significant number of students thought they had been victims of some form of sexual harassment. Growing awareness of the magnitude, dimensions, and effects of sexual harassment at educational institutions and the potential for institutional liability have prompted educators to adopt policies to avert such problems. The policies typically prohibit sexual harassment of employees and students and alert the university community to the serious effects of sexual harassment and the potential for student exploitation. Some universities have gone beyond establishing regulations directed at widely litigated problems of sexual harassment and …

Marriage As Partnership, Sanford N. Katz

Sanford N. Katz

In this essay honoring Professor Mary Ann Glendon, the author discusses the contract of partnerships concept of marriage as it applies to antenuptial agreements, cohabitation contracts, and property settlement agreements, the three contexts about which Professor Glendon has written in her books The New Family and the New Property (1981) and The Transformation of Family Law (1996).

The Ongoing Debate About Mediation In The Context Of Domestic Violence: A Call For Empirical Studies Of Mediation Effectiveness, Susan Landrum

Susan Landrum

For approximately three decades, scholars, mediators, and domestic violence victims’ advocates have debated whether mediation is an appropriate way to approach family law issues where the parties have a history of domestic violence. Those debates have addressed whether mediation is ever appropriate where there is a history of domestic violence and, if so, when it may be used and how the mediation process can provide for victims’ safety and fair mediation outcomes. There has also been much discussion about the need for mediator and attorney training on domestic violence issues, the proper design of effective screening processes, and the form …

A Modest Proposal: To Deport The Children Of Gay Citizens, & Etc: Immigration Law, The Defense Of Marriage Act And The Children Of Same-Sex Couples, Scott Titshaw

Scott Titshaw

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines the terms “marriage” and “spouse” for federal purposes, clearly prevents the recognition of same-sex spouses under U.S. immigration law. Unless judges and immigration officials are careful to limit it as Congress intended, DOMA might also have a tragic unintended effect on some parent-child relationships. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) employs terms like “born in wedlock” and “stepparent” to define parent-child relationships for various immigration and citizenship purposes. One could argue, therefore, that DOMA prevents INA recognition of parent-child relationships stemming from a same-sex marriage. These relationships determine whether a person can …

The Rise, Fall And Rise Again Of The Genetic Foundation For Legal Parentage Determination, Yehezkel Margalit

Hezi Margalit

Recently, we have witnessed dramatic changes in the formation of the family and parenthood. One of the results of those shifts is a growing number of children growing up outside of the traditional marriage framework. Therefore, the dilemma of determining a child's parentage, which was usually resolved by a legal fiction as to the child's legal parents, is becoming increasingly problematic. It is appropriate that any discussion of the establishment of legal parentage should start with a study of the rise of the most popular modern model, the genetic model.

It is relevant to point out that from the beginning …

Denying Choice Of Forum: An Interference By The Massachusetts Trial Court With Domestic Violence Victims' Rights, Margaret B. Drew, Marilu E. Gresens

Margaret B Drew

The article discusses the due process denials inherent in the Massachusetts scheme designed to defeat the victim's choice of forum for hearing on a civil protection order petition. The scheme would divert many protection orders to family court even though the statute in question permits filing and hearing of the petitions in district, superior and famiy courts. The diversion would be available whenever there is a related case filed in family court at the time that the petition for protection is filed. More alarmingly, the petition could be diverted to family court if a subsequent action was filed in the …

Behavioral Economic Issues In American & Islamic Marriage & Divorce Law, Ryan M. Riegg

Ryan M. Riegg

Using "A Jury Of Her Peers" To Teach About The Connection Between Domestic Violence And Animal Abuse, Caroline Forell

Caroline A Forell

In this essay I examine Susan Glaspell’s short story, A Jury of Her Peers, in the context of teaching about the connection between domestic violence and animal abuse in an Animal Law course. I discuss how Glaspell’s story, in which the motive for a woman killing her husband is his killing of her pet bird, enables students to better understand the perspective of battered women who behave in certain ways because they have pets. I pose several questions concerning how the law would and should respond when a battered woman reacts with violence to the killing or serious injury of …

Do Ask And Do Tell: Rethinking The Lawyer's Duty To Warn In Domestic Violence Cases, Margaret B. Drew, Sarah Buel

Margaret B Drew

Empirical data document that while domestic violence victims face high risk of recurring abuse, batterers’ lawyers may be privy to information that could avert further harm. Attorneys owe a duty of confidentiality to their clients that can be breached only in extraordinary circumstances, such as when counsel learns her client plans to commit a crime. To resolve the tension between client confidentiality and victim safety, this Article argues that, in the context of domestic violence cases, lawyers have an affirmative duty to (1) screen battering clients who have indicated a likelihood of harming others, (2) attempt to dissuade them from …

Gender Equality, Social Values And Provocation Law In Australia, Canada And The United States, Caroline A. Forell

Caroline A Forell

This article examines and compares the partial defense of provocation as it applies to domestic homicide in the United States, Canada and Australia.

Domestic Violence And Lawyer Malpractice: Are We Revictimizing Our Clients?, Margaret B. Drew

Margaret B Drew

Many family law attorneys are not qualified to represent survivors of domestic violence. Often the attorneys are not educated on the dynamics of domestic violence or the risks encountered by survivors as they navigate the family court system. Despite the availabilty of domestic violence text books, literature and empirical data, often attorneys fail to understand abuse amd ignore its consequences when recommending remedies for the abuser as well as the survivor client. In doling so, attorneys open themselves to potential malpractice claims. This articles explores some of the ways in which attorneys minimize the impact of abuse on the family …

Achieving Batterer Accountability In The Child Protection System, Leigh Goodmark

Leigh S. Goodmark

No abstract provided.

Dialectics And Domestic Abuse (Reviewing Elizabeth M. Schneider, Battered Women And Feminist Lawmaking (2000)), Katharine K. Baker

Katharine K. Baker

No abstract provided.