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Full-Text Articles in Law
Conceptualizing Legal Childhood In The Twenty-First Century, Clare Huntington, Elizabeth S. Scott
Conceptualizing Legal Childhood In The Twenty-First Century, Clare Huntington, Elizabeth S. Scott
Michigan Law Review
The law governing children is complex, sometimes appearing almost incoherent. The relatively simple framework established in the Progressive Era, in which parents had primary authority over children, subject to limited state oversight, has broken down over the past few decades. Lawmakers started granting children some adult rights and privileges, raising questions about their traditional status as vulnerable, dependent, and legally incompetent beings. As children emerged as legal persons, children’s rights advocates challenged the rationale for parental authority, contending that robust parental rights often harm children. And a wave of punitive reforms in response to juvenile crime in the 1990s undermined …
Rethinking Special Education's "Least Restrictive Environment" Requirement, Cari Carson
Rethinking Special Education's "Least Restrictive Environment" Requirement, Cari Carson
Michigan Law Review
The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act promotes the education of students with disabilities together with their nondisabled peers, requiring education in the “least restrictive environment” (“LRE”). This requirement has long been subject to competing interpretations. This Note contends that the dominant interpretation—requiring education in the least restrictive environment available—is deficient and allows students to be placed in unnecessarily restrictive settings. Drawing from child mental health law, this Note proposes an alternative LRE approach that requires education in the least restrictive environment needed and argues that this alternative approach is a better reading of the law.
Toward A Child-Centered Approach To Evaluating Claims Of Alienation In High-Conflict Custody Disputes, Allison M. Nichols
Toward A Child-Centered Approach To Evaluating Claims Of Alienation In High-Conflict Custody Disputes, Allison M. Nichols
Michigan Law Review
Theories of parental alienation abound in high-conflict custody cases. The image of one parent brainwashing a child against the other parent fits with what we think we know about family dynamics during divorce. The concept of a diagnosable “Parental Alienation Syndrome” (“PAS”) developed as an attempt to explain this phenomenon, but it has been widely discredited by mental health professionals and thus fails the standard for evidentiary admissibility. Nevertheless, PAS and related theories continue to influence the decisions of family courts, and even in jurisdictions that explicitly reject such theories, judges still face the daunting task of resolving these volatile …
Misplaced Misrepresentations: Why Misrepresentation-Of-Age Statutes Must Be Reinterpreted As They Apply To Children’S Online Contracts, Michelle A. Sargent
Misplaced Misrepresentations: Why Misrepresentation-Of-Age Statutes Must Be Reinterpreted As They Apply To Children’S Online Contracts, Michelle A. Sargent
Michigan Law Review
The information age revolutionized the relationship between individuals and the internet. Today, children are the targets of online advertisements that lure them into accepting terms of service, thus entering into online agreements. While children may feel comfortable navigating websites, they are psychologically predisposed to be unsophisticated and impulsive actors online. Children lack the digital literacy to understand the implications of accepting website terms of service. Meanwhile, several states have misrepresentation-of-age statutes that prevent children from using the infancy doctrine to disaffirm online contracts because, in accepting the terms of service, children often represent that they are old enough to enter …
Neither Sad Nor Strange: Recovering The Logic Of Anticruelty Organizations In Gilded Age America, Bryn Resser Pallesen
Neither Sad Nor Strange: Recovering The Logic Of Anticruelty Organizations In Gilded Age America, Bryn Resser Pallesen
Michigan Law Review
In 1877, the American Humane Association ("AHA") incorporated as one of the first national organizations dedicated to the protection of animals. Nine years later, it amended its constitution to include the protection of children in its chartered mission. By 1908, there were 354 anticruelty organizations in the United States, 185 of which were, like the AHA, humane societies invested in the welfare of both animals and children (pp. 2-3). As primary source documents reveal, Gilded Age humanitarians viewed the joint pursuit of child and animal protection as entirely sensible (p. 5). One of the Illinois Humane Society's founding directors, for …
Rationalizing Juvenile Justice, Carolyn J. Frantz
Rationalizing Juvenile Justice, Carolyn J. Frantz
Michigan Law Review
Few issues have occupied the public mind so much in recent years as the problem of youth violence. Due to sensational school shootings and public paranoia about the violence of youth gangs, America is concerned - very concerned - about the growing criminality of its children. In our concern, we find ourselves caught in the classic conundrum of criminal responsibility: reconciling the unavoidable knowledge that much of human behavior is determined with our strong instincts about free will. We blame violent television and video games, we blame single mothers, we blame low church attendance, but when all is said and …
Divorce, Custody, Gender, And The Limits Of Law: On Dividing The Child, Lee E. Teitelbaum
Divorce, Custody, Gender, And The Limits Of Law: On Dividing The Child, Lee E. Teitelbaum
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Dividing the Child: Social and Legal Dilemmas of Custody by Elanor E. Maccoby and Robert H. Mnookin
Black Identity And Child Placement: The Best Interests Of Black And Biracial Children, Kim Forde-Mazrui
Black Identity And Child Placement: The Best Interests Of Black And Biracial Children, Kim Forde-Mazrui
Michigan Law Review
The purpose of this Note is to question whether racial matching by courts and child-placement agencies serves the best interests of Black children. The principle that guides this Note's analysis is that racial matching is justified only if such a policy better serves the interests of Black children than a policy in which race is not a factor in a child-placement determination. This Note also questions whether racial matching serves the interests of biracial children and those of Black people as a cultural group.
The Sexual Innocence Inference Theory As A Basis For The Admissibility Of A Child Molestation Victim's Prior Sexual Conduct, Christopher B. Reid
The Sexual Innocence Inference Theory As A Basis For The Admissibility Of A Child Molestation Victim's Prior Sexual Conduct, Christopher B. Reid
Michigan Law Review
The sexual innocence inference refers to the thought process a jury follows when it hears a young child testify about sexual acts and matters that reveal an understanding of such acts beyond the capacity likely at his or her age. A jury is likely to assume that because the child is so young, he or she must be innocent of sexual matters. Shocked by the child's display on the witness stand, the jury may then infer that the child could have acquired such knowledge only if the charged offense of child molestation is true. To rebut this inference, a defendant …
Discretion, Rules, And Law: Child Custody And The Umda's Best-Interest Standard, Carl E. Schneider
Discretion, Rules, And Law: Child Custody And The Umda's Best-Interest Standard, Carl E. Schneider
Michigan Law Review
One barrier facing any attempt to devise a uniform law for diverse jurisdictions is the occasional - perhaps even frequent - difficulty of writing rules that will accurately guide judges. The law's ordinary solution to that difficulty is to give judges some measure of discretion. This article inquires into the nature and legitimacy of that technique. It does so by analyzing a particularly controversial provision of the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act (UMDA). Section 402 of that Act states: "The court shall determine custody in accordance with the best interest of the child." It then instructs the court to "consider …
Recognizing Child Abuse: A Guide For The Concerned, Denise Esposito
Recognizing Child Abuse: A Guide For The Concerned, Denise Esposito
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Recognizing Child Abuse: A Guide for the Concerned by Douglas J. Besharov
The Child Sexual Abuse Literature: A Call For Greater Objectivity, John E.B. Myers
The Child Sexual Abuse Literature: A Call For Greater Objectivity, John E.B. Myers
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Accusations of Child Sexual Abuse by Hollida Wakefield and Ralph Underwager., The Battle and the Backlash: The Child Sexual Abuse War by David Hechler., On Trial: America's Courts and Their Treatment of Sexually Abused Children by Billie Wright Dziech and Chales B. Schudson.
Law, Science, And History: Reflections Upon In The Best Interests Of The Child, Peggy C. Davis
Law, Science, And History: Reflections Upon In The Best Interests Of The Child, Peggy C. Davis
Michigan Law Review
A Review of In the Best Interests of the Child by Joseph Goldstein, Anna Freud, Albert J. Solnit, and Sonja Goldstein
Families In Peril, Nellie Pappas
Families In Peril, Nellie Pappas
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Families in Peril by Marian Wright Edelman
Videotaping Children's Testimony: An Empirical View, Paula E. Hill, Samuel M. Hill
Videotaping Children's Testimony: An Empirical View, Paula E. Hill, Samuel M. Hill
Michigan Law Review
Increases in the number of reported incidents of child abuse and sexual molestation have resulted in more and younger children becoming courtroom participants. Some courts refuse to consider the special needs of the child in this adversarial environment. Relying on questionable precedent, these courts hold that the defendant's right to directly confront the child, as well as strict compliance with evidentiary rules, overrides that child's interest in freedom from embarrassment or psychological trauma. This Note focuses on pressures felt by the testifying child and the ways in which these pressures affect her testimony; it then proposes using videotaped testimony as …
Lawyers And Children: Wisdom And Legitimacy In Family Policy, Carl E. Schneider
Lawyers And Children: Wisdom And Legitimacy In Family Policy, Carl E. Schneider
Michigan Law Review
A Review of In the Interest of Children: Advocacy, Law Reform, and Public Policy by Robert H. Mnookin, Robert A. Burt, David L. Chambers, Michael S. Wald, Stephen D. Sugarman, Franklin E. Zimring, and Rayman L. Solomon
The Establishment Clause And Religion In Child Custody Disputes: Factoring Religion Into The Best Interest Equation, Michigan Law Review
The Establishment Clause And Religion In Child Custody Disputes: Factoring Religion Into The Best Interest Equation, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
This Note examines when judges deciding custody disputes may consider potential custodians' religious practices without violating the establishment clause of the first amendment to the Constitution. Although courts agree that they may not prefer one parent to another for religious reasons when both parents are religious and neither parent's religious practices threaten the child's health or safety, some courts believe that they may constitutionally prefer a religious parent to a nonreligious parent. Part I argues that courts violate the establishment clause by preferring religion to nonreligion when there is no showing that the child has personal religious convictions. Part II …
The Public Right Of Access To Juvenile Delinquency Hearings, Michigan Law Review
The Public Right Of Access To Juvenile Delinquency Hearings, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
Despite the differences between the criminal and juvenile court systems, the Supreme Court has extended many criminal procedural safeguards to juvenile delinquency hearings. The Court does not, however, "automatically and preemptorily" apply every procedural safeguard to juvenile hearings; rather, it carefully examines the criminal trial standard in the context of delinquency hearings. Adopting a similar approach, this Note considers the implications of a constitutional right of access to juvenile delinquency hearings. Part I examines the right of access announced in Globe Newspaper and Richmond Newspapers v. Virginia. Part II looks at the juvenile justice system and argues that extension …
The Learning Years: A Review Of The Changing Legal World Of Adolescence, Bruce C. Hafen
The Learning Years: A Review Of The Changing Legal World Of Adolescence, Bruce C. Hafen
Michigan Law Review
A Review of The Changing Legal World of Adolescence by Franklin E. Zimring
Who Speaks For The Child: The Problems Of Proxy Consent, Michigan Law Review
Who Speaks For The Child: The Problems Of Proxy Consent, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Who Speaks for the Child: The Problems of Proxy Consent edited by Willard Gaylin and Ruth Macklin
Illegitimacy: An Examination Of Bastardy, Michigan Law Review
Illegitimacy: An Examination Of Bastardy, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Illegitimacy: An Examination of Bastardy by Jenny Teichman
Juveniles' Waiver Of Rights: Legal And Psychological Competence, Michigan Law Review
Juveniles' Waiver Of Rights: Legal And Psychological Competence, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Juveniles' Waiver of Rights: Legal and Psychological Competence by Thomas Grisso
Delinquent Measures, David Seidman
Delinquent Measures, David Seidman
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Measuring Delinquency by Michael J. Hindelang, Travis Hirsch, and Joseph G. Weis
Thinking About Public Policy Toward Abuse And Neglect Of Children: A Review Of Before The Best Interests Of The Child, Michael S. Wald
Thinking About Public Policy Toward Abuse And Neglect Of Children: A Review Of Before The Best Interests Of The Child, Michael S. Wald
Michigan Law Review
A review of Before the Best Interests of the Child by Joseph Goldstein, Anna Freud, and Albert J. Solnit
Father In Jail, David C. Baldus
Father In Jail, David C. Baldus
Michigan Law Review
A review of Making Fathers Pay: The Enforcement of Child Support by David L. Chambers
The Legacy Of The Stubborn And Rebellious Son, Irene Merker Rosenberg, Yale L. Rosenberg
The Legacy Of The Stubborn And Rebellious Son, Irene Merker Rosenberg, Yale L. Rosenberg
Michigan Law Review
In twentieth century America, as in Biblical ,times, parents unable to subdue their disobedient children are authorized to invoke the coercive power of the state. As recently as 1971, for example, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts rejected constitutional challenges to the state's "stubborn child" law, which at the time of its original enactment in 1646 was patterned after the above-quoted verse from Deuteronomy. The court upheld an adjudication that an adolescent girl who refused to submit to a medical examination, used vulgar language, slammed doors, and stayed outside the home "probably talking with the boys," was a "stubborn child" …
The Emerging Constitutional Protection Of The Putative Father's Parental Rights, Michigan Law Review
The Emerging Constitutional Protection Of The Putative Father's Parental Rights, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
This Comment will first examine whether the equal protection or due process clauses of the Constitution presently proscribe disparate treatment of the putative father, as compared with other parents, in regard to parental privileges. Attention will then be given to an assessment of the potential impact of the proposed "equal rights" amendment on the putative father's rights in relation to his illegitimate child.
Forcing Protection On Children And Their Parents: The Impact Of Wyman V. James, Robert A. Burt
Forcing Protection On Children And Their Parents: The Impact Of Wyman V. James, Robert A. Burt
Michigan Law Review
This Article will focus on one of the concerns implicated in Wyman: the government's power to force assistance for the protection of children, when they or their parents are unwilling to accept that assistance. The state's protective purposes in insisting that Mrs. James accept its assistance or suffer serious loss of benefits played an important role in the Wyman decision. Only a few years ago, in In re Gault, the Court refused to defer to a state's similarly beneficent motives when it was asked to withhold the imposition of procedural safeguards in juvenile delinquency proceedings. Wyman does not …
Uniform Probate Code--Illegitimacy--Inheritance And The Illegitimate: A Model For Probate Reform, Michigan Law Review
Uniform Probate Code--Illegitimacy--Inheritance And The Illegitimate: A Model For Probate Reform, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
The Uniform Probate Code (Code), which was approved by the American Bar Association in August 1969, deals with the problem of inheritance by illegitimates both with regard to intestate succession-section 2-109-and also with regard to the construction of a bequest to "children" by will-section 2-611. This Note will examine the issue whether the Code, which presents a comprehensive model for probate reform, deals with the problem of inheritance by illegitimates in an appropriate, desirable, and constitutional manner. The Code provisions concerning illegitimacy relate to many other provisions of the Code in which childhood status is relevant; therefore, it will be …
Platt: The Child Savers: The Invention Of Delinquency, Joseph Whitehill
Platt: The Child Savers: The Invention Of Delinquency, Joseph Whitehill
Michigan Law Review
A Review of The Child Savers: The Invention of Delinquency by Anthony M. Platt