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Articles 1 - 12 of 12

Full-Text Articles in Law

Introduction, Michael S. Wald Jun 1985

Introduction, Michael S. Wald

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Virtually everyone agrees that the family is a vital institution. Because of the perceived importance of the family to the state, our society always has tried to regulate both the form and functions of families. Laws prescribe who may form a family, the rights and obligations of family members towards each other, and the substantive and procedural rules for dissolving families.


The Myth Of State Intervention In The Family, Frances E. Olsen Jun 1985

The Myth Of State Intervention In The Family, Frances E. Olsen

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Most people concede that there are times when state officials should intervene in the private family. Doctrines of family privacy are no longer thought to justify societal neglect of beaten wives or abused children. Yet society continues to use the ideal of the private family to orient policy. It seems important therefore to examine the concept of state intervention in the private family. In this essay, I argue that the private family is an incoherent ideal and that the rhetoric of nonintervention is more harmful than helpful.


House Of Judah: The Problem Of Child Abuse And Neglect In Communes And Cults, Gregory M. Gochanour Jun 1985

House Of Judah: The Problem Of Child Abuse And Neglect In Communes And Cults, Gregory M. Gochanour

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note argues that although some modifications were appropriate, state intervention and removal of children, even from a commune or cult, should be handled through examination of each individual parent/child relationship. Part I examines the statutory and case law framework for state intervention and removal of children from the custody of abusive parents in Michigan, and discusses the policies supporting these laws. Part II examines the circumstances present in the House of Judah and notes the state's departures from the statutes and rules. Part III analyzes and evaluates the usefulness and wisdom of these departures. Finally, Part IV briefly proposes …


From Coitus To Commerce: Legal And Social Consequences Of Noncoital Reproduction, Joan Heifetz Hollinger Jun 1985

From Coitus To Commerce: Legal And Social Consequences Of Noncoital Reproduction, Joan Heifetz Hollinger

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This paper argues that there is an urgent need for the creation and clarification of a legal framework within which contemporary efforts to produce or procure children can take place. State legislatures should act now in order to avoid the kind of crisis that confronts Great Britain, where an infant girl, the product of a breached surrogacy contract, has been impounded by a British court. While the court ponders how to determine the legal parentage of this particular child, Parliament considers criminal penalties for those who arrange surrogacy contracts and general regulations to constrain IVF and ET research and practice. …


Beyond State Intervention In The Family: For Baby Jane Doe, Martha Minow Jun 1985

Beyond State Intervention In The Family: For Baby Jane Doe, Martha Minow

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Newspapers and broadcasters gave major billing to the story. Headlines announced: "The Life or Death Question of Baby Doe;" and "Baby Doe's Parents Call U.S. Action Intimidating." The medical care decisions about this infant born with spina bifida, microcephaly, and other severe disabilities, not only attracted mass media attention, but also led to both state and federal court proceedings. Legislative hearings raised the issue of her care. Many commentators debated what should happen to this infant of Long Island parents. This article instead will ask: what was all the attention about?; why are cases like this so riveting?; and might …


Exclusion Of Families With Children From Housing, George Palmer Schober Jun 1985

Exclusion Of Families With Children From Housing, George Palmer Schober

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note attempts to resolve the most significant problems raised by discrimination against children in housing. Part I briefly analyzes the prevalence of child exclusion in different types of housing. It also provides a statistical analysis of the rental housing market to enable the reader to gauge the extent of the problem in one type of housing. Part II discusses policy arguments supporting both those who seek to exclude children and those who advocate government policies forbidding exclusion. Part III then examines the various approaches that states have adopted in this area, as well as federal implications of the issue. …


The Next Step: Definition, Generalization, And Theory In American Family Law, Carl E. Schneider Jun 1985

The Next Step: Definition, Generalization, And Theory In American Family Law, Carl E. Schneider

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Journal of Law Reform's Symposium on Family Law comes opportunely, in legal scholarship's spring of hope, its winter of despair, at a time when we have everything before us, when we have nothing before us. As is natural in such an epoch, reflection about legal scholarship, about its history, purposes, and methods, has flourished. This Symposium invites us to extend that reflection to family law, and this essay attempts, tentatively and speculatively, to accept the invitation.


The 'Legalization' Of The Family: Toward A Policy Of Supportive Neutrality, David L. Chambers Jun 1985

The 'Legalization' Of The Family: Toward A Policy Of Supportive Neutrality, David L. Chambers

Articles

The word "legalization" has conflicting meanings. One, intended to sound the theme of this conference, conveys the notion of government regulation permeating some area of human activity. The other-as found, for example, in the phrase "the legalization of marijuana"-is a near opposite: the process of making legal or permissible that which. was previously forbidden, taking government out of that which it had previously controlled. The recent history of government's relationship to the family amply displays both sorts of legalization, both government's intrusion and its withdrawal, and reveals a paradoxical relation between the two-that as government frees people to live their …


Selective Nontreatment Of Handicapped Newborns, Michigan Law Review Feb 1985

Selective Nontreatment Of Handicapped Newborns, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Selective Nontreatment of Handicapped Newborns by Robert Weir


Perpetuities: A Perspective On Wait-And-See, Lawrence W. Waggoner Jan 1985

Perpetuities: A Perspective On Wait-And-See, Lawrence W. Waggoner

Articles

Professor Dukeminier and I agree on most of the important points concerning perpetuity law and perpetuity reform. We agree that the Rule Against Perpetuities still serves a socially useful function of limiting dead hand control, and should not be abolished. We also agree that the common law Rule is needlessly harsh and should be softened. Finally, we agree on the type of reform that is most desirable-waitand- see. Our only disagreeihent-concerns the best method of marking off the wait-and-see perpetuity pe]iqod-the period of time during which dispositions that would have been invalid under the common law Rule are to be …


The Funding Of Children's Educational Costs, Douglas A. Kahn Jan 1985

The Funding Of Children's Educational Costs, Douglas A. Kahn

Articles

A plan for reduction of educational costs should take federal transfer taxes into account. The method chosen for reducing income tax liability usually will involve making gifts. To the extent that it is convenient to do so, the transfer tax consequences of making such gifts should be minimized. This article will examine the estate and gift tax consequences of the income tax reduction arrangements described herein and will consider means of structuring the transactions so as to minimize those consequences.


A Rejoinder By Professor Waggoner, Lawrence W. Waggoner Jan 1985

A Rejoinder By Professor Waggoner, Lawrence W. Waggoner

Articles

Since the patience of the reader and the space in this issue of the Law Review are nearing their limits, I wish to publish only two points in response to what Professor Dukeminier has written.. These points further support my position that Dukeminier's proposed statute would lead almost anyone to conclude that A, not X, is the causal relationship measuring life in Example 1 of my article.1 By implication, these points, along with the others made in my article, corroborate my overall thesis: Professor Dukeminier's proposed one-sentence statute2 cannot be counted a responsible way of identifying the measuring lives for …