Law Commons^™

Invisible Bars: Adapting The Crime Of False Imprisonment To Better Address Coercive Control And Domestic Violence In Tennessee, Alexandra M. Ortiz

Vanderbilt Law Review

On average, three or more women are murdered by their intimate partners in the United States every day. Despite the now well-known correlation between coercive control-the strategic use of oppressive behavior to control primarily female partners-and intimate partner homicide, most states continue to focus their criminal domestic violence laws solely on physical violence. As a result, state laws often fail to protect victims from future and escalating violence. Focusing on Tennessee law and drawing from the work of Evan Stark as well as the United Kingdom's Serious Crime Act of 2015, this Note proposes adapting the preexisting crime of false …

Federal Visions Of Private Family Support, Laura A. Rosenbury

Vanderbilt Law Review

The individual states have long played a primary role in defining the legal family in the United States, with states often determining who does and does not enjoy the legal status of spouse, parent, and child. Two recent U.S. Supreme Court cases, Astrue v. Capatol and United States v. Windsor,2 acknowledged and affirmed the diverse definitions of family that flow from this federalist approach. Yet these cases do not solidify the states' place in defining family for purposes of marriage, parentage, divorce, and death. Instead, they foreshadow an increasingly federal conception of family status-a conception that values private family support …

Enjoining Abuse: The Case For Indefinite Domestic Violence Protection Orders, Jane K. Stoever

Vanderbilt Law Review

While countless studies demonstrate the complex and dangerous nature of intimate partner abuse, most jurisdictions permit only the entry of yearlong domestic violence protection orders. Judges may assume that danger ceases once the order takes effect, but evidence of the recurrent nature of violence demonstrates the importance of providing judicial protection over time. The brevity of domestic violence protection orders stands in stark contrast to the long duration of orders in other areas of the law, such as intellectual property, corporations, real property, and tax, where courts routinely enter permanent injunctions to protect individuals and businesses against "irreparable harm." What …

Siblings In Law, Jill E. Hasday

Vanderbilt Law Review

Family law's intense concentration on marriage and parenthood has left little room for legal attention directed at any other family relationship. The breadth of this exclusion from family law's canon is enormous. Examining the legal treatment of one noncanonical family relationship, whose marginalization in family law is particularly remarkable, can provide a foundation for better understanding the consequences of family law's narrowness. The sibling relationship offers a striking illustration of a crucial, yet legally neglected, family tie. Siblings can give each other support, love, nurturing, and stability. But the law governing children's family relationships focuses almost exclusively on children's ties …

In Search Of Guidance: An Examination Of Past, Present, And Future Adjudications Of Domestic Violence Asylum Claims, Barbara R. Barreno

Vanderbilt Law Review

L-R- is a Mexican woman who applied for asylum in the United States in 2005. She is one of countless victims of gender-based violence, which in recent decades has become a matter of international concern and which policymakers around the world have taken steps to combat. The United States has been among the nations that have made eliminating gender-based violence a priority by passing such legislation as the Violence Against Women Act ("VAWA") and by creating two special forms of visas for victims of domestic violence. While great strides have been taken to protect immigrant women who are already in …

Administering Marriage: Marriage-Based Entitlements, Bureaucracy, And The Legal Construction Of The Family, Kristin A. Collins

Vanderbilt Law Review

In 1985, Gertrude Thomas sought Social Security survivors' benefits as Joseph Thomas's widow. Gertrude had been married to Joseph-or thought herself to have been-for forty-seven years. She bore and raised ten children over the course of their marriage. Gertrude knew Joseph had been married briefly before they wed, but she thought that his first marriage had ended in divorce. When the Department of Health and Human Services asked Gertrude for proof of her marriage to Joseph, she could not produce a marriage certificate or any other record of her marriage. She did have a statement signed by Joseph acknowledging their …

Individualized Justice In Disputes Over Dead Bodies, Frances H. Foster

Vanderbilt Law Review

In February 2007, the world had a ringside seat to a truly macabre fight. Under the glare of television cameras, Anna Nicole Smith's nearest but not dearest' battled in a Florida probate court over custody of her body. The parties agreed on only one point: "Anna Nicole Smith's appearance was a paramount issue to her." Yet, those same parties denied Anna Nicole after death the beauty she prized during life. Because of their protracted legal wrangling, Anna Nicole went to her grave a decomposed corpse in a closed casket. Anna Nicole Smith's tragic fate is by no means unique. For …

What Is Extreme Cruelty? Judicial Review Of Deportation Cancellation Decisions For Victims Of Domestic Abuse, Anna Byrne

Vanderbilt Law Review

In the 1990s, Congress began to devote increased attention to the problem of domestic violence, a rampant national problem with social and economic costs. At the same time, concerns about immigrants draining the social welfare service system and taking jobs away from U.S. citizens gave rise to an interest in more stringently monitoring and eradicating the illegal alien population in the United States. As part of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act ("VAWA"), Congress passed the battered spouse provision, attempting to reconcile its desires to address domestic violence and tighten immigration laws. Illegal immigrants are subject to removal procedures. However, …

Growing Pains: The Scope Of Substantive Due Process Rights Of Parents Of Adult Children, Issac J.K. Adams

Vanderbilt Law Review

On February 2, 1958, Milwaukee city police officer Thomas Grady shot and killed 23-year-old Daniel Bell. Officer Grady immediately attempted to cover up the incident, enlisting the help of a fellow officer to place a knife in Daniel's hand and concoct a fictional account of the event. It was only years later, in 1978, that an investigation revealed the true circumstances of Mr. Bell's death. A year after this discovery, the estate of Daniel's father, Dolphus Bell, instituted an action under 42 U.S.C. ? 1983 alleging that the shooting was unconstitutionally, racially motivated, and the death of Daniel Bell deprived …

When One Parent Goes And The Other Parent Stays: The Inconsistency And Inequity Of Guaranteeing Absent Parents Permanent Parental Rights, Wendee M. Hilderbrand

Vanderbilt Law Review

It is well settled that the right to make decisions concerning the upbringing of one's children is a fundamental right deserving the utmost constitutional protection from unreasonable state interference. It has also become increasingly well settled over the past twenty-five years that this right is not automatically and permanently guaranteed by biology. Rather, parental stature encompasses both "rights and responsibilities," and the rights are only guaranteed to a parent who has assumed parental responsibilities. Why then is a responsible custodial parent subject to state interference with his or her parental decisions in the interest of guaranteeing an absent parent, who …

The Paradox Of Family Privacy, David D. Meyer

Vanderbilt Law Review

When it comes to the nature of the Constitution's protection for freedom of choice in matters relating to family life, there is wide agreement on perhaps only two points: first, that the subject raises "questions of unsurpassed significance in th[e] Court's interpretation of the Constitution,"' and, second, that the Court's halting passes at these questions have left its family privacy doctrine in a state of unsurpassed disarray. The significance of the questions is transparent. A comprehensive account of the subject calls for answers to the most basic and intractable problems of judicial review, answers that might justify the judiciary's role …

A Theory Of Relativity: Kinship Foster Care May Be The Key To Stopping The Pendulum Of Terminations Vs. Reunification, Megan M. O'Laughlin

Vanderbilt Law Review

The foster care system in the United States is universally regarded as a disaster: too many children languishing for too many years, bouncing from foster home to foster home, or worse yet, returning to the abusive or neglectful home only to face more danger. The failures of the federal foster care system have spurred members of Congress to advocate reform.

Answering the call for reform, Congress overwhelmingly passed and, on November 19, 1997, President Clinton signed into law the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 ("ASFA"). One of the primary purposes of the ASFA is to correct many of …

Chilling Child Abuse Reporting: Rethinking The Capta Amendments, Caroline T. Trost

Vanderbilt Law Review

On a December night in 1993, Gregory Bryant-Bruce, age six months, was rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center Emergency Room for treatment of severe anemia, shock, and abnormally low hematocrit.' A CT scan revealed brain hemorrhaging, and a physical examination showed retinal hemorrhages of varying ages. Retinal bleeding in a young child is almost always caused by traumatic injury, and is considered to be a classic sign of "Shaken Impact Syndrome" ("SIS"), a life-threatening and relatively common form of child abuse. Thus, on the basis of Gregory's symptoms and the in- adequacy of his parents' explanation of his injuries, Gregory's …

The Spousal Defense--A Ploy To Escape Payment Or Simple Application Of The Equal Credit Opportunity Act?, Andrea M. Farley

Vanderbilt Law Review

A defaulting spouse may find a powerful and effective defense to a creditor's entry of judgment in the Equal Credit Opportunity Act ("ECOA" or "the Act") and the accompanying federal regulation ("Regulation B"). The defense arises when a married applicant enters a financial institution seeking a loan, and even though the applicant is unquestionably creditworthy, the creditor requires that the applicant's spouse co-sign the loan as a guaranteeing spouse. The financial institution has just violated the ECOA by discriminating against the applicant on account of the applicant's marital status. If the original applicant later defaults on the loan, the creditor …

Introduction: Family Law In The 1990s -- New Problems, Strong Solutions, L. Elizabeth Bowles

Vanderbilt Law Review

The 1992 Presidential campaign was fraught with references to "family values." While Vice President Quayle took on a fictional television character for choosing to have a child out of wedlock," candidate Clinton was vowing support for the Family Leave Bill and other pro- family measures. Although the political rhetoric of the 1992 campaign was partisan in nature, the emphasis placed on the family by the political parties reflects the seriousness of the problems facing the American family in the 1990s. The American family is not the same entity that it was twenty years ago. Now, "nontraditional" families, such as single …

Renewing The Good Intentions Of Foster Care: Enforcement Of The Adoption Assistance And Child Welfare Act Of 1980 And The Substantive Due Process Right To Safety, Cristina C.-Y. Chou

Vanderbilt Law Review

Foster care. There are probably no two words in the English language that convey more of a sense of good intentions gone bad. Children enter foster care when their own parents fail them. Then they begin a state-sponsored journey through an over- land railroad of foster homes, some run by adults who truly want to help, and others run by scoundrels.'

The purpose of foster care is to provide a temporary safe haven for children whose parents are unable to care for them. Unfortunately, however, the foster care system frequently fails to provide children with stable, secure care, and fails …

Mandatory Planning For Divorce, Jeffrey E. Stake

Vanderbilt Law Review

My daughter Laura will reach the median age of first marriage in about seventeen years.' Alison, her little sister, follows three years be hind. There is a good chance they both will marry. What are the odds that those marriages will work out well? Less than I would like. The strong statistical possibility of divorce is hard to ignore and the prospects upon divorce are not rosy. The economic repercussions of divorce for Laura and Alison could be grim, likely worse than those for their brother Christopher if he were to divorce.' What hope have I that this gloomy situation …

Civil Images Of Battered Women: The Impact Of Domestic Violence On Child Custody Decisions, Naomi R. Cahn

Vanderbilt Law Review

The purpose of child custody decisions is to develop an arrangement that is in the best interest of the child by awarding the child to one or both natural parents.' The critical factors in determining the child's best interest are those that have a direct impact on the child and the child's relationships. The question of which factors are most relevant to the child's best interest is unsettled,' and the answers that have been developed are "highly contingent social construction[s]." This Article examines one factor that is directly related to children's relation- ships and well-being, yet is rarely included in …

Rhetoric Of Silence: Some Reflections On Law, Literature, And Social Violence, James A. Epstein

Vanderbilt Law Review

Martha Minow suggests the importance of looking outside of court-rooms and the law to find ways of speaking about social and family violence. Her article underscores the difficulties of breaking silence, and yet the power to impose silence is integral to violence itself. We are called upon, however, not only to speak, but to listen. Respectful listening indeed may be a prerequisite to attempting to frame words and actions of intervention and resistance. We are called upon to speak, but we are hard pressed to summon public language that does justice to private pain and anguish.

Robert Cover, in his …

Words And The Door To The Land Of Change: Law, Language, And Family Violence, Martha Minow

Vanderbilt Law Review

Can words stem violence? More specifically, can anything anyone says halt the physical devastation inflicted daily behind the closed doors of family dwellings? Some people strike, beat, or burn their children. Some people assault their lovers, some their spouses; usually, men batter women.' Can words, uttered by anyone else, stop this violence?

Words of journalists expose family violence to public view. Words of legislatures and judges forbid and punish family abuse. Words of historians, novelists, television scriptwriters, social workers, feminist theorists, and songwriters depict and decry domestic violence against a backdrop of societal silence about it. But are there words …

The Constitutionality Of Pregnancy Clauses In Living Will Statutes, Elizabeth C. Benton

Vanderbilt Law Review

In 1976 the New Jersey Supreme Court allowed parents to remove a life support system from the body of their daughter after doctors deemed her vegetative state irreversible." The case, In re Quinlan, received extensive national media attention and pitted concerns about the quality of life and personal autonomy against respect for the sanctity of life. This conflict has intensified as medical technology has progressed so that patients who otherwise would die faster, natural deaths now are sustained indefinitely. Some patients and families see this life support as medical heroism, while others view it as painful,futile prolongation of death. One …

Economics, Feminism, And The Reinvention Of Alimony: A Reply To Ira Ellman, June Carbone

Vanderbilt Law Review

Divorce reform and gender roles are inextricably linked. When Lenore Weitzman chronicled the devastating consequences of divorce for most women, she described a legal system that, in an effort to be gender neutral in a formal sense, made no allowance for the domestic role women continue to perform. Herma Hill Kay, in reviewing Weitzman-inspired proposals to expand the scope of the financial awards made at divorce, nonetheless warned against encouraging "future couples entering marriage to make choices that will be economically disabling for women, thereby perpetuating their traditional financial dependence upon men and contributing to their inequality with men at …

Defining "Support" Under Bankruptcy Law: Revitalization Of The "Necessaries" Doctrine, Sheryl L. Scheible

Vanderbilt Law Review

In recognition of the social reality that marriage often does not last forever, divorce law in the United States has undergone radical changes in the past few decades.' All states have relaxed restrictions on divorce by adopting some form of no-fault divorce grounds. In addition, recent developments have facilitated the termination of a married couple's relationship in economic terms as well. For instance, states today are less inclined to consider the role of marital fault in the settlement of the financial incidents of divorce, and encourage divorcing couples to end their marriages by negotiation and contract in order to minimize …

Relatives By Blood, Adoption, And Association: Who Should Get What And Why, Jan E. Rein

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article explores the questions that courts and legislatures must address in order to integrate the social phenomenon of adoption into our succession laws, monitors the progress that has and has not been made in dealing with these questions, and proposes a comprehensive approach to the treatment of adoptees in matters of succession. Specifically, part I introduces the traditional approach to relationship by adoption, while part HI compares the past and present goals of adoption. Part IV discusses the legal status of adoptees in the context of intestate succession. This discussion explores past and present trends and examines the special …

Human Leukocyte Antigen Testing: Technology Versus Policy In Cases Of Disputed Parentage, Patricia B. Blumberg

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Note assumes that the judicial trend of using HLA test results as affirmative evidence" will continue, and accepts the proposal that these results are scientifically reliable.' The Note will focus on the policy considerations and arguments that should affect the admissibility of the HLA blood test as affirmative evidence in various disputed parentage cases.This Note first examines the use of HLA test results to determine the paternity of illegitimate children who do not have a legal father, and concludes that courts should admit the results unconditionally in these circumstances. Second, the Note analyzes the use of the HLA blood …

Before The Best Interests Of The Child, Douglas J. Besharov

Vanderbilt Law Review

This book has been hard to criticize for one who, like this reviewer, agrees with its basic premises: (1) that the weakness of child protective capability requires a policy of minimum state intervention into family life, and (2) that when intervention occurs,it should be much more decisive. Yet, application of the rules that the authors suggest would be at great cost, not only to the endangered children whom they exclude from protection, but also to our own view of ourselves. Society cannot turn its back on the real and present suffering of children and still retain its sense of humanity,and …

Defining The Parent's Duty After Rejection Of Parent-Child Immunity: Parental Liability For Emotional Injury To Abandoned Children, Reid H. Hamilton

Vanderbilt Law Review

Child neglect and abandonment are serious problems in the United States. The number of children in foster care in the United States has risen from a third of a million in 1971 to over 750,000 in 1979. A significant number of these children have been abandoned voluntarily and permanently by their parents. Abandoned children suffer marked psychological consequences; even after receiving the best available foster care, such children suffer adverse emotional effects throughout their adult lives.' Due to the traditional American rule granting parents immunity from personal injury suits by their minor children, abandoned children generally have been uncompensated for …

Book Reviews, Morris L. Cohen, Judith T. Younger

Vanderbilt Law Review

Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations Used in American Law Books by Doris Bieber

The proliferation of legal sources and abbreviations poses two related problems--first, the need for standardized citation forms,and second, the need for guides to commonly used abbreviations. The first problem has been difficult to solve, and universal acceptance of standard citations is unlikely to be achieved. A Uniform System of Citation, published by the Harvard Law Review Association, in collaboration with the Columbia Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal, has attained wide acceptance and has become the authoritative guide for legal citations …

Alternatives To Absolute Termination Of Parental Rights After Long-Term Foster Caret, Andre P. Derdeyn, Andrew R. Rogoff, Scott W. Williams

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article will explore in detail the variety of child placement arrangements, both within and outside the system, which can be tailored to meet the needs of children and their biological or foster parents. This examination will reveal numerous statutory reforms and recent judicial decisions that promise increasingly flexible approaches to the traditional custodial alternatives following long-term foster care. Particular emphasis will be devoted to the termination of parental rights case that first united the authors and confronted them with the fact that none of the traditional legal alternatives available to those children could adequately meet their emotional needs.

The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act: A Legislative Remedy For Children Caught In The Conflict Of Laws, Brigitte M. Bodenheimer

Vanderbilt Law Review

The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws has approved and recommended for enactment in all the states a Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act. This Act is designed to alleviate the plight of "interstate children" an apt phrase coined by Professor Ehrenzweig and descriptive of the rootlessness of children shifted from state to state--who are the victims of custody battles often fought in the courts of more than one state or a state and a foreign country. In this article, Mrs. Bodenheimer, Reporter for the Special Committee which drafted the Act, describes the social and legal causes of the …