Law Commons^™

Comparing Supreme Court Jurisprudence In Obergefell V. Hodges And Town Of Castle Rock V. Gonzales: A Watershed Moment For Due Process Liberty, Jill C. Engle

Jill Engle

“The nature of injustice is that we may not always see it in our own times. The generations that wrote and ratified the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment did not presume to know the extent of freedom in all of its dimensions, and so they entrusted to future generations a charter protecting the right of all persons to enjoy liberty as we learn its meaning. When new insight reveals discord between the Constitution’s central protections and a received legal stricture, a claim to liberty must be addressed.” -- Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S. Ct. 2584, …

Properly Accounting For Domestic Violence In Child Custody Cases: An Evidence-Based Analysis And Reform Proposal, Debra Pogrund Stark, Jessica M. Choplin, Sarah Elizabeth Wellard

Debra Pogrund Stark

Promoting the best interests of children and protecting their safety and well-being in the context of a divorce or parentage case where domestic violence has been alleged has become highly politicized and highly gendered. There are claims by fathers’ rights groups that mothers often falsely accuse fathers of domestic violence to alienate the fathers from their children and to improve their financial position. They also claim that children do better when fathers are equally involved in their children’s lives, but that judges favor mothers over fathers in custody cases. As a consequence, fathers’ rights groups have engaged in a nationwide …

Debunking The Myth Of Universal Male Privilege, Jamie R. Abrams

Jamie R. Abrams

Existing legal responses to sexual assault and harassment in the military have stagnated or failed. Current approaches emphasize the prevalence of sexual assault and highlight the masculine nature of the military’s statistical composition and institutional culture. Current responses do not, however, incorporate masculinities theory to disentangle the experiences of men as a group from men as individuals. Rather, embedded within contestations of the masculine military culture is the unstated assumption that the culture universally privileges or benefits the individual men that operate within it. This myth is harmful because it tethers masculinities to military efficacy, suppresses the costs of male …

Mulieris Dignitatem, Ephesians 5, And Domestic Violence, Joseph M. Isanga

Joseph Isanga

This Article considers the contribution of Pope John Paul II’s apostolic letter On the Dignity and Vocation of Women to the deeper understanding of women’s dignity as it relates to the process of articulating and rearticulating international women’s rights, with particular attention on domestic violence.2 This letter, Mulieris Dignitatem, brings together some of the Catholic Church’s most important teachings on gender equality. This Article delineates norms articulated in Mulieris Dignitatem that can inform international standards regarding the protection of women from domestic violence. To date there are no legally binding global human rights instruments that explicitly recognize the right to …

Professor Breaks Ground With Journal On Sexual Violence And Exploitation, Joseph Essig, Donna M. Hughes Dr.

Donna M. Hughes

Evicted: The Socio-Legal Case For The Right To Housing, Lisa T. Alexander

Lisa T. Alexander

Matthew Desmond's Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City is a triumphant work that provides the missing socio-legal data needed to prove why America should recognize housing as a human right. Desmond's masterful study of the effect of evictions on Milwaukee's urban poor in the wake of the 2008 U.S. housing crisis humanizes the evicted, and their landlords, through rich and detailed ethnographies. His intimate portrayals teach Evicted's readers about the agonizingly difficult choices that low-income, unsubsidized tenants must make in the private rental market. Evicted also reveals the contradictions between "law on the books" and "law-in-action." Its most …

Uri Professor Launches Online Journal About Sexual Exploitation, Violence, Slavery, Donna M. Hughes Dr.

Donna M. Hughes

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

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

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

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 …

The Overlooked Costs Of Religious Deference, Robin Fretwell Wilson

Robin Fretwell Wilson

Citing the Qur'an, a German divorce court judge this year denied a fast track divorce to a Muslim woman who had been the victim of domestic violence and death threats from her husband. The judge rejected her application because the husband's exercise of his "right to castigate does not fulfill the hardship criteria" for an expedited divorce. The decision, which sparked a firestorm of controversy, comes at an important time in the movement to embrace pluralistic understandings of family relationships. Scholars and policymakers around the world are advancing various schemes for sharing state control over domestic disputes with religious groups-ranging …

The Overlooked Costs Of Religious Deference, Robin Fretwell Wilson

Robin Fretwell Wilson

Citing the Qur'an, a German divorce court judge this year denied a fast track divorce to a Muslim woman who had been the victim of domestic violence and death threats from her husband. The judge rejected her application because the husband's exercise of his "right to castigate does not fulfill the hardship criteria" for an expedited divorce. The decision, which sparked a firestorm of controversy, comes at an important time in the movement to embrace pluralistic understandings of family relationships. Scholars and policymakers around the world are advancing various schemes for sharing state control over domestic disputes with religious groups-ranging …

From Protection To Punishment: Post-Conviction Barriers To Justice For Domestic Violence Survivor-Defendants In New York State, Tamar Kraft-Stolar, Elizabeth Brundige, Sital Kalantry, Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum

Sital Kalantry

No abstract provided.

The Hague Convention And Domestic Violence: Proposals For Balancing The Policies Of Discouraging Child Abduction And Protecting Children From Domestic Violence, Shani M. King

Shani M. King

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (the Convention) was enacted in response to a pattern of parental abduction across international borders to thwart or preempt custody arrangements in one country and seek a more advantageous setting for litigating custody issues in another. Consequently, the Convention was designed to discourage the abduction of children across international borders and to encourage respect for custody and access arrangements in countries from which children were abducted. To implement the Convention, the United States enacted the International Child Abduction Remedies Act (ICARA) on April 29, 1988. Much has been written …

A Postcolonial Theory Of Spousal Rape: The Carribean And Beyond, Stacy-Ann Elvy

Stacy-Ann Elvy

Many postcolonial states in the Caribbean continue to struggle to comply with their international treaty obligations to protect women from sexual violence. Reports from various United Nations programs, including UNICEF, and the annual U.S. State Department Country Reports on Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Jamaica, and Saint Lucia (“Commonwealth Countries”), indicate that sexual violence against women, including spousal abuse, is a significant problem in the Caribbean. Despite ratification of various international instruments intended to eliminate sexual violence against women, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, Commonwealth Countries have retained the …

Civil Protection Order Duration: Proof, Procedural Issues, And Policy Considerations, Dana Harrington Conner

Dana Harrington Conner

Constrained Choice: Mothers, The State, And Domestic Violence, Rona Kaufman Kitchen

Rona Kaufman Kitchen

Mothers who are the victims of domestic violence face unique challenges in their quest for safety. The legal response to domestic violence requires that mothers respond to abuse in specific state-sanctioned manners. However, when mothers respond accordingly, such as by reporting abuse and leaving the abusive relationship, their safety and the safety of their children is not guaranteed. Moreover, by responding in state-sanctioned manners, mothers risk a host of negative consequences including increased threat to their immediate and long-term safety, the loss of their children, undesired financial, health, and social consequences, and criminal prosecution. On the other hand, when mothers …

Women Made Whole: How Tort Law Can Change The Lives Of Domestic Violence And Sexual Assault Victims, Sara L. Crewson

Sara L Crewson

Domestic violence victims do not have the same level of access to the civil justice system that victims of sexual assault do, yet both are gender-linked crimes. A combination of legal, legislative, and social forces have come together to effectively bar recovery for victims of domestic violence, but when examining how these forces serve to help, rather than hinder, sexual violence victims, it is possible to come up with solutions that can tear these barriers down and ensure all victims of violence are equal in the eyes of the justice system. What we know is that domestic violence tort claims …

The Arrest Experiments: A Feminist Critique, Cynthia Grant Bowman

Cynthia Grant Bowman

No abstract provided.

Domestic Violence: Does The African Context Demand A Different Approach?, Cynthia Grant Bowman

Cynthia Grant Bowman

No abstract provided.

David Peterson Mar, What Trouble I Have Seen: A History Of Violence Against Wives, Cynthia Grant Bowman

Cynthia Grant Bowman

No abstract provided.

Praxis And Pedagogy: Domestic Violence, Cynthia Grant Bowman, Eden Kusmiersky

Cynthia Grant Bowman

No abstract provided.

Domestic Violence And The Politics Of Privacy, By Kristin A. Kelly [Book Review], Cynthia Grant Bowman

Cynthia Grant Bowman

No abstract provided.

Join Us On Oct. 14 At Widener Law School For An Important Discussion On Ending Domestic Violence, Linda L. Ammons

Linda L. Ammons

No abstract provided.

Reasonable Efforts Checklist For Dependency Cases Involving Domestic Violence, Leigh S. Goodmark

Leigh S. Goodmark

The purpose of this checklist is to assist dependency court judges in identifying factors that should be considered when making reasonable efforts determinations in cases involving domestic violence.

Bringing The Greenbook To Life: A Resource Guide For Communities, Leigh S. Goodmark, Ann Rosewater

Leigh S. Goodmark

This book is designed for communities seeking to develop interventions that will improve their responses to families suffering both domestic violence and child maltreatment.

Domestic Violence, Strategic Behavior, And Ideological Rent-Seeking, F.E. Guerra-Pujol

F.E. Guerra-Pujol

This paper examines a number of empirical patterns, puzzles, and anomalies relating to the problem of domestic violence that heretofore have been overlooked in the scholarly literature and concludes that domestic violence legislation is the product of ‘ideological rent-seeking’ among issue-oriented pressure groups and, once enacted, often creates perverse incentives for strategic behavior.

Financial Freedom: Women, Money, And Domestic Abuse, Dana Harrington Conner

Dana Harrington Conner

No abstract provided.

Buying Time For Survivors Of Domestic Violence: A Proposal For Implementing An Exception To Welfare Time Limits, Jennifer Mason Mcaward

Jennifer Mason McAward

No abstract provided.