Law Commons^™

Sexuality Education, Eva Goldfarb, Norman A. Constantine

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

Sexuality education comprises the lifelong intentional processes by which people learn about themselves and others as sexual, gendered beings from biological, psychological, and sociocultural perspectives. It takes place through a potentially wide range of programs and activities in schools, community settings, religious centers, as well as informally within families, among peers, and through electronic and other media. Sexuality education for adolescents occurs in the context of the biological, cognitive, and social-emotional developmental progressions and issues of adolescence. Formal sexuality education falls into two main categories: behavior change approaches, which are represented by abstinence-only and abstinence-plus models, and healthy sexual development …

Issue 1: Annual Survey 2011 Table Of Contents

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Family Law, Ronald R. Tweel, Elizabeth P. Coughter, Jason P. Seiden

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Renegotiating The Social Contract, Jennifer S. Hendricks

College of Law Faculty Scholarship

This essay reviews Maxine Eichner's new book, "The Supportive State: Families, Government, and America's Political Ideals." It highlights Eichner's important theoretical contributions to both liberal political theory and feminist theory, applauding her success in reforming liberalism to account for dependency, vulnerability, and families. The essay then considers some implications of Eichner's proposals and their likely reception among feminists. It concludes that "The Supportive State" is a sound and inspiring response to recent calls that feminist theory move from being strictly a school of criticism to developing a theory of governance.

Loving Before And After The Law, Loving Before And After The Law, Angela P. Harris

Angela P Harris

No abstract provided.

The Plus One Policy: An Autonomous Model Of Family Reunification, Jessica Feinberg

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Reforming Intestate Inheritance For Stephchildren And Stepparents, Terin Cremer

Terin Barbas Cremer

The current Uniform Probate Code (UPC) and state statutes relating to stepfamilies fail to achieve the purpose of intestacy statutes: to satisfy the likely intent of the decedent of a blended family and care for his or her family. More than one-half of all Americans have lived in, are currently living in, or will live in, a stepfamily, yet stepchildren and stepparents are excluded from intestate succession. The UPC drafters developed the language at a time when blended families were the exception rather than the norm. This Article proposes statutory language consisting of a series of factors courts can use …

May 21, 2011: Emanuel David, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Emanuel David“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Wigfall V. Mobley Et Al.: Heirs Property Rights In Family And In Law, Brian Grabbatin, Jennie L. Stephens

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

No abstract provided.

Work, Caregiving, And Masculinities, Ann C. Mcginley

Scholarly Works

In her book Reshaping the Work-Family Debate, Joan Williams demonstrates the vulnerability of parent workers in working class America. In Chapter 2, "One Sick Child Away from Being Fired," she examines the records of ninety-nine union arbitrations to analyze the problems of working class parents who struggle to juggle their working and parenting responsibilities. Because this chapter is a tour de force in an overall excellent book, and because it suggests an area that Professor McGinley's research has focused on over the past number of years, in this Essay, Professor McGinley limits her discussion almost exclusively to this chapter. …

Gimme Shelter, Robert Leckey

Dalhousie Law Journal

Highlighting the family home's significance as shelter this paper challenges the prevailing view of the demands of the equality guarantee in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms regarding unmarried cohabitants. In Nova Scotia (Attorney General) v. Walsh, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected the claim that it was discriminatory to restrict rules dividing matrimonial property to married couples. By contrast, on many views it is discriminatory to exclude cohabitants from a support obligation. Scholars and judges assume that Walsh upholds all statutory rules regarding married spouses and their property, including measures protecting the family home as shelter But Walsh …

Renegotiating The Social Contract, Jennifer S. Hendricks

Jennifer S. Hendricks

This essay reviews Maxine Eichner's new book, "The Supportive State: Families, Government, and America's Political Ideals." It highlights Eichner's important theoretical contributions to both liberal political theory and feminist theory, applauding her success in reforming liberalism to account for dependency, vulnerability, and families. The essay then considers some implications of Eichner's proposals and their likely reception among feminists. It concludes that "The Supportive State" is a sound and inspiring response to recent calls that feminist theory move from being strictly a school of criticism to developing a theory of governance.

March 3, 2011: Religion At The End Of Life, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Religion at the End of Life“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

January 30, 2011: Amy Chua And The Mommy Wars, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Amy Chua and the Mommy Wars“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Skeletons In The Family Medical Closet: Access Of Personal Representatives To Interoperable Medical Records, Leslie P. Francis

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Her Choice, Her Problem: How Having A Choice Can Diminish Family Solidarity, Richard Stith

Law Faculty Publications

This Article explores a little-noticed dimension of abortion and assisted suicide (or voluntary euthanasia): how choosing to reject those options can have a negative impact on the legally authorized choosers. Women who refuse abortion may be blamed for their choice by boyfriends, neighbors, employers, and others. Similarly, infirm or dying persons may find family and other caregivers upset by their refusal to agree to assisted suicide when voluntary death seems the sensible option. Finally, the author questions whether a life chosen as an option can ever have the dignity of a life simply accepted, i.e., whether the child a mother …

Dismembering Families, Anthony C. Infanti

Book Chapters

In this paper, I explore how the deduction for extraordinary medical expenses, codified in I.R.C. section 213, furthers domination in American society. On its face, section 213 probably does not seem a likely candidate for being tagged as furthering domination. After all, this provision aims to alleviate extraordinary financial burdens on taxpayers who already suffer from significant medical problems -- and who, by definition, lack the help of insurance to relieve those burdens. But, as laudable as this goal might be, careful attention to the text and context of section 213 reveals that it does not apply to all taxpayers …

Inequitable Administration: Documenting Family For Tax Purposes, Anthony C. Infanti

Anthony C. Infanti

Family can bring us joy, and it can bring us grief. It can also bring us tax benefits and tax detriments. Often, as a means of ensuring compliance with Internal Revenue Code provisions that turn on a family relationship, taxpayers are required to document their relationship with a family member. Most visibly, taxpayers are denied an additional personal exemption for a child or other dependent unless they furnish the individual’s name, Social Security number, and relationship to the taxpayer.

In this article, I undertake the first systematic examination of these documentation requirements. Given the privileging of the “traditional” family throughout …

Questioning Child Support Enforcement For Poor Families, Leslie J. Harris

Leslie J. Harris

American law and culture have always assumed that providing for children economically is a private obligation, ordinarily belonging to the parents. The principal was given real teeth in 1975, when Congress enacted the federal-state child support enforcement program. The legislation's two related goals were to reduce childhood poverty and to reduce the welfare rolls. The goals were linked by the assumption that childhood poverty is largely attributable to the failure of absent parents (overwhelmingly fathers) to pay their fair share of child support, even though they are able to do so. Federal welfare policy originally assumed that custodial mothers would …

Tradition As Justification: The Case Of Opposite-Sex Marriage, Kim Forde-Mazrui

Kim Forde-Mazrui

A central point of contention in the national debate over same-sex marriage is the importance of preserving tradition. That debate also features prominently in constitutional litigation over bans on same-sex marriage. Opponents of such bans argue that tradition is an illegitimate justification for them, while defenders of traditional marriage contend that tradition is not only a legitimate justification, it is sufficiently important to withstand heightened judicial scrutiny.

This article assesses tradition as a justification for laws challenged on equal protection grounds, with a focus on laws that limit marriage to different-sex couples. The article makes two main points. First, it …

Family, The Market, And Adr, The, Amy J. Cohen

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This Article proceeds in three Parts. I begin by briefly summarizing what I will refer to as separate spheres ideology-the idea that our normative understandings of the family and the market are constructed in contradistinction to one another. I then show how this conceptual distinction between the family and the market shaped the development of alternative dispute processing during two periods of time. The first period, which I introduce to frame the second, examines how dispute processing reformers-beginning during the Progressive era and continuing to the 1930s-distinguished alternative forums for family disputes from alternative forums for commercial ones. In Part …

Same-Sex Marriage, Same-Sex Cohabitation, And Same-Sex Families Around The World: Why ‘Same’ Is So Different?, Macarena Saez

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This paper briefly explains the situation of same sex couples in countries that have opened marriage to individuals of the same sex, offers a summary and analysis of the status of same sex unions in several countries that have not opened marriage to same sex couples, and provides a comparative analysis of the most recurrent arguments used in the processes of recognition and denial of same sex unions in the countries reviewed.

Forty years ago, same sex couples were not legally accepted in any country. In the last thirty years, however, around 20% of the world has granted some rights …

Straight Is Better: Why Law And Society May Legitimately Prefer Heterosexuality, George W. Dent

Faculty Publications

America is embroiled in a culture war over homosexuality. The homosexual movement demands the end of “heteronormativity” - the social and legal preference for heterosexuality. It insists that “Gay Is Good” - just as good as heterosexuality. This article presents a defense of heteronormativity; it argues that straight is better. In particular, it argues that naturally conceiving, bearing and raising children is intrinsically good for parents; that it is both intrinsically and instrumentally good for children to be raised by their biological parents who are married to each other; and that traditional marriage is both intrinsically and instrumentally good for …

International Adoption: A Way Forward, Elizabeth Bartholet

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Finding Home In The World: A Deontological Theory Of The Right To Be Adopted, Paulo Barrozo

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Family Justice Clinic: Increasing Access To Justice For Nevada Families In Need, Ann Cammett, Elizabeth L. Macdowell

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Domestic Violence And State Intervention In The American West And Australia, 1860-1930, Carolyn B. Ramsey

Publications

This Article calls into question stereotypical assumptions about the presumed lack of state intervention in the family and the patriarchal violence of Anglo-American frontier societies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By analyzing previously unexamined cases of domestic assault and homicide in the American West and Australia, Professor Ramsey reveals a sustained (but largely ineffectual) effort to civilize men by punishing violence against women. Husbands in both the American West and Australia were routinely arrested or summoned to court for beating their wives in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Judges, police officers, journalists, and others expressed dismay …

A Diva Defends Herself: Gender And Domestic Violence In An Early Twentieth-Century Headline Trial, Carolyn B. Ramsey

Publications

This short article was presented as part of a symposium on headline criminal trials, organized by St. Louis University School of Law in honor of Lawrence Friedman. It describes and analyzes the self-defense acquittal of opera singer Mae Talbot in Nevada in 1910 on charges of murdering her abusive husband. Based on extensive research into archival trial records and newspaper reports, the article discusses how the press, the court, and trial lawyers on both sides depicted the killing and Mae’s possible defenses. Without discounting the sensationalism and entertainment value, to a scandal-hungry public, of stories about violent marriages, I contend …

A Next Step In Health Care Reform: Ensuring The Protection Of Employee Rights Under The Family And Medical Leave Act, April G. Dawson

Saint Louis University Law Journal

On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law. Notwithstanding the current constitutional challenges to the law, this historic legislation reaffirmed the basic principle that everyone should be afforded the opportunity to have security when it comes to health care. Such security also includes security in employment when a serious health condition causes an employee to be out of work for a temporary period of time. Indeed, it was the recognition of the need for job security during a time of illness which led Congress to enact the Family and Medical Leave Act …

Old Lessons For A New World: Applying Adoption Research And Experience To Art, Naomi R. Cahn

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This article suggests that knowledge derived from adoption-related research and experience can be used to improve law, policy and practice in the world of assisted reproductive technologies (ART), particularly with respect to sperm, egg and embryo "donations." While there are numerous and significant differences between adoption and ART, the article identifies several areas in which adoption's lessons could be useful. These include secrecy and the withholding of information; a focus on the best interests of children; the creation of "nontraditional" families, particularly as more single, gay and lesbian adults use ART; the impact of market forces; and legal and regulatory …