Law Commons^™

Emerging Models For Alternatives To Marriage, Sanford N. Katz

Sanford N. Katz

Perhaps one of the most important changes in family law in the past thirty years has been the inclusion of certain kinds of friendships in the range of relationships from which rights and responsibilities can flow. Domestic partnership laws, a phenomenon of the 1990s, may be seen as a natural development from the judicial recognition of contract cohabitation and the legislative and judicial response to same-sex couples who, unable to meet statutory requirements for marriage, have sought official recognition of their relationships. This essay discusses an aspect of certain kinds of domestic partnership laws-their formal requirements and the extent to …

New Directions For Family Law In The United States, Sanford N. Katz

Sanford N. Katz

This article provides a survey of one major development in family law in the United States that has occurred during the most recent past. This development is the change that has occurred in marriage-like relationships. The article begins with a discussion of contract cohabitation and the extent to which it reflected a change from traditional views of formal or informal marriage as the only legally acceptable model for adults who desired to live together. It shows how contract cohabitation laid the groundwork for the establishment of domestic partnership laws. These laws were first adopted by municipalities and then by states …

Procreative Justice And The Recognition Of Marriage, Scott T. Fitzgibbon

Scott T. FitzGibbon

This paper proposes that fully procreatively just affiliations -– the ones which satisfy the criteria developed here -- deserve special support and recognition. It proposes that procreative justice requires such recognition. This paper proposes that it is unjust to conflate and revise the usual categories so as to confuse procreatively just affiliations with other forms. It discusses the harm that ensues.

"Just Like Little Dogs": The Law Should Speak With Veracity And Respect, Scott T. Fitzgibbon

Scott T. FitzGibbon

This article proposes veracity and respect as basic guides for law. It thus supplements dominant lines of thought which emphasize instrumentalist criteria such as promoting efficiency, maximizing utility, and deterring and remedying harm. This article proposes that it is a great good for a judge, a legislator, and all who speak as the law to exercise the virtue of veracity and to speak with respect, and that it is especially bad in the case of such legal officers to depart from those practices. It points out some implications for family law.

Delgado V. Araguz: A Trial Court’S Medical Opinion And The Constitutional Injury That Results., Abel C. Ramirez Jr.

Abel C Ramirez Jr.

In the state of Texas, “a marriage between persons of the same sex is not legally recognized, and will be rendered void.” Therefore, a marriage license will only be issued to a couple that consists of one person who fits within the exclusive gender category of “male” and one person who fits within the exclusive gender category of “female.” Traditionally, “gender” has been determined by a singular method – one’s genitalia at birth. However, what if it isn’t that simple? What if a person is born without a distinct gender (a person who is neither distinctly male, nor distinctly female)? …

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

Angela P Harris

No abstract provided.

Modernizing Marriage, Adam Candeub, Mae Kuykendall

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article proposes to modernize the archaic procedures states use to authorize marriages so as to provide legal flexibility, promote efficiency, and enhance individual choice. Almost universally, states require couples' presence within their borders, however briefly, for a ceremony. After considering the historical and policy rationales for this requirement and finding them either obsolete or incoherent, we propose that states offer marriages to those outside their borders. Such distance marriages could occur via video-conference, using the internet or even telephone, with readily available safeguards to prevent fraud. This simple reform would allow certain couples who cannot marry under local law …

Respecting Freedom And Cultivating Virtues In Justifying Constitutional Rights, Linda C. Mcclain, James E. Fleming

Faculty Scholarship

What’s new in the long-standing debate between civic republicans and liberals about how best to understand and justify rights? This article picks up the thread with political philosopher Michael Sandel’s recent, internationally-renowned book, Justice: What’s the Right Thing To Do? The article evaluates the sharp contrasts his book draws between justice as cultivating virtues and justice as respecting freedom, using his example of contemporary arguments for and against opening up civil marriage to same-sex couples. Sandel contends that “liberal neutrality” and a public square denuded of religious arguments and convictions are impossible on this issue. Drawing on Aristotle, he contends …

Reviewing Racism And The Right To Marry: An Analysis Of Loving V. Virginia, Kathryn L. Jordan

Senior Honors Theses

Prior to the 1967 United States Supreme Court case of Loving v. Virginia, many states had laws that banned the intermarriage of whites with black or other minorities. Since then, the number of interracial marriages has increased and the attitudes of society have shifted. This thesis uses Loving as basis to explore the ways in which societal views have changed since the overruling of the anti-miscegenation statutes. It first discusses the culture in America before Loving and then, explains the details of the Loving case. This is then followed by a synopsis of how the culture changed after Loving. After …

Transfers Prior To Marriage And The Uniform Probate Code's Redesigned Elective Share - Why The Partnership Is Not Yet Complete, Rena C. Seplowitz

Rena C. Seplowitz

No abstract provided.

Same-Sex Marriage, Second-Class Citizenship, And Law's Social Meanings, Michael C. Dorf

Michael C. Dorf

Government acts, statements, and symbols that carry the social meaning of second-class citizenship may, as a consequence of that fact, violate the Establishment Clause or the constitutional requirement of equal protection. Yet social meaning is often contested. Do laws permitting same-sex couples to form civil unions but not to enter “marriages” convey the social meaning that gays and lesbians are second-class citizens? Do official displays of the Confederate battle flag unconstitutionally convey support for slavery and white supremacy? When public schools teach evolution but not creationism, do they show disrespect for creationists? Different audiences reach different conclusions about the meaning …

Plural Marriage And Community Property Law, Diane J. Klein

Golden Gate University Law Review

Plural marriage makes strange bedfellows. Fundamentalist Mormons, polyamorous/ polyfidelitous sex radicals, and some feminists and proponents of same-sex marriage (including this author), share the view that freedom of intimate association under the United States Constitution, properly understood, must extend beyond the right to marry exactly one person of the opposite gender from oneself. But while it is one thing to endorse marriage freedom, as a matter of principle, it is quite another actually to implement it in law. If people could simultaneously have more than one spouse, the lawyer must ask, how would things actually work, from a marital property …

Polygamy, Publicity, And Locality: The Place Of The Public In Marriage Practice, Allison Anna Tait

Law Faculty Publications

This Article offers a reading of State v. Holm that highlights the Utah court's struggle to define marriage and presents the court's eventual definition of marriage as one that is based on visual indicators.

A Modest Proposal: To Deport The Children Of Gay Citizens, & Etc: Immigration Law, The Defense Of Marriage Act And The Children Of Same-Sex Couples, Scott Titshaw

Scott Titshaw

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines the terms “marriage” and “spouse” for federal purposes, clearly prevents the recognition of same-sex spouses under U.S. immigration law. Unless judges and immigration officials are careful to limit it as Congress intended, DOMA might also have a tragic unintended effect on some parent-child relationships. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) employs terms like “born in wedlock” and “stepparent” to define parent-child relationships for various immigration and citizenship purposes. One could argue, therefore, that DOMA prevents INA recognition of parent-child relationships stemming from a same-sex marriage. These relationships determine whether a person can …

The External Effects Of Black-Male Incarceration On Black Females, Stéphane Mechoulan

Stéphane Mechoulan

This paper examines how the increase in the incarceration of Black men and the sex ratio imbalance it induces shape the behavior of young Black women. Combining data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Current Population Survey to match male incarceration rates with individual observations over two decades, I show that Black male incarceration lowers the odds of Black non-marital teenage fertility while increasing young Black women's school attainment and early employment. These results can account for the sharp bridging of the racial gap over the 1990s for a range of socio-economic outcomes among females.

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 …

National Report: Canada, Marie-France Bureau

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

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 …

Yours, Mine, Ours? Renovating The Antiquated Apartheid In The Law Of Property Division In Native American Divorce, Vickie Enis

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Social Security Spouse And Survivor Benefits 101: Practical Primer Part Ii (Or Another Reason To Put A Ring On It), Francine J. Lipman

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

If You Will It, It Is No Dream: Balancing Public Policy And Testamentary Freedom, Orly Henry

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

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 …

Perry V. Schwarzenegger: Is Traditional Marriage Unconstitutional?, George W. Dent

Faculty Publications

This is a brief defense of the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8, which limits marriage for purposes of California law to a relationship between one man and one woman.

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 …

Marriage, Parentage And Child Support, Naomi R. Cahn, June Carbone

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

While child support calculations have become a matter of routine, the parental determinations, on which they rest, have not. Marriage once served as a system to channel childrearing into two-parent families. Within this system, the marital presumption discouraged efforts to inquire too closely into circumstances that might rebut a husband’s paternity and the stigma against non marital births and divorce eliminated much of the need for such determinations. Today, forty-one percent of American births are non marital and Americans lead the world in family instability. Yet, no comprehensive system has arisen to replace marriage or the marital presumption. This articles …

Availability Of Spousal Privileges For Same-Sex Couples, Lisa Yurwit Bergstrom, W. James Denvil

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

On Equality: The Anti-Interference Principle, Donald J. Kochan

University of Richmond Law Review

This essay seeks to summarize the general equality concept and proposes that equality requires that the government engage in anti-interference with individual choices and activities, so long as these things create no negative externalities for others. If we are serious about respecting equality, such interference actions should be avoided. Adopting an "anti-interference principle" is a necessary foundation for achieving the goal of true equality. The primary point is that equality matters. The purpose of this essay is not to survey the vast political, jurisprudential, and academic debate on equality, but instead, to take a broad look at the philosophical concept …

The Curious Relationship Of Marriage And Freedom, Katherine M. Franke

Faculty Scholarship

This essay explores why and how today’s marriage equality movement for same-sex couples might benefit from lessons learned by African Americans when they too were allowed to marry for the first time in the immediate post-Civil War era. Why has the right to marry, rather than say, employment rights, educational opportunity or political participation, emerged as the preeminent vehicle by and through which the freedom, equality and dignity of gay men and lesbians is being fought in the present moment. Why marriage? In what ways are the values, aspirations, and even identity of an oppressed community shaped when they are …

Requirements Of A Valid Islamic Marriage Vis-À-Vis Requirements Of A Valid Customary Marriage In Nigeria, Olanike Sekinat Odewale Mrs

Olanike Sekinat Adelakun