Law Commons^™

The Law Of Equitable Distribution: When Is Domestic Violence More Than Just A Factor In Divorce?, Ada Tonkonogy

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

Imagine you are married. After many years there are problems in your marriage. Some of these issues are beyond your control. You find out that your spouse is cheating on you. You plan to come home from work and confront your spouse about their infidelities. You even begin to think about the divorce process, confronting the concerns raised in your mind. I’ll be okay. I have a great career, I have worked my entire life, and I have saved. I will be okay.

That night you approach your spouse. After an argument breaks out, you tell your spouse that …

State Criminal Laws Could Be A Light In The Dark For The Hidden Victims Of Forced Marriage, Rebekah Marcarelli

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

“There’s something you need to know about me . . . I am dead,” said Fraidy Reiss, a survivor of an abusive forced marriage, as she stood alone on a stage, speaking to a crowd. “I know what you’re thinking, [I don’t] look particularly dead . . . you might want to tell that to my family [because] they declared me dead almost thirteen years ago.”

Reiss, who founded the organization Unchained at Last to help forced marriage victims like herself, grew up in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn. Right after finishing high school, Reiss was asked to …

“The Past Got Broken Off”: Classifying “Indian” In The Indian Child Welfare Act, Lucia Kello

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

In her 1993 novel, Pigs in Heaven, Barbara Kingsolver chronicles the story of an American Indian child, Turtle, and her young, white, adoptive mother, Taylor Greer. In what has been criticized as a controversial imagined fact pattern, Kingsolver writes that while stopped in a parking lot in the middle of the night, Taylor is approached by an American Indian woman holding a baby. Rather mysteriously, the woman informs Taylor that the baby’s mother died and the baby was being abused, upon which Taylor notes that “it looked like someone had been hurting [the woman] too.” After placing the …

The Dischargeability Of Money Judgements Versus Property Interests In Arbitration Awards For Domestic Contributions In The Context Of Unmarried Couples, Gabriella Hansen

Bankruptcy Research Library

(Excerpt)

A debt which arises prior to the filing of the petition for discharge in bankruptcy is dischargeable unless it can be categorized as one of the statutory exceptions to discharge listed in section 523(a) of title 11 of the United States Code (the “Bankruptcy Code”). Section 523(a)(5) of the Bankruptcy Code prohibits the discharge of awards of domestic support due to a debtor’s spouse, former spouse, or child. Accordingly, maintenance, alimony, and child support, often awarded in divorce proceedings, fall under the federal bankruptcy law statutory exceptions to discharge for domestic support obligations.

When an unmarried couple separates and …

The Empty Promise Of The Fourth Amendment In The Family Regulation System, Anna Arons

Faculty Publications

Each year, state agents search the homes of hundreds of thousands of families across the United States under the auspices of the family regulation system. Through these searches—required elements of investigations into allegations of child maltreatment in virtually every jurisdiction—state agents invade the home, the most protected space in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. Accordingly, federal courts agree that the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement applies to family regulation home searches. But almost universally, the abstract recognition of Fourth Amendment protections runs up against a concrete expectation on the ground that state actors should have easy and expansive access to families’ homes. Legislatures …

An Unintended Abolition: Family Regulation During The Covid-19 Crisis, Anna Arons

Faculty Publications

In a typical year, New York City’s vast family regulation system, fueled by an army of mandated reporters, investigates tens of thousands of reports of child neglect and abuse, policing almost exclusively poor Black and Latinx families even as the government provides those families extremely limited support. When the City shut down in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, this system shrunk in almost every conceivable way as mandated reporters retreated, caseworkers adopted less intrusive investigatory tactics, and family courts constrained their operations. The number of reports fell, the number of cases filed in court fell, and the number of …

Navigating Surrogacy Law In The Non-United States: Why All States Should Adopt A Uniform Surrogacy Statute, Stephanie Canner

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

“My water broke; the baby is coming! Come now!” Normally, a woman in labor makes this frantic phone call to her partner, who would immediately drop whatever they were doing to be by her side at the local hospital and be present to welcome their child into the world. However, this scenario is not the reality for many couples across the United States. For example, there is a New York couple who have a different story to tell their daughter about her birth. Brad Hoylman and David Sigal received a phone call a month before their baby’s due date …

Time To Rethink Surrogacy: An Overhaul Of New York's Outdated Surrogacy Contract Laws Is Long Overdue, Charles Gili

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Part I of this Note discusses the influential effect of the much publicized Baby M case as well as the societal perceptions of the time that led to the enactment of New York’s current “antisurrogacy” laws, DRL §§ 121–124. Part II explores changes in the legal, scientific, and societal atmospheres that have rendered those laws archaic and unconstitutional. Part III argues that needed change should come in the form of new legislation meant to foster, rather than burden, the formation of family.

The Right Family, Noa Ben-Asher, Margot J. Pollans

Faculty Publications

The family plays a starring role in American law. Families, the law tells us, are special. They merit many state and federal benefits, including tax deductions, testimonial privileges, untaxed inheritance, and parental presumptions. Over the course of the twentieth century, the Supreme Court expanded individual rights stemming from familial relationships. In this Article, we argue that the concept of family in American law matters just as much when it is ignored as when it is featured. We contrast policies in which the family is the key unit of analysis with others in which it is not. Looking at four seemingly …

Protecting The Expecting: A Proposal To Include Pregnancy As An Aggravating Circumstance, Nicole Atlak

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

This Note brings attention to the New York Legislature’s failure to consider the unique vulnerability and harms of pregnant victims of domestic violence and proposes a statutory amendment. This Note proposes that Section 827(a)(vii) of New York’s Family Court Act be amended to include an additional aggravating circumstance with language to the effect of “any physical injury or psychological, emotional or sexual abuse to a pregnant woman.” This addition is necessary to ensure the list of aggravating circumstances is thorough, and more complete in encompassing all serious and heinous domestic abuse.

Part II of this Note will offer a …

Spousal Support And Domestic Violence: What Happens When The Dependent Spouse Is The Abuser?, Maria Stamatelatos

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

Therefore, this Note proposes that New York and other states enact legislation similar to that of the California Family Code, which enacted statutes that prevent someone from obtaining spousal support if they attempted to murder their spouse, committed a violent sexual felony against their spouse, or were convicted of a domestic violence offense against their spouse. The reformed legislation would prohibit judges from awarding spousal support to individuals convicted of attempting to murder their spouse, and would require courts to look carefully at the facts surrounding each case where a spouse has been indicted or convicted of a violent …

Distribution Of Property Overseen By Family Courts Will Not Bar Constructive Fraudulent Transfer Claims, Allyson Rivard

Bankruptcy Research Library

(Excerpt)

In general, a transfer made by a debtor may be avoided under title 11 of the United States Code (the “Bankruptcy Code”) or applicable state law, if the transfer was actually or constructively fraudulent. Actual fraudulent transfer claims require a showing of actual intent to hinder, delay, or defraud creditors. Constructive fraudulent transfer claims do not require proof of actual intent. Instead, a transfer will generally be constructively fraudulent if it is shown that (1) the debtor was insolvent at the time of, or rendered insolvent by, the transfer and (2) so long as the debtor received “less than …

Complexity In The Determination Of Child Abuse: A Statistical And Rights Based Approach, Yvonne M. Vissing, Phd, Quixada Moore-Vissing, Phd, Leah Salloway, Abd

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

Every year more than 3.6 million referrals are made to child protection agencies, which involve more than 6.6 million children. A determination of child abuse is a complex process for both courts and child protective service workers. When an allegation of suspected child abuse is made findings may, or may not, lead to court action. Courts rely upon accurate determinations of abuse. While some cases are clear-cut, many are not. The lack of clear-cut data and legal findings, however, does not dissuade the press and public from making determinations of whether children are being adequately protected, and whether parents …

Tips For Safety Planning For Children Of Undocumented Parents, Jennifer Baum

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In 2013, more than 5 million children in the United States (over 7 percent of the total U.S. child population) were living with at least one undocumented parent, according to the Migration Policy Institute. The overwhelming majority of these children (80 percent) were U.S. citizens. The Washington Post reported that more than half a million of these children's parents have in fact been deported since 2009. That's a lot of U.S. children living day to day with the sudden loss, or risk of sudden loss, of a parent through deportation.

The Long-Arm's Inappropriate Embrace, Lynda Wray Black

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Arguably, the heart balm torts have outlived their relevance in a society where marriage is no longer a necessary imprimatur for intimate relations, and where broken hearts and failed marriages are the statistical norm. A state’s resolute rejection of the heart balm torts in principle as well as applied to modern domestic relations mores need be checked neither by Constitutional protections of marriage nor by the need for uniformity among sister states. Therefore, one state need not and must not transport its domestic relations public policy across state lines. Mississippi’s expansive jurisdictional embrace of nonresidents, John Daly and Anna …

An Overview Of Religious Considerations In Child Custody Disputes, J. Michael Fitzgerald

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Influences Of An "Annulment Mentality", Cornelius J. Van Der Poel, C.S.Sp

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

The Quality Of Life: From Roe To Quinlan And Beyond, Joseph Cincotta

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Zoning For The Elderly And Family Rights, Ralph J. Libsohn

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Sealed Records In Adoptions: The Need For Legislative Reform, Patricia Gallagher Lupack

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Marriage Contracts For The Mentally Retarded, John B. Murray

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Commitment To And In Marriage, Leon Salzman

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Homosexuality And Validity Of Matrimony - A Study In Homo-Psychosexual Inversion, John Rogg Schmidt

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Treatment For Misbehaving Minors, Barbara P. Gertel

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Child Placement: Law And Theory, Joel B. Savit

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

No-Fault Divorce Laws: An Overview And Critique, James T. Mchugh

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Adoptive Parent Versus Natural Parent: Serving The Gordian Knot Of Voluntary Surrenders, Joseph P. Forte

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

In The Shadow Of A Myth: Bargaining For Same-Sex Divorce, Noa Ben-Asher

Faculty Publications

This Article explores a relatively new phenomenon in family law: same-sex divorce. The Article’s central claim is that parties to the first wave of same-sex divorces are not effectively bargaining against the backdrop of legal dissolution rules that would govern in the absence of an agreement. In other words, to use Robert Mnookin and Lewis Kornhauser’s terminology, they are not “bargaining in the shadow of the law.” Instead, the Article argues, many same-sex couples today bargain in the shadow of a myth that same-sex couples are egalitarian—that there are no vulnerable parties or power differentials in same-sex divorce.

The Article …

A Further Step Toward Protection Of Migration Family Rights, Dr. T. Stark

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

The Development Of The Wife's Cause Of Action For Loss Of Consortium

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.