Law Commons^™

Debt Governance, Wealth Management, And The Uneven Burdens Of Child Support, Allison Anna Tait

Law Faculty Publications

Child support is a ubiquitous kind of debt, common to all income and wealth levels, with data showing that approximately 30% of the U.S. adult population has either been subject to paying child support or has received it. Across this field of child support debt, however, unpaid obligations look different for everyone, and in particular the experiences around child support debt diverge radically for low-income populations and high-wealth ones. On the low-income end of the spectrum, child support debt is a sophisticated and adaptive governance technology that disciplines and penalizes those living in or near poverty. Being in child support …

Introduction: Family Court Review Special Issue Dynamic Pedagogy In The Family And Juvenile Law Classroom: Experiential And In-Class Exercises, Meredith Johnson Harbach

Law Faculty Publications

Over the last number of years, the legal academy has placed increasing emphasis on the need to diversify teaching methods, and in particular, has focused on expanding in-class, experiential teaching methods. Educational research confirms that learning experientially has multiple benefits for adult learners, including better retention of material, the ability to explore a more diverse range of representation contexts, the development and use of a broader range of analytical skills, and an emphasis professional collaboration and growth.1Consistent with this evolution of the scholarship on teaching and learning in law school, ABA Standard 303(a)(3) requires all students to complete“ one or …

Family Law Legislative Update, Jason Zarin

Law Faculty Publications

The Virginia General Assembly adjourned sine die on April 5, 2017. One bill affecting adoption was successfully vetoed, and several bills affecting adoption were enacted. Following is a preview of some possible legislation that may be introduced for the 2018 session.

Corporate Family Law, Allison Anna Tait

Law Faculty Publications

There is no such thing as corporate family law. But there are corporate families, and corporate families fight. What happens when corporate family members fight and the conflict is so severe that one or more of the parties wants out of the corporate relationship? Corporate law provides some solutions, but they are shaped by the assumption that all parties will bargain effectively for protections when seeking to exit a corporate relationship. Under this theory, family business is, after all, just business. The problem with this assumption is that corporate family members do not bargain the way that corporate law expects. …

Forward-Looking Family Law, Meredith J. Harbach

Law Faculty Publications

Reviewing June Carbone & Naomi Cahn, Marriage Markets: How Inequality is Remaking the American Family (Oxford University Press 2014), and Clare Huntington, Failure to Flourish: How Law Undermines Family Relationships (Oxford University Press 2014).

This essay reviews both books, describing their core arguments and innovative re- form proposals. Having surveyed their work, I agree with Carbone, Cahn, and Hunting- ton that the most urgent and politically-tenable reforms to family law involve enhancing investments for structural supports benefitting children. Both books shore up the instrumental and normative cases for such investment, and they also show how a renewed focus on children …

Childcare Market Failure, Meredith J. Harbach

Law Faculty Publications

In the UnitedStates,family law norms and childcare policy have long reflected the view that childcare is a private,family matter.Butchildcare hascrossedtheprivate-publicdivide.In the absence of parents at home providing care, a substantial childcare market has emerged. And that market is failing. Our law, policy, and legal scholarship have yet to recognize and account for this new reality. This Article confronts the problem on its own terms, using economic analysis to diagnose our childcarecrisis as a marketfailure,and makes the casefor more active and explicit government intervention in the childcare market. Economic theory not only helps us understand why the market is failing, but …

Terminating Parental Rights Through A Backdoor In The Virginia Code, Dale Margolin Cecka

Law Faculty Publications

This article explores deficits in the statute, in light of constitutional law, other Virginia adoption and termination of parental rights statutes, and other states' codes and jurisprudence. Part II describes the history and practice of the statute. Part III describes the flaws of the statute, including Fourteenth Amendment violations and inherent conflicts of interest. Part IV calls for the revision of section 1202(H) based on recent precedent in which the Supreme Court of Virginia recognized the sanctity of the parent-child relationship and the state's interest in preserving it.

Empowerment, Innovation, And Service: Law School Programs Provide Access To Justice And Instill A Commitment To Serve, Dale Margolin Cecka

Law Faculty Publications

Law schools around the country seek to fill the legal needs of their communities in ways that are both innovative and mutually beneficial to clients and students. This article describes five pro bono and clinical programs, at the University of Richmond School of Law. The Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University. Catholic University Columbus School of Law, the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and Vermont Law School, where law students, under the supervision of law professors or community professionals, provide assistance or legal representation to underserved and often marginalized populations needing help with family law problems, including parents …

Is The Family A Federal Question?, Meredith Johnson Harbach

Law Faculty Publications

There has long been conflict over the relationship between the states and the federal system vis-i-vis the family. The traditional account of domestic relations describes family law as the exclusive domain of the states, and federal courts have credited this account in the "domestic relations exception." Although scholars have analyzed and critiqued the exception's applicability to diversity jurisdiction, the intersection of federal question jurisdiction and this exception remains largely unexplored. This Article describes and critiques, on both instrumental and deeper normative terms, federal courts' willingness to expand the "domestic relations exception" to include federal question cases. The Article proceeds in …

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

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Drafting Cohabitation, Antenuptial, And Reconciliation Agreements, Peter N. Swisher

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.