Family Law Commons^™

Lessons Learned, Lessons Offered: Creating A Domestic Violence Drug Court, Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez, Dr. Stacy Speedlin Gonzalez

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming.

Complex Relationships: Public Policy And Law Solutions To Rebalance The Confrontation Clause, Evidence-Based Intimate-Partner Violence Prosecution, And Public And Private Violence After The Resurrection Of Roberts, Kira Eidson

Senior Theses and Projects

Following the Supreme Court’s 2004 decision in Crawford v. Washington, tensions between the Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause and evidence-based prosecution of intimate-partner violence increased. In consequence, the Court forged a path of Constitutional jurisprudence which has weakened the power of the Confrontation Clause, reverted to a disguised reliability test reminiscent of Ohio v. Roberts, and diminished the rights of the accused. Simultaneously, these rulings have created a hierarchy where the severity of private, domestic violence is regarded as a lower level of emergency than public violence. Consequently, the Supreme Court’s primary purpose test for testimonial statements should be …

Judicial Education, Private Violence, And Community Action: A Case Study In Legal Participatory Action Research, Kristin (Brandser) Kalsem

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

In this Article, I present a case study of a legal PAR project involving judicial training on best practices in domestic violence cases. This judicial education project started over coffee and waffles, involved an award-winning documentary film Private Violence, and resulted in the training of more than 375 judges on best practices developed from two years of collaborative research conducted by a community action group. In 2014, I coauthored an article titled It's Critical: Legal Participatory Action Research with my colleague Emily Houh. In this piece, we introduced legal scholars to the field of PAR, including its origins, complementary relationship …

Expert Workshop Session: The Global Child, Haley Chafin, Jena Emory, Meredith Head, Elizabeth Verner

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Anna Moscowitz Kross And The Home Term Part: A Second Look At The Nation's First Criminal Domestic Violence Court, Mae C. Quinn

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Divorce Involving Domestic Violence: Is Med-Arb Likely To Be The Solution?, Dafna Lavi

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

After an introduction in chapter one, the second chapter of this article presents statistics regarding the phenomenon of domestic violence and presents the definition of “violence” (with its attendant difficulties). The third chapter presents the existing problems regarding the judicial handling of divorce cases in general and those involving violence in particular. The fourth chapter analyzes the academic discourse regarding the issue of mediation of divorce cases involving violence (the position of the proponents and the opponents, as well as the problems of the current situation). The fifth chapter proposes med-arb as addressing the issue of divorce mediation in the …

Naming The Judicial Terrorist: An Exposé Of An Abuser's Successful Use Of A Judicial Proceeding For Continued Domestic Violence, Donna King

Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

When Courts Collide: Integrated Domestic Violence Courts And Court Pluralism, Elizabeth L. Macdowell

Scholarly Works

This Article proposes court pluralism as a new theory for analyzing the role of the justice system in addressing domestic violence. It argues that a systemic view of the justice system is essential to developing coherent reform strategies, and lays out the foundation for taking into account the unique functions of civil and criminal justice in domestic violence cases. In doing so, the Article challenges the one-dimensional characterization of a fragmented court system as bad for victims of domestic violence that dominates legal scholarship, and shows that court fragmentation can be an opportunity and potential source of protection from systemic …

Jewish Women Under Siege: The Fight For Survival On The Front Lines Of Love And The Law, Adam H. Koblenz

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

No abstract provided.

Investigating The Justice System Response To Domestic Violence In Missouri, Mary M. Beck, Brandi L. Byrd, M. Meghan Davidson, Niels C. Beck, Gregory F. Petroski

Faculty Publications

One in four women will experience domestic violence in their lifetimes. Each year, 5.3 million domestic violence assaults occur in the United States alone and domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women. Yet, despite the prevalence of domestic violence, little empirical research on the justice system's response to it exists. This paper seeks to describe a state funded project that was created to assess and compare responses to domestic violence throughout the state of Missouri. The project lasted for three years and was conducted by an interdisciplinary team of University of Missouri-Columbia (MU) professors and students.

Introducing The Construct Of The Jury Into Family Violence Proceedings And Family Court Jurisprudence, Melissa L. Breger

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This Article draws upon both the theory of and research on procedural justice holding that litigants often focus on the appearance of fairness rather than on the actual outcome. Thus, when litigants are able to choose the modality of fact-finding, they may be more accepting of the legal process, even if the outcome is not favorable to them. Allowing the option of a jury, even if not exercised, may dramatically improve the perceptions of litigants and may affect the legitimacy and longevity of case outcomes.

Crawford V. Washington: The End Of Victimless Prosecution?, Andrew King-Ries

Faculty Law Review Articles

Domestic violence offenses are difficult to prosecute because the batterer's actions often make the victim unavailable to testify. Since the mid- 1990s, prosecutors have pursued "victimless" prosecutions' to combat the problem.2 Victimless prosecutions seek to introduce reliable evidence without the victim's in-court testimony, often to maintain the victim's safety or to avoid re-victimizing the victim.3 The victimless prosecution is based largely on the admission of hearsay statements that a victim makes to 911 operators, police officers, doctors, nurses, paramedics, and social workers.4 Victimless prosecution has been a highly successful tool in society's efforts to eradicate domestic violence and it is …

Therapeutic Domestic Violence Courts: An Efficient Approach To Adjudication?, Hon. Catherine Shaffer

Seattle University Law Review

Part II of this Article will explore the history of state intervention to confront domestic violence, along with some of the attitudes that contribute to the lack of adequate enforcement of recent legislative reforms. Part III of this Article will discuss the costs of domestic violence and the impact of superficial court treatment in reducing those costs. Part IV will outline the historical development, philosophy, and potential development of therapeutic courts, and in particular will examine the proven effectiveness of the drug court model and the potential benefits that are unique to domestic violence courts. Part V suggests further creation …

The Recently Revised Marriage Law Of China: The Promise And The Reality, Charles J. Ogletree Jr., Rangita De Silva De Alwis

All Faculty Scholarship

In April 2001, the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC), China's highest legislative body, passed the long-debated and much awaited amendments to the Marriage Law on the closing day of its twenty-first session. As stated by one PRC commentator, "In the 50 years since the founding of the New China, there has not been any law that has caused such a widespread concern for ordinary people."'

Even though the recent revisions to the marriage laws have been hailed as some of the most significant and positive changes in family law in China, thus far no empirical evaluation …

Engaging With The State: The Growing Reliance On Lawyers And Judges To Protect Battered Women, Jane C. Murphy

All Faculty Scholarship

The passage of the federal Violence Against Women Act of 2000 (“VAWA II”) marked an important milestone in the evolution of the domestic violence movement. VAWA II created, among other things, a complex system for state and federal funding in all fifty states to provide civil legal assistance to battered women. Its passage completed a process that began in the early 1980s when domestic violence advocates shifted their focus from grass roots efforts to help battered women and their children leave abusive partners to building alliances with government and advocating for legal remedies to assist battered women. This paper looks …

Baltimore City’S Child-Focused Court, Barbara A. Babb, Judith D. Moran

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Equality Theory, Marital Rape, And The Promise Of The Fourteenth Amendment, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

During the 1980s a handful of state judges either held or opined in dicta what must be incontrovertible to the feminist community, as well as to most progressive legal advocates and academics: the so-called marital rape exemption, whether statutory or common law in origin, constitutes a denial of a married woman's constitutional right to equal protection under the law. Indeed, a more obvious denial of equal protection is difficult to imagine: the marital rape exemption denies married women protection against violent crime solely on the basis of gender and marital status. What possibly could be less rational than a statute …