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Full-Text Articles in Family Law
Chilling Parental Rights, Meghan M. Boone
Chilling Parental Rights, Meghan M. Boone
Fordham Law Review
Despite this clear lack of consensus as to what constitutes ideal parenting, state actors have increasingly intervened in families when they feel that a particular parenting choice is wrong. These interventions increasingly occur through the use of criminal law and punishment.5 This criminalization extends beyond prosecutions for what would traditionally be considered abuse or neglect to a wide range of parenting choices that do not rise to this level. Although many scholars have critiqued this criminalization of parenting, the focus of these critiques has centered on the harm to the families that are actually criminalized and on how a disproportionate …
The Enduring Importance Of Parental Rights, Clare Huntington, Elizabeth Scott
The Enduring Importance Of Parental Rights, Clare Huntington, Elizabeth Scott
Fordham Law Review
Parental rights are—and should remain—the backbone of family law. State deference to parents is warranted not because parents are infallible, nor because parents own their children, but rather because parental rights, properly understood and limited, promote child wellbeing.1 This is true for several reasons, but two stand out. First, parental rights promote the stability of the parent-child relationship by restricting the state’s authority to intervene in families. This protection promotes healthy child development for all children, and it is especially important for low-income families and families of color, who are subject to intensive state scrutiny.2 Second, parental rights ensure that …
Multi-Parent Families, Real And Imagined, Courtney G. Joslin, Douglas Nejaime
Multi-Parent Families, Real And Imagined, Courtney G. Joslin, Douglas Nejaime
Fordham Law Review
This piece is the first in a series on functional parenthood growing out of an empirical study of all electronically available cases from the last forty years decided under functional parent doctrines, including cases that feature more than two parental figures.20 Our goal is to provide a more empirically grounded understanding of the circumstances under which a child may have functional parents, including situations in which a child has more than two parents, and an accurate assessment of the range of factual contexts in which courts may be asked to adjudicate the issue. We supply a more comprehensive and detailed …