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Articles 1 - 17 of 17
Full-Text Articles in Family Law
Puzzling Over Children's Rights, John Coons, Robert Mnookin, Stephen Sugarman
Puzzling Over Children's Rights, John Coons, Robert Mnookin, Stephen Sugarman
John Coons
This Article Discusses the Movement Started in The 1960's to Improve Children's Legal Rights and How They are Treated Under the Law. The Authors Explore the Intellectual Foundations of Our Conventions About Children and Share Some of The Puzzles that They Have Identified. They Discuss When Childhood Begins and Ends, Whether Children are Worse off or Better off Now Than in The Past, and Whether the Purpose of Childhood is Only a Concern of The Present or Is It Preparation for Future Adulthood. They Discuss Children's Entitlements to The Goods of The World in Relation to Their Parents, Other Adults, …
The Intersection Of Civil And Religious Family Law In The U.S. Constitutional Order: A Mild Legal Pluralism, Linda C. Mcclain
The Intersection Of Civil And Religious Family Law In The U.S. Constitutional Order: A Mild Legal Pluralism, Linda C. Mcclain
Faculty Scholarship
This chapter considers how civil and religious family law intersect in the U.S. legal system and how U.S. constitutional law shapes and constrains the accommodation of religious pluralism as it pertains to family law. To the question, “Is there too much or too little pluralism in U.S. family law?,” I answer that family law appropriately embraces a mild legal pluralism, while clearly distinguishing between civil and religious marriage. After illustrating this distinction in the context of the recent controversy over same-sex marriage, I consider two categories of cases: (1) cases in which courts consider whether to enforce terms of Jewish …
In Re Guardianship Of Hailu, 131 Nev. Adv. Op. 89 (Nov. 16, 2015), Adrienne Brantley
In Re Guardianship Of Hailu, 131 Nev. Adv. Op. 89 (Nov. 16, 2015), Adrienne Brantley
Nevada Supreme Court Summaries
The Court determined that under NRS § 451.007 (the Uniform Determination of Death Act) the District court failed to consider whether the American Association of Neurology (AAN) guidelines adequately measure all functions of the entire brain and whether the guidelines are considered accepted medical standards by states that have adopted the Act.
Federal Visions Of Private Family Support, Laura A. Rosenbury
Federal Visions Of Private Family Support, Laura A. Rosenbury
Laura A. Rosenbury
This Article offers a new perspective on the relationship between family and federalism by analyzing why the government — whether state or federal — recognizes family at all. The Article examines the current balance between state and federal authority over family by reviewing the Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Astrue v. Capato, upholding the Social Security Administration’s deference to states’ intestacy laws when distributing benefits to posthumously conceived children, and United States v. Windsor, in which the Court struck down a provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Although each decision affirmed the states’ primary role in defining family …
Rights And Realities, Laura A. Rosenbury
Rights And Realities, Laura A. Rosenbury
Laura A. Rosenbury
The author responds to Melissa Murray's article, The Networked Family: Reframing the Legal Understanding of Caregiving and Caregivers, 94 Va. L. Rev. 385 (2008).
Between Home And School, Laura Rosenbury
Between Home And School, Laura Rosenbury
Laura A. Rosenbury
This article challenges family law's traditional paradigm for allocating authority between parents, children and the state. Pursuant to that paradigm, parents enjoy almost complete authority over their children while at home; the state may require children to attend school and may regulate school curricula; and children must submit to the authority of either their parents or teachers. This settled equilibrium ignores a fundamental reality: children are not confined to home and school. Much of childhood takes place in spaces between home and school, at playgrounds, churches, sporting fields, music rooms and after-school clubs. Family law has been virtually silent about …
Two Ways To End A Marriage: Divorce Or Death, Laura A. Rosenbury
Two Ways To End A Marriage: Divorce Or Death, Laura A. Rosenbury
Laura A. Rosenbury
Default rules governing property distribution at divorce and death are often identified as one of the primary benefits of marriage. This Article examines these default rules in all fifty states, exposing the ways property distribution differs depending on whether the marriage ends by divorce or death. The result is often counter-intuitive: in most states, a spouse is likely to receive more property if her marriage ends by divorce than if the marriage lasts until "death do us part." This difference can be explained in part by the choices of feminist activists over the past thirty-five years: feminists played a large …
Friends With Benefits, Laura A. Rosenbury
Friends With Benefits, Laura A. Rosenbury
Laura A. Rosenbury
Family law has long been intensely interested in certain adult intimate relationships, namely marriage and marriage-like relationships, and silent about other adult intimate relationships, namely friendship. This Article examines the effects of that focus, illustrating how it frustrates one of the goals embraced by most family law scholars over the past forty years: the achievement of gender equality, within the family and without. Part I examines the current scope of family law doctrine and scholarship, highlighting the ways that the home is still the organizing structure for family. Despite calls for increased legal recognition of diverse families, few scholars have …
Joanna T. V. Nevada, 131 Nev. Adv. Op. 77 (Sep 24, 2015), Audra Powell
Joanna T. V. Nevada, 131 Nev. Adv. Op. 77 (Sep 24, 2015), Audra Powell
Nevada Supreme Court Summaries
The court considered whether NRCP 4(i)’s 120 day requirement for service of a summons applied to cases filed under NRS § 432B, for protection of children from neglect and abuse. The court held that the 120 day requirement does not apply to cases filed under 432B and denied the petition for a writ of mandamus to order the juvenile court to dismiss an abuse-and-neglect petition on that premise.
The Hague Convention And Domestic Violence: Proposals For Balancing The Policies Of Discouraging Child Abduction And Protecting Children From Domestic Violence, Shani M. King
Shani M. King
The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (the Convention) was enacted in response to a pattern of parental abduction across international borders to thwart or preempt custody arrangements in one country and seek a more advantageous setting for litigating custody issues in another. Consequently, the Convention was designed to discourage the abduction of children across international borders and to encourage respect for custody and access arrangements in countries from which children were abducted. To implement the Convention, the United States enacted the International Child Abduction Remedies Act (ICARA) on April 29, 1988. Much has been written …
Book Review: Fifty Years In Family Law: Essays For Stephen Cretney (Rebecca Probert & Chris Barton Eds. 2012), Nancy E. Dowd
Book Review: Fifty Years In Family Law: Essays For Stephen Cretney (Rebecca Probert & Chris Barton Eds. 2012), Nancy E. Dowd
Nancy Dowd
This collection honors the life and work of Stephen Cretney, the preeminent British scholar of family law. For those wanting an entry point into British family law, this is a wonderful volume. For those who know it well and admire the work of Stephen Cretney, as well as the work of this preeminent group of scholars, it will also be of much value as a remarkable group of essays. As an example of life's work that we all might hope to achieve, in many manifestations, but with dedication to the common good, it is a model to which we all …
Digging Beneath The Equality Language: The Influence Of The Fathers’ Rights Movement On Intimate Partner Violence Public Policy Debates And Family Law Reform, Kelly Alison Behre
Digging Beneath The Equality Language: The Influence Of The Fathers’ Rights Movement On Intimate Partner Violence Public Policy Debates And Family Law Reform, Kelly Alison Behre
William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice
In 2004, a fathers’ rights group formed in West Virginia to promote “Truth, Justice, and Equality in Family Law.” They created a media campaign including billboards and radio spots warning about the dangers of false allegations of domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse, even offering a $10,000 award to anyone who could prove false allegations of abuse were used against a parent in a custody case. In 2007, they released a study concluding that seventy-six percent of protection order cases were unnecessary or based on false allegations, and warned that protection orders were often filed to gain leverage in …
Federalism And Family Status, Courtney G. Joslin
Federalism And Family Status, Courtney G. Joslin
Indiana Law Journal
The myth of family law’s inherent localism is sticky. In the past, it was common to hear sweeping claims about the exclusively local nature of all family matters. In response to persuasive critiques, a narrower iteration of family law localism emerged. The new, refined version acknowledges the existence of some federal family law but contends that certain “core” family law matters—specifically, family status determinations—are inherently local. I call this family status localism. Proponents of family status localism rely on history, asserting that the federal government has always deferred to state family status determinations. Family status localism made its most recent …
Developments In Family Law In The District Of Columbia: Three Significant Legislative Changes For Child Support, Meridel Bulle-Vu, Tianna Gibbs, Ashley Mcdowell
Developments In Family Law In The District Of Columbia: Three Significant Legislative Changes For Child Support, Meridel Bulle-Vu, Tianna Gibbs, Ashley Mcdowell
University of the District of Columbia Law Review
Over the last decade, the District's child support law has changed in three significant ways: (1) by the enactment of a statute that requires sentencing judges to notify obligors of their right to modify or suspend their child support order during incarceration; (2) by the passage of a law that requires the District of Columbia government to distribute up to the first $150 of child support collected each month to custodial parents who receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families(TANF); and (3) by substantial revisions to how child support orders are calculated under the District's Child Support Guideline (the Guideline).1 These …
Marriage, The Constitution, And The Future Of Family Law, Mark Strasser
Marriage, The Constitution, And The Future Of Family Law, Mark Strasser
Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice
No abstract provided.
(Re-)Grasping The Opportunity Interest: Lehr V. Robertson And The Terminated Parent, Lashanda Taylor Adams
(Re-)Grasping The Opportunity Interest: Lehr V. Robertson And The Terminated Parent, Lashanda Taylor Adams
Journal Articles
In 1997, an Ohio court terminated Peggy Fugate’s parental rights to her sixyear-old daughter, Selina. At the time, Ms. Fugate, an incarcerated drug abuser, did not fight the order, believing her daughter would be adopted into a clean, stable home.1 However, Selina was never adopted. For the next seven years, Selina had trouble with the police and ran away from her foster home numerous times. While Selina’s life was going downhill in many respects, her mother was rehabilitating. She entered recovery, married, obtained full-time employment and was living in stable housing with enough room for her daughter. Recognizing the strides …
The Indian Child Welfare Act's Waning Power After Adoptive Couple V. Baby Girl, Kathleena Kruck
The Indian Child Welfare Act's Waning Power After Adoptive Couple V. Baby Girl, Kathleena Kruck
Northwestern University Law Review
In the 1970s, state authorities began removing Indian children from their homes by the thousands and placing them into foster care, institutional housing, and with white families. To counteract this forced assimilation, Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) in 1978. The ICWA conferred many powers previously held by the states to tribal courts and created a preference for Indian children to be placed with their extended family, other members of their tribe, or other Indian families. Despite congressional efforts, the practice of removing Indian children from their homes still persists. Many states resist the ICWA through judicially created …