Family Law Commons^™

Keeping Kids Out Of The System: Creative Legal Practice As A Community Child Protection Strategy, Leigh S. Goodmark

Leigh S. Goodmark

No abstract provided.

Reasonable Efforts Checklist For Dependency Cases Involving Domestic Violence, Leigh S. Goodmark

Leigh S. Goodmark

The purpose of this checklist is to assist dependency court judges in identifying factors that should be considered when making reasonable efforts determinations in cases involving domestic violence.

Bringing The Greenbook To Life: A Resource Guide For Communities, Leigh S. Goodmark, Ann Rosewater

Leigh S. Goodmark

This book is designed for communities seeking to develop interventions that will improve their responses to families suffering both domestic violence and child maltreatment.

Steps Toward Safety: Improving Systemic And Community Responses For Families Experiencing Domestic Violence, Leigh Goodmark, Ann Rosewater

Leigh S. Goodmark

This report is designed to mine the lessons learned from the research and reforms in child welfare and domestic violence, as well as explore possibilities for the next generation of innovation.

Navigating A Post-Windsor World: The Promise And Limits Of Marriage Equality, Nancy J. Knauer

Nancy J. Knauer

When the 2013 landmark decision in U.S. v. Windsor invalidated part of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), it was hailed as a landmark civil rights victory, but its implementation has been far from seamless. The federal government has not applied a uniform rule for marriage recognition, applying a state-of-domicile rule for some purposes (Social Security) and a broader state-of-celebration rule for others (e.g., federal tax matters). Moreover, Windsor did not directly address the state-level marriage prohibitions that remain in place in the majority of states. As a result, the United States continues to be a patchwork of marriage laws …

From Property To Personhood: What The Legal System Should Do For Children In Family Violence Cases, Leigh S. Goodmark

Leigh S. Goodmark

No abstract provided.

Going Underground: The Ethics Of Advising A Battered Woman Fleeing An Abusive Relationship, Leigh S. Goodmark

Leigh S. Goodmark

No abstract provided.

Law Is The Answer? Do We Know That For Sure? Questioning The Efficacy Of Legal Interventions For Battered Women, Leigh Goodmark

Leigh S. Goodmark

No abstract provided.

A Troubled Marriage: Domestic Violence And The Legal System, Leigh Goodmark

Leigh S. Goodmark

The development of a legal regime to combat domestic violence in the United States has been lauded as one of the feminist movement’s greatest triumphs. But, Leigh Goodmark argues, the resulting system is deeply flawed in ways that prevent it from assisting many women subjected to abuse. The current legal response to domestic violence is excessively focused on physical violence; this narrow definition of abuse fails to provide protection from behaviors that are profoundly damaging, including psychological, economic, and reproductive abuse. The system uses mandatory policies that deny women subjected to abuse autonomy and agency, substituting the state’s priorities for …

Reframing Domestic Violence Law And Policy: An Anti-Essentialist Proposal, Leigh Goodmark

Leigh S. Goodmark

This Article focuses on a central failure in domestic violence law and policy reform—the creation of a body of law and set of policies based on outmoded notions of what domestic violence is, the identities of the women who experience violence, the identities of their partners, and what such women need and want. The theoretical underpinnings of domestic violence law and policy largely are to blame for this excessively narrow and problematic view of domestic violence.

Deconstructing Teresa O'Brien: A Role Play For Domestic Violence Clinics, Leigh S. Goodmark, Catherine F. Klein

Leigh S. Goodmark

No abstract provided.

When Is A Battered Woman Not A Battered Woman? When She Fights Back, Leigh Goodmark

Leigh S. Goodmark

No abstract provided.

Parenting In The Face Of Prejudice: The Need For Representation For Parents With Mental Illness, Leigh Goodmark

Leigh S. Goodmark

No abstract provided.

Transgender People, Intimate Partner Abuse, And The Legal System, Leigh S. Goodmark

Leigh S. Goodmark

The unique experiences of transgender persons subjected to abuse have not been the focus of legal scholarship; instead, the experiences of transgender people are often subsumed in the broader discourse around domestic violence in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. This dearth of legal scholarship is not surprising given how little research of any kind exists on how transgender people experience intimate partner abuse. This is the first law review article to concentrate specifically on intimate partner abuse and the transgender community. The Article begins by discussing the difficulties of engaging in scholarship around this topic, noting the …

Clinical Cognitive Dissonance: The Values And Goals Of Domestic Violence Clinics, The Legal System, And The Students Caught In The Middle, Leigh S. Goodmark

Leigh S. Goodmark

No abstract provided.

California Egg Toss - The High Costs Of Avoiding Unenforceable Surrogacy Contracts, Jennifer Jackson

Jennifer Jackson

In an emotionally charged decision regarding surrogacy contracts, it is important to recognize the ramifications, costs, and policy. There are advantages to both “gestational carrier surrogacy” contracts and “traditional surrogacy” contracts. However, this paper focuses on the differences between these contracts using case law. Specifically, this paper will focus on the implications of California case law regarding surrogacy contracts. Cases such as Johnson v. Calvert and In Re Marriage of Moschetta provide a clear distinction between these contracts. This distinction will show that while gestational carrier surrogacy contracts are more expensive, public policy and court opinions will provide certainty and …

California Egg Toss - The High Costs Of Avoiding Unenforceable Surrogacy Contracts, Jennifer Jackson

Jennifer Jackson

In an emotionally charged decision regarding surrogacy contracts, it is important to recognize the ramifications, costs, and policy. There are advantages to both “gestational carrier surrogacy” contracts and “traditional surrogacy” contracts. However, this paper focuses on the differences between these contracts using case law. Specifically, this paper will focus on the implications of California case law regarding surrogacy contracts. Cases such as Johnson v. Calvert and In Re Marriage of Moschetta provide a clear distinction between these contracts. This distinction will show that while gestational carrier surrogacy contracts are more expensive, public policy and court opinions will provide certainty and …

In The Name Of The Child: Race, Gender, And Economics In Adoptive Couple V. Baby Girl, Bethany Berger

Bethany Berger

On June 25, 2013, the Supreme Court decided Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, holding that the Indian Child Welfare Act did not permit the Cherokee father in that case to object to termination of his parental rights. The case is ostensibly about a dispute between prospective adoptive parents and a biological father. This Article demonstrates that it is about a lot more than that. It is a microcosm of anxieties about Indian-ness, race, and the changing nature of parenthood. While made in the name of the child, moreover, the decision supports practices and policies that do not forward and may …

Domestic Violence, Strategic Behavior, And Ideological Rent-Seeking, F.E. Guerra-Pujol

F.E. Guerra-Pujol

This paper examines a number of empirical patterns, puzzles, and anomalies relating to the problem of domestic violence that heretofore have been overlooked in the scholarly literature and concludes that domestic violence legislation is the product of ‘ideological rent-seeking’ among issue-oriented pressure groups and, once enacted, often creates perverse incentives for strategic behavior.

The Beginning Of The End Of Coverture: A Reappraisal Of The Married Woman’S Separate Estate, Allison Anna Tait

Allison Anna Tait

Before statutory enactments in the nineteenth century granted married women a limited set of property rights, the separate estate trust was, by and large, the sole form of married women’s property. Although the separate estate allowed married women to circumvent the law of coverture, historians have generally viewed the separate estate as an ineffective vehicle for extending property rights to married women. In this Article, I reappraise the separate estate’s utility and argue that Chancery’s separate estate jurisprudence during the eighteenth century was a critical first step in the establishment of married women as property-holders. Separate estates guaranteed critical financial …

Marriage Equailty: Why Laws Restricting Same-Sex Couples' Rights Should Be Subject To Heightened Scrutiny Under Equal Protection Challenges., Cory A. Delellis

Cory A DeLellis

This thesis discusses why laws that restrict marital rights and recognition, on the basis of the couple’s sexual orientation, should be subject to a heightened or intermediate level of judicial scrutiny under Equal Protection challenges. This thesis addresses, analyzes, and suggests why sexual orientation – within the context of same-sex couples – should be considered a quasi-suspect class, rather than a non-suspect class, so that laws negatively impacting couples based on their sexual orientation are subjected to a fairer and more reasonable level of judicial scrutiny.

Homeschooling As A Constitutional Right: A Claim Under A Close Look At Meyer And Pierce And The Lochner-Based Assumptions They Made About State Regulatory Power, David M. Wagner

David N. Wagner

In 2012, a German family of would-be homeschoolers, the Romeikes, fled to the U.S. to escape fines and child removal for this practice, which has been illegal in Germany since 1938. The Sixth Circuit, in denying their asylum request, conspicuously did not slam the door on the possibility that if the Romeikes were U.S. citizens, they might have a right to homeschool. This article takes up that question, and argues that Meyer and Pierce, the classic cases constitutionalizing the right to use private schools, point beyond those holdings towards a right to homeschool; and that the permissible state regulations on …

An “I Do” I Choose: How The Fight For Marriage Access Supports A Per Se Finding Of Persecution For Asylum Cases Based On Forced Marriage, Natalie Nanasi

Natalie Nanasi

There is something special about marriage. The U.S. Supreme Court, in striking down anti-miscegenation laws, restrictions on the right to marry for disadvantaged groups, and most recently, the Defense of Marriage Act, has long recognized the marital union to be “sacred” and “fundamental to…existence.” Yet this analysis is dramatically different when courts consider asylum law, where a woman who is seeking refuge in the United States to protect her from a forced marriage abroad will likely be denied protection because the harm she fears is not considered to be a “persecutory” act. She may therefore be forced to spend a …

Multiplicity Of Marriage Forms In Contemporary South Africa, Roberto A. Garetto Ph.D.

Roberto A. Garetto Ph.D.

From the perspective of family law, South Africa seems particularly interesting as it recognizes a multiplicity of marriage forms, according to its laws: not only common law marriage, deeply linked with the traditions of Western culture, but also customary marriage and same-sex marriage. Customary marriage, a plural marriage practiced in the form of polygyny, is deeply related to the cultural identity of some South Africans; same-sex marriage is an innovation related to fundamental rights affirmed in the post-apartheid Constitution of 1996.

The South African Constitution has a highly advanced sensibility related to issues of human dignity, equality, and freedom. Both …

Transforming Family Law Through Same-Sex Marriage: Lessons From (And To) The Western World, Macarena Saez

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Same-sex marriage is a 21st century phenomenon. In less than 13 years more than 15 countries have amended their marriage laws to include same-sex couples. Some countries have made the change through political decisions but others have reached the change through adjudicative processes. A comparative analysis of decisions from the highest courts of countries or states granting marriage to same-sex couples demonstrates: 1. similar arguments are presented to these courts when making the case for and against same-sex marriage; 2. courts are using comparative law to justify their decisions on same-sex marriage; 3. the majority of courts in these countries …

From Third Parties To Parents: The Case Of Lesbian Couples And Their Children, Nancy Polikoff

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

California Egg Toss - The High Costs Of Avoiding Unenforceable Surrogacy Contracts, Jennifer Jackson

Jennifer Jackson

In an emotionally charged decision regarding surrogacy contracts, it is important to recognize the ramifications, costs, and policy. There are advantages to both “gestational carrier surrogacy” contracts and “traditional surrogacy” contracts. However, this paper focuses on the differences between these contracts using case law. Specifically, this paper will focus on the implications of California case law regarding surrogacy contracts. Cases such as Johnson v. Calvert and In Re Marriage of Moschetta provide a clear distinction between these contracts. This distinction will show that while gestational carrier surrogacy contracts are more expensive, public policy and court opinions will provide certainty and …

California Putative Spouses: The Innocent, The Guilty, And The Law, Helen Y. Chang

Helen Y Chang

The purpose of this article is to examine the historical roots of the putative spouse doctrine and its implementation into California’s family and community property system. Although California has historically recognized the putative spouse doctrine to save otherwise void or voidable marriages, California’s actual application of the doctrine has been piecemeal with a resulting patchwork of inconsistent statutes and judicial decisions. For example, a putative spouse is a “surviving spouse” under California’s Probate Code for purposes of intestate succession but a putative spouse is not a “surviving spouse” under the same Code for purposes of a family allowance during estate …

Leveling The Playing Field: Curing The Hidden Biases Against Fathers In Hawaii’S Child Custody Regime, Samuel C. Hodges

Samuel C. Hodges

No abstract provided.

The Natural Rights Of Children, Walter E. Block

Walter E Block

No abstract provided.