Family Law Commons^™

6th Annual Stonewall Lecture 2-2-2023, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Reflections On “Personal Responsibility” After Covid And Dobbs: Doubling Down On Privacy, Susan Frelich Appleton, Laura A. Rosenbury

Scholarship@WashULaw

This essay uses lenses of gender, race, marriage, and work to trace understandings of “personal responsibility” in laws, policies, and conversations about public support in the United States over three time periods: (I) the pre-COVID era, from the beginning of the American “welfare state” through the start of the Trump administration; (II) the pandemic years; and (III) the present post-pandemic period. We sought to explore the possibility that COVID and the assistance programs it inspired might have reshaped the notion of personal responsibility and unsettled assumptions about privacy and dependency. In fact, a mixed picture emerges. On the one hand, …

Achieving Equality Without A Constitution: Lessons From Israel For Queer Family Law, Laura T. Kessler

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

How might the United States reconcile conflicts between equality and religious freedom in the realm of family law? To answer this question, this chapter considers recent developments in family (personal status) law in Israel. While Israel may at first blush appear to be the last place that feminists and queer theorists should look for solutions to modern conflicts between democratic and religious values, this chapter argues that the Israeli experience has much to offer critical family scholars working to develop pluralistic legal approaches to family regulation. Israel is a country with a diverse population and unique political and legal context …

Mut’Ah Divorce: Its Concepts And Its Provisions: A Comparative Study Between Islamic Jurisprudence (Fiqh) And Omani Law, Dr. Rashid Bin Hamoud Naziri

UAEU Law Journal

The study discusses the money paid to the divorcee woman (Mut’ah) as a result of the divorce. Many Muslim scholars have different views towards the provisions and details of this due payment to the divorcee. Further, the Omani Personal Statue law has an opinion for its provisions. As a result, this study is conducted to set the base for this opinion, explain its view, intentions and goals that law bore in its’ inactions.

This study has two approaches; the first one is classified into two sub-quests. The first sub-quest discusses the linguistic definition of (Mut’ah), while the other one discusses …

Chosen Family, Care, And The Workplace, Deborah Widiss

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Employees often request time off work to care for the medical needs of loved ones who are part of their extended or chosen family. Until recently, most workers would not have had any legal right to take such leave. A rapidly growing number of state laws, however, not only guarantee paid time off for family health needs, but also adopt innovative and expansive definitions of eligible family.

Several provide leave to care for intimate partners without requiring legal formalization of the relationship. Some go further to include any individual who has a relationship with the employee that is “like” or …

Protecting The Child Bride: Following Texas' Middle-Ground Approach, Wendy Ross

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Hegemonic Marriage: The Collision Of 'Transformative' Same-Sex Marriage With Reactionary Tax Law, Anthony C. Infanti

Articles

Before there was a culture war in the United States over same-sex marriage, there was a battle between opponents and proponents of same-sex marriage within the LGBTQ+ community. Some opposed same-sex marriage because of the long patriarchal history of marriage and the more consequential need to bridge the economic and privilege gap between the married and the unmarried. Others, in contrast, saw marriage as a civil rights issue and lauded the transformative potential of same-sex marriage, contending that it could upset the patriarchal nature of marriage and help to refashion marriage into something new and better.

This Article looks back …

Akibat Hukum Perjanjian Perkawinan Yang Dibuat Selama Perkawinan Setelah Adanya Putusan Mahkamah Konstitusi No.69/Puu-Xiii/2015, Andika Prayoga

Indonesian Notary

A marriage is a bond that begins with the understanding of both the bride and groom to get married. During the marriage, the law states that prospective husband and wife can make a Marriage Agreement, one of them is property-related namely an agreement regarding property. In an Article 29 of Law No. 1 of 1974 stated that the Marriage Agreement was made before or at the time of marriage. Furthermore, if someone wants to make a Marriage Agreement after the marriage takes place, she/he has to apply it to the District Court. The results of the study stated that after …

Ohio's Love-Hate Relationship With Marital Agreements: Why Ohio Should Lift Its Prohibition On Postnuptial Agreements, Natasha Wasil

Cleveland State Law Review

Ohio has been accepting of prenuptial agreements since its landmark decision in Gross v. Gross in 1984, declaring them to be not void per se as being against public policy. Unfortunately, Ohio’s evolution of the law regarding marital agreements has remained at a stand-still since Gross. Through the twenty-first century, a majority of states have responded to the evolution of marriage by enacting legislation, or judicially by court order, to allow spouses to enter into contracts after marriage to allocate the division of property and legal obligations of the couple in the event of divorce, commonly known as “postnuptial …

Compensating For The Consequences Of Refraining From Engagement In Islamic Jurisprudence, Moroccan And Comparative Legislations, Dr. Idris Al-Taleb

UAEU Law Journal

The topic of theis research deals with the engagement stage, as it is a precursor to marriage and a way to establish it properly, which ensures a good choice of spouses, and the achievement of compatibility and interdependence between them. If the engagement is merely a date for marriage and not for marriage, then each of the suitors has the right to withdraw from it, and the other party has no obligation to complete it in recognition of the principle of freedom of marriage. However, it may cause harm to the offender, the offender, who is not responsible for it, …

Oral Interview: Contextualizing The Women's Rights Movement In Tunisia Through Family History, Walid Zarrad

Papers, Posters, and Presentations

In their path towards emancipation and equal rights, Tunisian women have gone through a number of phases that seem to be directly linked to legal changes and cultural factors. In fact, the Code of Personal Status (CPS) of 1956 seems to be a milestone in the women’s movement, and its following amendments continued on this path. However, it is a lot more complex than that. A piece of legislation officially passing is not a simple determinant of the state of Women’s Rights in a country.

Through Dorra Mahfoudh Draoui’s “Report on Gender and Marriage in Tunisian Society” and my interview …

Family Law By The Numbers: The Story That Casebooks Tell, Laura T. Kessler

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article presents the findings of a content analysis of 86 family law casebooks published in the United States from 1960 to 2019. Its purpose is to critically assess the discipline of family law with the aim of informing our understandings of family law’s history and exposing its ideological foundations and consequences. Although legal thinkers have written several intellectual histories of family law, this is the first quantitative look at the field.

The study finds that coverage of marriage and divorce in family law casebooks has decreased by almost half relative to other topics since the 1960s. In contrast, pages …

The Right To Unmarry: A Proposal, Brian L. Frye, Maybell Romero

Cleveland State Law Review

When I say I’m in love, you better believe I’m in love, L-U-V.

[April 2, 2020] BLF: This is a marriage proposal in the form of a law review article. In this Article, I observe that Maybell Romero and I are in love. I want to marry her, and I believe she wants to marry me. At least I’ll find out pretty soon. But we cannot marry each other right now, because we are both currently married to other people. Maybell and I want to end our existing marriages, and our respective spouses have even agreed to divorce. But the …

What Is Nonmarriage?, Katharine Baker

All Faculty Scholarship

As rates of cohabitation rise, and marriage becomes a status reserved almost exclusively for socio-economic elites, the scholarly calls for family law to recognize more nonmarital families grow stronger by the day. This Article unpacks contemporary proposals to recognize more nonmarital families and juxtaposes those proposals with family law’s contemporary marital regime. Family law’s status-based system provides a mostly simple and efficient means of distributing resources at the end of a marriage by imposing a formulaic, but distinctly communitarian, non-market-based approach to obligation, entitlement, and value. In full, the Article defends family law’s status-based system for what it does well, …

Family Law Disputes Between International Couples In U.S. Courts, Rhonda Wasserman

Articles

Increasing mobility, migration, and growing numbers of international couples give rise to a host of family law issues. For instance, when marital partners are citizens of different countries, or live outside the country of which they are citizens, or move between countries, courts must first determine if they have jurisdiction to hear divorce or child custody actions. Given that countries around the world are governed by different legal regimes, such as the common law system, civil codes, religious law, and customary law, choice of law questions also complicate family litigation. This short article addresses the jurisdictional and other conflicts issues …

Law School News: The Honorable Margaret H. Marshall: Doctor Of Laws, Honoris Causa 05-10-2020, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

The Right To Unmarry: A Proposal, Brian L. Frye, Maybell Romero

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

When I say I'm in love, you better believe I'm in love, L-U-V.

[April 2, 2020] BLF: This is a marriage proposal in the form of a law review article. In this Article, I observe that Maybell Romero and I are in love. I want to marry her, and I believe she wants to marry me. At least I'll find out pretty soon. But we cannot marry each other right now, because we are both currently married to other people.

Maybell and I want to end our existing marriages, and our respective spouses have even agreed to divorce. But the …

Zoning For Families, Sara C. Bronin

Indiana Law Journal

Is a group of eight unrelated adults and three children living together and sharing meals, household expenses, and responsibilities—and holding themselves out to the world to have long-term commitments to each other—a family? Not according to most zoning codes—including that of Hartford, Connecticut, where the preceding scenario presented itself a few years ago. Zoning, which is the local regulation of land use, almost always defines family, limiting those who may live in a dwelling unit to those who satisfy the zoning code’s definition. Often times, this definition is drafted in a way that excludes many modern living arrangements and preferences. …

Back To The Future: Marriage And Divorce Under The 2017 Tax Act, Mark Cochran

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

The Integrity Of Marriage, Kaiponanea T. Matsumura

William & Mary Law Review

While the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges resolved a dispute about access to legal marriage, it also exposed a rift between the Justices about what rights, obligations, and social meanings marriage should entail. The majority opinion described marriage as a “unified whole” comprised of “essential attributes,” both legal and extralegal. The dissents, in contrast, were more skeptical about marriage’s inherent legal content. Justice Scalia, for instance, characterized marriage as a mere bundle of “civil consequences” attached to “whatever sexual attachments and living arrangements [the law] wishes.” This side debate has taken center stage in several recent disputes. In …

Spousal Support And Domestic Violence: What Happens When The Dependent Spouse Is The Abuser?, Maria Stamatelatos

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

Therefore, this Note proposes that New York and other states enact legislation similar to that of the California Family Code, which enacted statutes that prevent someone from obtaining spousal support if they attempted to murder their spouse, committed a violent sexual felony against their spouse, or were convicted of a domestic violence offense against their spouse. The reformed legislation would prohibit judges from awarding spousal support to individuals convicted of attempting to murder their spouse, and would require courts to look carefully at the facts surrounding each case where a spouse has been indicted or convicted of a violent …

Same-Sex Cynicism And The Self-Defeating Pursuit Of Social Acceptance Through Litigation, James G. Dwyer

James G. Dwyer

No abstract provided.

Will Marriage Promotion Work?, Vivian E. Hamilton

Vivian E. Hamilton

No abstract provided.

The Age Of Marital Capacity: Reconsidering Civil Recognition Of Adolescent Marriage, Vivian E. Hamilton

Vivian E. Hamilton

Age at marriage has for decades been the strongest and most unequivocal predictor of marital failure. The likelihood of divorce nears eighty percent for those who marry in mid-adolescence, then drops steadily. Delaying marriage until the mid-twenties reduces one’s likelihood of divorce to thirty percent. Women who marry at age twenty-one or younger, moreover – and one in ten U.S. women do – experience worse mental and physical health, attain less education, and earn lower wages than those who marry later. Post-divorce, they and their children tend to endure even greater economic deprivation and instability than do never-married mothers, who …

Mistaking Marriage For Social Policy, Vivian E. Hamilton

Vivian E. Hamilton

This Article examines the role of marriage in society, focusing on the state's use of marriage as a proxy for desirable outcomes in social policy. Its analytical point of departure is the normative vision of modern marriage embraced by many of its proponents. From there, the idealized marriage is analyzed, not as a monolithic, opaque institution, but as one whose functional components may be identified and examined. The Article identifies the following as the primary functions of the normative marital family: expression; companionship; sex/procreation; caretaking; and economic support or redistribution. Analyzing the roles in society of each of these functions, …

In The Right Direction, Family Diversity In The Inter-American System Of Human Rights, Macarena Sáez

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This Article argues that the Inter-American System of Human Rights has contributed to a family system that embraces gender equality and non-heterosexual and gender non-conforming families. It argues that the system had, from its inception, an expansive idea of the family that included associations outside marriage. This was the basis for a robust development of the concepts of equality and non-discrimination by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Although the IACtHR has only decided a handful of cases related to the non-heterosexual family, its rich case law on equality and the right to …

In The Right Direction, Family Diversity In The Inter-American System Of Human Rights, Macarena Sáez

Macarena Saez

Searching The Legacy Of The Reformation For Lutheran Responses To Modern Family Law, Marie A. Failinger

Concordia Law Review

This article builds upon historical work on changes in the law of marriage, divorce and the family after the Reformation, and describes how modern Lutheran theology, formed during the Reformation, evaluates modern trends in American family law. From the key Lutheran theological insight that God is creatively ordering human activity as a partner with human beings, the Lutheran tradition approaches issues such as no-fault divorce and same-sex marriage with both trust and challenge.

Cohabitation Worldwide Today, Margaret Ryznar, Anna Stępień-Sporek

Georgia State University Law Review

Despite the increase in cohabitation around the world, legal responses to it remain limited, particularly in the last several years. Yet, there are universal issues at the end of a cohabitation, particularly related to property division. This article will survey the recent legal developments on the property consequences of cohabitation in both the United States and Poland, drawing on comparative lessons to suggest future developments in this area of law.

Getting To Equal: Resolving The Judicial Impasse On The Weight Of Non-Monetary Contribution In Kenya's Marital Asset Division, Benedeta Prudence Mutiso

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Marital property law reforms and changing international human rights standards in the late 20th and early 21st century prompted Kenya to end certain discriminatory practices against women, especially in the area of property rights. For 50 years, Kenya relied on England’s century-old law, the Married Women’s Property Act of 1882, to regulate property rights. In 2010, Kenya adopted a new Constitution that called for equality between men and women, and in 2013, Kenya enacted independent legislation in the form of the Matrimonial Property Act (MPA). The MPA provides a basis for trial courts to divide marital property upon divorce. Specifically, …