Law Commons^™

Throwing The Baby Out With The Patriarchy, Scott Titshaw

Articles

Throughout the history of Europe and its former new world colonies, families have been a central unit for defining legal rights and duties, including those related to citizenship and immigration. Less than a century ago, a woman and her children automatically gained or lost citizenship in the U.S. and many other countries upon her marriage to a citizen or noncitizen. The family was treated as one unit reflecting the legal identity of the father-husband as “head of family.”

Fortunately, the United States and other governments have increasingly recognized women – and, to a lesser extent, children – as independent persons …

A Logical Step Forward: Extending Voluntary Acknowledgments Of Parentage To Female Same-Sex Couples, Jessica Feinberg

Articles

Under current law, stark differences exist between different- and same-sex couples who welcome children into the world with regard to the ease through which the member of the couple who did not give birth to the child is able to obtain legal parent status. While a number of simple, efficient procedures exist for establishing legal parentage for different-sex partners of women who give birth, same-sex partners of women who give birth often have to go through significantly more complex, time-consuming, and expensive procedures in order to establish legal parentage. The inequitable treatment of same-sex couples in establishing legal parentage has …