Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
-
- Coverture (3)
- Custody (3)
- Divorce (3)
- Family Law (3)
- Family law (3)
-
- Women (3)
- Adultery (2)
- Property (2)
- Abortion (1)
- Adoption (1)
- Blended families (1)
- Children (1)
- Colonial (1)
- Comparative and Foreign Law (1)
- Consent (1)
- Cruelty (1)
- Equality (1)
- Feminism (1)
- Feminist (1)
- Government (1)
- Harry Potter (1)
- Hindu (1)
- Husbands (1)
- India (1)
- Indian (1)
- Inheritance law (1)
- J.K. Rowling (1)
- LGBTQ families (1)
- Liberalism (1)
- Marriage (1)
- File Type
Articles 1 - 7 of 7
Full-Text Articles in Law
Inheritance Equity: Reforming The Inheritance Penalties Facing Children In Non-Traditional Families, Danaya C. Wright
Inheritance Equity: Reforming The Inheritance Penalties Facing Children In Non-Traditional Families, Danaya C. Wright
Danaya C. Wright
This Article examines how more than 50% of children living today may be disadvantaged by 1950s era inheritance laws that privilege and protect only those children living in nuclear families with their biological parents. Because so many children today are living in blended families — single-parent families, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer/questioning (LGBTQ) families, or are living with relatives — their right to inherit from the persons who function as their parents are severely limited by most state probate codes, even though they would likely be entitled to child support under the parent-child definitions of most of those states' …
Untying The Knot: An Analysis Of The English Divorce And Matrimonial Causes Court Records, 1858-1866, Danaya C. Wright
Untying The Knot: An Analysis Of The English Divorce And Matrimonial Causes Court Records, 1858-1866, Danaya C. Wright
Danaya C. Wright
Historians of Anglo-American family law consider 1857 as a turning point in the development of modern family law and the first big step in the breakdown of coverture and the recognition of women's legal rights. In 1857, The United Kingdom Parliament ("Parliament") created a new civil court to handle all divorce and matrimonial causes, removing the jurisdiction of: the ecclesiastical courts over marital validity; the Chancery over custody of children and separate estates; the royal courts over marital property; and Parliament over full divorce. The new Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Court, a wing of the admiralty and probate courts, would …
Theorizing History: Separate Spheres, The Public/Private Binary And A New Analytic For Family Law History, Danaya C. Wright
Theorizing History: Separate Spheres, The Public/Private Binary And A New Analytic For Family Law History, Danaya C. Wright
Danaya C. Wright
There is an extensive scholarship on separate spheres, the public/private binary, and family history that reveals a nuanced understanding of the interconnections and constructedness of these metaphors and rubrics traditionally used in family law history. In exploring the current understandings and limitations of these subjects as analytics for doing my own history of English family law, I turn to Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo’s critique that we limit our subjects and reinforce power differentials when we use a lens of difference in our scholarship. I first explore the lessons learned about the enduring nature of separate spheres and the power imbalances of …
The Crisis Of Child Custody: A History Of The Birth Of Family Law In England, Danaya Wright
The Crisis Of Child Custody: A History Of The Birth Of Family Law In England, Danaya Wright
Danaya C. Wright
This article attempts to show that the inter-spousal custody cases of the nineteenth century created such a crisis in equity that they eventually demanded a new court structure and a new set of legal doctrines. The custody cases posed such a profound threat to the stability and authority of the Chancery courts that within fifty years an entirely new court system was required. That court system combined the tripartite jurisdictions of the law, equity, and ecclesiastical courts in matrimonial matters. While many scholars and historians have applauded that moment, I would suggest that the new court was merely a way …
"Well-Behaved Women Don't Make History": Rethinking English Family, Law, And History, Danaya C. Wright
"Well-Behaved Women Don't Make History": Rethinking English Family, Law, And History, Danaya C. Wright
Danaya C. Wright
In 1857 Parliament finally succumbed to public and political pressure and passed a bill creating a domestic relations court: the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes. This new court for the first time in common-law history, combined the following jurisdictions: the ecclesiastical court's jurisdiction over marital validity and separation; the Chancery court's jurisdiction over child custody and equitable estates; the common-law court's jurisdiction over property; and Parliament's jurisdiction over divorce and marital settlements. Wives were given the legal right to seek a divorce or judicial separation in a court of law, receive custody of the children of the marriage, and …
Collapsing Liberalism's Public/Private Divide: Voldemort's War On The Family, Danaya C. Wright
Collapsing Liberalism's Public/Private Divide: Voldemort's War On The Family, Danaya C. Wright
Danaya C. Wright
As a legal scholar setting out to explore themes of law in Harry Potter, I am acutely aware of the absence of family law conflicts in these different family structures and relationships. Rowling's obvious fascination with different family structures and her relatively strong sense of an isolated, private sphere that is free of state intervention seems in keeping with traditional liberal values of the public/private divide. Yet her rejection of state interference in the private sphere of the family does not correspond to an autonomous state that is focused on the public sphere. Where liberalism separates the private world of …
The Legacy Of Colonialism: Law And Women's Rights In India, Varsha Chitnis, Danaya C. Wright
The Legacy Of Colonialism: Law And Women's Rights In India, Varsha Chitnis, Danaya C. Wright
Danaya C. Wright
The relationship between nineteenth century England and colonial India was complex in terms of negotiating the different constituencies that claimed an interest in the economic and moral development of the colonies. After India became subject to the sovereignty of the English Monarchy in 1858, its future became indelibly linked with that of England's, yet India's own unique history and culture meant that many of the reforms the colonialists set out to undertake worked out differently than they anticipated. In particular, the colonial ambition of civilizing the barbaric native Indian male underlay many of the legal reforms attempted in the nearly …