Law Commons^™

Spruce Run News (December 1997), Spruce Run Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.

Child Care, Welfare Reform, And Taxes, Mary L. Heen

Law Faculty Publications

The welfare reform legislation passed by Congress last year makes significant changes in the social welfare system, followed this year by contrasting shifts in the. federal tax system's treatment of families with children. This article discusses how the. welfare and tax law changes affect overall child care policy and funding levels for work-related child care, and evaluates the newly enacted child tax credit and the existing child care tax credit in light of their combined effects on low income working families.

Court-Created Boundaries Between A Visible Lesbian Mother And Her Children, Susan J. Becker

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This essay identifies some of the boundaries and obstacles imposed by the courts on a "visible" lesbian mother striving to maintain a healthy relationship with her children. The term "visible" is used to describe a mother whose lesbian sexuality has been revealed to a court empowered with defining her future contact with her children. The primary focus here is on children who were conceived through a heterosexual relationship, and where a heterosexual parent, grandparent, or other person is challenging the lesbian mother's right to custody of, or visitation with, her own children. Court created boundaries are identified and discussed in …

An Interdisciplinary Approach To Family Law Jurisprudence: Application Of An Ecological And Therapeutic Perspective, Barbara A. Babb

All Faculty Scholarship

Traditionally, the legal system has attempted to fashion morality in determining family legal issues rather than to devise legal remedies that accommodate how families live. This approach must change, and a new approach based on legal realism that effectuates the well-being of families and children must be developed. This article proposes an interdisciplinary approach based on an ecological and therapeutic jurisprudential paradigm to resolve family legal proceedings. An ecological approach, emanating from the ecology of human development social science paradigm, is one in which family law decision-makers consider factors beyond their conceptions of the family. This approach urges decision-makers to …

A Feminist View Of American Elder Law, Rebecca Korzec

All Faculty Scholarship

ANY discussion of contemporary American elder law must consider gender issues. A number of gender concerns are readily discernible, including workplace and family issues. Significantly, sex-based disparities are increasing within the elderly population. In turn, these disparities exacerbate problems of fairness and equity in meeting intergenerational family needs and expectations.

As with childrearing, in contemporary American society, the major caregiving responsibility for the growing number of frail elderly falls largely on women rather than men. With an increasing number of women working outside the family home, the intersection of work and family issues is receiving considerable attention both in academic …

The Push For Parent Education: Blueprints For Helping Families Cope With Divorce, Andrew Schepard, Peter Salem, Stephen W. Schlissel

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

Why are courts actively creating educational programs for separated and divorcing parents and children? The short answer is that they offer an extremely valuable service: information and perspective. They help parents and children normalize their experiences and begin to understand the emotional, social, and legal complexities of divorce and separation. The objective is not to resolve specific disputes, but to provide parents with information and an incentive to resolve conflicts collaboratively.

Lawyers As Nonlawyers In Child-Custody And Visitation Cases: Questions From The Legal Ethics Perspective Response, Bruce A. Green

Faculty Scholarship

The Child Advocacy Clinic at Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington ("Indiana Clinic") takes as a premise that, in custody and visitation disputes, children may be best served by lawyers as guardians ad litem, rather than by lawyers qua lawyers, on one hand, or by nonlawyer guardians ad litem, on the other. In contrast, participants in a national conference at Fordham Law School' concluded two years ago that "[a] lawyer appointed or retained to serve a child in a legal proceeding should serve as the child's lawyer." That is, the lawyer should regard the child as a client, not a ward. …

Child Care Policy And The Welfare Reform Act, Peter R. Pitegoff

Faculty Publications

This article sketches the 1996 Welfare Reform Act's major changes with particular attention to federally subsidized child care for low-income families.

Children's Rights Vs. Adult Free Speech: Can They Be Reconciled, Loftus Becker

Faculty Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

Taking Care Of Our Daughters, A Book Review Of Martha Fineman, The Neutered Mother, The Sexual Family And Other Twentieth Century Tragedies, Katharine K. Baker

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Second Hand Smoke And Child Custody Determinations--A Relevant Factor Or A Smoke Screen?, Merril Sobie

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The thesis of this brief article is simply that the tobacco habits of a parent are relevant and worthy of consideration when a child is asthmatic, or suffers from some other definable medical condition which would be exacerbated by passive smoke. However, when the child is healthy and there exists no definitive short-term medical risk, the issue should be irrelevant. In other words, the court should consider those factors, and only those factors, which are of significant importance to the child, such as stability, caretaker skills, home environment and the child's wishes. Concededly, second-hand smoke is harmful even to a …

Dutch Uncle Sam: Immigration Reform And Notions Of Family, Lolita Buckner Inniss

Publications

No abstract provided.

Critical Applications And Proposals For Improvement Of The Uniform Interstate Family Support Act And The Full Faith And Credit For Child Support Orders Act, Patricia W. Moore

Faculty Articles

The problems inherent in interstate child and spousal support enforcement have been lamented for at least a half century. The federal and state governments have taken numerous steps to enhance interstate establishment and collection of support. Two of the latest steps in this process were the 1992 promulgation of the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act ("UIFSA") and the 1994 adoption of the federal Full Faith and Credit For Child Support Orders Act ("FFCCSOA"). The 1996 federal "welfare reform" bill' affected both of these statutes by requiring the states to pass UIFSA by January 1, 1998 and by amending FFCCSOA …

The Removal Of Adam's Rib: The Creation And Polarization Of Male And Female Virtues, Ana M. Novoa

Faculty Articles

Soft virtues, normally associated with women, have been deemed to have no legal, market or public value, and this has caused problems within American society. The devaluation of cooperative and nurturing virtues, coupled with the dangerous myth of independence and self-reliance, and general acceptance of consumption as a positive attribute, have had a profound effect on American society as a whole and, in particular, on general views on the care of children and other dependent members of our society. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, the composition and character of the family were very different because the family was not a …

Reassessing Fault Factors In No-Fault Divorce, Peter N. Swisher

Law Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is not to "turn back the clock" through the rehabilitation of fault grounds as the sole means for securing a divorce in America. Rather, this article will explore the ways in which fault-based factors, when applied to serious or egregious marital misconduct that significantly contributes to the marital breakdown, may still be utilized in order to bring about enhanced social, economic, and legal protection to spouses on divorce, while concurrently establishing a greater sense of responsibility and accountability in marital relationships.

Marriage Today: Legal Consequences For Same Sex And Opposite Sex Couples, David L. Chambers

Articles

Laws that treat married persons in a different manner than they treat single persons permeate nearly every field of social regulation in this country -- taxation, otrts, evidence, social welfare, inheritance, adoption, and on and on.

The Good Of Marriage And The Morality Of Sexual Relations: Some Philosophical And Historical Observations, John M. Finnis

Journal Articles

This article examines the morality of sexual relations, referencing the views of many other scholars on the subject including Acquinas, Grisez, Noonan, and Koppelman.

Good Of Marriage And The Morality Of Sexual Relations, John M. Finnis

Journal Articles

This article examines the morality of sexual relations, referencing the views of many other scholars on the subject including Aquinas, Grisez, Noonan, and Koppelman.

Setting Standards For Parenting - By What Right?, James G. Dwyer

Faculty Publications

Mental health professionals, like other professionals involved in family
matters, feel constrained when advocating for the interests of children by the belief
that parents are entitled to custody and control of their children's lives, regardless of
what others may think of their parenting behavior, absent severe harm to the children.
This belief is morally untenable, and the legal doctrine of parental rights that is its
concrete embodiment is inconsistent with other well-established legal principles and
should be abandoned. Children alone should have legal rights in connection with their
upbringing, and those rights should include an entitlement to much higher standards …

Teaching The Republican Child: Three Antebellum Stories About Law, Schooling, And The Construction Of American Families, Michael Grossberg

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Property Distribution Physics: The Talisman Of Time And Middle Class Law, Margaret F. Brinig

Journal Articles

Should the young professional's spouse get some share in a newly acquired career while the young military officer's will not? Does the division between alimony and property make any sense, given no-fault divorce? Is reimbursement for lost career opportunities plus a share in the couple's tangible property fair compensation for a divorcing spouse? Such difficult questions frame this piece, which will also—and I believe necessarily—digress into the nature of marriage, the duties of parenting, and modern divorce philosophy.

At The Intersection Of Bankruptcy And Divorce: Property Division Debts Under The Bankruptcy Reform Act Of 1994, Meredith J. Harbach

Law Faculty Publications

Bankruptcy has long had unique implications for divorce settlements and debts between ex-spouses. Historically, some marital debts owed from one ex-spouse to another were excepted from the traditional policy of "discharge. " Bankruptcy law distinguished between debts in the nature of alimony, maintenance, and support, which were protected from discharge, and property division debts, which were not. This distinction often had harsh consequences for creditor ex-spouses. Reeently, Congress enacted the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1994, in part to ameliorate this problem. The amended Bankruptcy Code providP..s better protection for some property division debts. In this Note, Ms. Johnson argues that …

Two Parents Are Better Than None: Whether Two Single, African American Adults--Who Are Not In A Traditional Marriage Or A Romantic Or Sexual Relationship With Each Other--Should Be Allowed To Jointly Adopt And Co-Parent African American Children, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

This article proposes an additional adoption model to allow joint adoption and co-parenting by single African Americans who are not in a traditional marriage relationship with each other and not in a romantic or sexual relationship with each other. Under this model, for example, two friends, two sisters, two brothers, a sister and a brother, etc., could jointly adopt and co-parent a child. If some new model such as this one is not devised, many single blacks may hesitate to take on the entire adoption responsibility alone. As a result, many black children will continue to go without any parents. …

The Use Of Mediation And Arbitration For Resolving Family Conflicts: What Lawyers Think About Them, Mary Kay Kisthardt

Faculty Works

The use of alternative methods for resolving family conflict has increased significantly in the past few years, but many attor­neys are still wary. In an effort to discover some of the sources of this hesitation as well as identify support for "alternative" processes, the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers sur­veyed its members concerning the use of dispute resolution methods. The purpose of this study was to ascertain attorneys' perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of the two most commonly used alternative dispute resolution mechanisms: me­diation and arbitration. Whether clients will continue to use these methods depends in great part on …

Scientific Testing & Proof Of Paternity: Some Controversy And Key Issues For Family Law Counsel, Christopher L. Blakesley

Scholarly Works

Blood and tissue testing, especially DNA matching, have become important elements of both criminal and paternity or maternity litigation. Such scientific testing has become so important that it has taken on aspects that may cause it to benefit or to do harm to the judicial process or to any given case. This article focuses on the value and the dangers surrounding this interesting subject.

The 1995 Louisiana Supreme Court decision in Pace v. State reemphasized the importance of DNA testing generally and the significance of blood and tissue genetic testing used to exclude paternity. The advances in and importance of …

Valuation Of Closely Held Business Interests, Edwin T. Hood, John J. Mylan, Timothy P. O'Sullivan

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Nest Eggs And Stormy Weather: Law, Culture, And Black Women's Lack Of Wealth, Regina Austin

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Ethics Of Judicial Decision-Making Regarding Custody Of Minor Children: Looking At The Best Interests Of The Child" And The "Primary Caretaker" Standards As Utility Rules, Kathryn Mercer

Faculty Publications

This article will examine how a judge's ethical framework can influence the outcome of a custody award, even where the same "child-centered" standard is ostensibly being used. This article uses three cases from the Supreme Court of Nebraska to demonstrate that the "best interests of the child" standard can be used: 1) to award a parent custody because parents have near absolute rights (an example of rule deontology); 2) to deny a parent custody because the par ent is unfit (an example of rule utilitarianism); or 3) to deny a parent custody because the child's life needs stability (an example …

Uniform Premarital Agreements Act And The Reality Of Premarital Agreements In Idaho, Elizabeth Brandt

Articles

No abstract provided.

Intimate Violence And The Problem Of Consent, Jane H. Aiken

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The juxtaposition of intimacy with violence is striking. Intimacy implies a closeness and a vulnerability that is treasured and inviolate. Intimacy should foreclose the possibility of violence. Intimate violence should be an oxymoron. Yet, intimacy sometimes creates its own special kind of violence, one that can erupt into rape or assault. On a less physical level, intimacy may cause violence to a woman's personal integrity and economic independence.

Intimate violence manifests itself with a certain subtlety that forces women to walk a careful tightrope in order to avoid threatened harm. This essay is about that tightrope: the double binds women …