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Articles 1 - 18 of 18
Full-Text Articles in Law
Properly Accounting For Domestic Violence In Child Custody Cases: An Evidence-Based Analysis And Reform Proposal, Debra Pogrund Stark, Jessica M. Choplin, Sarah Elizabeth Wellard
Properly Accounting For Domestic Violence In Child Custody Cases: An Evidence-Based Analysis And Reform Proposal, Debra Pogrund Stark, Jessica M. Choplin, Sarah Elizabeth Wellard
Debra Pogrund Stark
Promoting the best interests of children and protecting their safety and well-being in the context of a divorce or parentage case where domestic violence has been alleged has become highly politicized and highly gendered. There are claims by fathers’ rights groups that mothers often falsely accuse fathers of domestic violence to alienate the fathers from their children and to improve their financial position. They also claim that children do better when fathers are equally involved in their children’s lives, but that judges favor mothers over fathers in custody cases. As a consequence, fathers’ rights groups have engaged in a nationwide …
The Elimination Of Child “Custody” Litigation: Using Business Branding Techniques To Transform Social Behavior, Elena B. Langan
The Elimination Of Child “Custody” Litigation: Using Business Branding Techniques To Transform Social Behavior, Elena B. Langan
Elena B. Langan
This article discusses how rebranding principles, already being used to alter social behavior in other non-consumer contexts, could be utilized to accomplish the legislative goal to reduce litigation as well as diminish animosity in custody cases. Part II of this article discusses the impetus for a transformation in the way parents view custody disputes. Part III discusses basic branding principles and how companies establish a brand and can successfully change their branding. Part IV explores the evolution of the current custody brand, identifies eight states that have eliminated “custody” and, in some cases, “visitation” from their vernacular, and discusses, in …
Religion And Child Custody, Margaret Brinig
Religion And Child Custody, Margaret Brinig
Margaret F Brinig
This piece draws upon divorce pleadings and other records to show how indications of religion (or disaffiliation) that appear in custody agreements and orders (called “parenting plans” in both states studied) affect the course of the proceedings and legal activities over the five years following divorce filing. Some of the apparent findings are normative, but most are merely descriptive and some may be correlative rather than caused by the indicated concern about religion. While parenting plans are accepted by courts only when they are in the best interests of the child (at least in theory), the child’s independent religious needs …
Does Parental Autonomy Require Equal Custody At Divorce?, Margaret F. Brinig
Does Parental Autonomy Require Equal Custody At Divorce?, Margaret F. Brinig
Margaret F Brinig
This paper considers the affect of amendments to state divorce laws that strengthen their joint custody preference. It does so in the context of suits by noncustodial parents challenging substantive custody standards not requiring equal custody at divorce. The complaint is that most custody laws, by using a best interests standard rather than equally dividing custodial time, violate substantive due process. Further, two states, Iowa and Maine, have recently amended their custody legislation to strongly presume joint physical custody.
After setting out the constitutional problem and describing the legislation in some detail, this paper tests the effects of the change …
Book Review: The Best Interests Of Children – An Evidence Based Approach, By Paul Millar, Noel Semple
Book Review: The Best Interests Of Children – An Evidence Based Approach, By Paul Millar, Noel Semple
Noel Semple
If custody and access disputes are a deck of cards, the trump suit is the best interests of the child. When separating parents litigate about how and with whom their child should live, findings about what’s best for the child are meant to sweep away the parents’ interests and rights-claims. This principle is uncontroversial, but applying it is difficult. What parenting arrangements are best for children, and how successful is the legal system in putting these arrangements in place?
Sociologist Paul Millar has responded with this slim volume, the goal of which is to “explain child custody outcomes in Canada …
The Other Side Of The Rabbit Hole: Reconciling Recent Supreme Court Personal Jurisdiction Jurisprudence With Jurisdiction To Terminate Parental Rights, Joan M. Shaughnessy
The Other Side Of The Rabbit Hole: Reconciling Recent Supreme Court Personal Jurisdiction Jurisprudence With Jurisdiction To Terminate Parental Rights, Joan M. Shaughnessy
Joan M. Shaughnessy
This Essay contrasts the jurisdictional regime followed in termination of parental rights and other child custody cases with the regime that has dominated recent Supreme Court personal jurisdiction cases. Jurisdiction in child custody cases has long been based upon the connection of the child, not the defendant parent, to the jurisdiction. Recent Supreme Court cases, on the other hand, have focused nearly exclusively on the defendant’s connection to the forum state. This Essay argues that the Supreme Court cases betray a failure of the Court to provide a consistent constitutional justification for the jurisdictional limitations it has imposed. The Essay …
The Hague Convention And Domestic Violence: Proposals For Balancing The Policies Of Discouraging Child Abduction And Protecting Children From Domestic Violence, Shani M. King
Shani M. King
The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (the Convention) was enacted in response to a pattern of parental abduction across international borders to thwart or preempt custody arrangements in one country and seek a more advantageous setting for litigating custody issues in another. Consequently, the Convention was designed to discourage the abduction of children across international borders and to encourage respect for custody and access arrangements in countries from which children were abducted. To implement the Convention, the United States enacted the International Child Abduction Remedies Act (ICARA) on April 29, 1988. Much has been written …
Shared Parenting Laws: Mistakes Of Pooling?, Margaret F. Brinig
Shared Parenting Laws: Mistakes Of Pooling?, Margaret F. Brinig
Margaret F Brinig
In their recent paper “Anti-Herding Regulation,” forthcoming in the Harvard Business Review, Ian Ayres and Joshua Mitts argue that many well-intentioned public policy regulations potentially harm rather than help situations. That is, because they seek to pool — or herd — groups of people, treating them as equal, they miss or mask important differences among the regulated, thus magnifying systematic risk. Anti-herding regulation, on the other hand, can produce socially beneficial information, in their words steering “both private and public actors toward better evidence-based outcomes.” Left to their own, or with various carrot-and-stick incentives, some groups, anyway, would instead fare …
The Inevitability Of Discretion: What Proponents Of Parenting Time Guidelines Can Learn From Thirty Years Of Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Joi T. Montiel
The Inevitability Of Discretion: What Proponents Of Parenting Time Guidelines Can Learn From Thirty Years Of Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Joi T. Montiel
Joi T Montiel
For decades, the prevailing standard for a judge making a decision regarding parenting time has been “the best interest of the child.” Because the high degree of discretion afforded to a trial court by the best interest standard may render inconsistent and unpredictable results, the standard has been widely criticized. In the past half century, federal sentencing has undergone similar scrutiny. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines—“the most controversial and disliked sentencing reform initiative in U.S. history”—have substantially curtailed judicial discretion in an effort to ensure uniformity in sentencing. Several states have explored limiting judicial discretion in the area of parenting time …
Constrained Choice: Mothers, The State, And Domestic Violence, Rona Kaufman Kitchen
Constrained Choice: Mothers, The State, And Domestic Violence, Rona Kaufman Kitchen
Rona Kaufman Kitchen
Mothers who are the victims of domestic violence face unique challenges in their quest for safety. The legal response to domestic violence requires that mothers respond to abuse in specific state-sanctioned manners. However, when mothers respond accordingly, such as by reporting abuse and leaving the abusive relationship, their safety and the safety of their children is not guaranteed. Moreover, by responding in state-sanctioned manners, mothers risk a host of negative consequences including increased threat to their immediate and long-term safety, the loss of their children, undesired financial, health, and social consequences, and criminal prosecution. On the other hand, when mothers …
Penalty Defaults In Family Law: The Case Of Child Custody, Margaret F. Brinig
Penalty Defaults In Family Law: The Case Of Child Custody, Margaret F. Brinig
Margaret F Brinig
This paper considers whether an amendment to state divorce laws that strengthens its joint custody preference operates as a traditional default rule, specifying what most divorcing couples would choose or as a penalty default rule the parties will attempt to contract around.
While the Oregon statutes that frame our discussion here, like most state laws, do not state an explicit preference for joint custody, shared custody is certainly encouraged by Section 107.179, which refers cases in which the parties cannot agree on joint custody to mediation and by Section 107.105, which requires the court to consider awarding custody jointly. In …
Joint Custody: Bonding And Monitoring Theories, Margaret F. Brinig, F. H. Buckley
Joint Custody: Bonding And Monitoring Theories, Margaret F. Brinig, F. H. Buckley
Margaret F Brinig
Symposium: Law and the New American Family Held at Indiana University School of Law - Bloomington Apr. 4, 1997
Back To The Drawing Board: Barriers To Joint Decision-Making In Custody Cases Involving Intimate Partner Violence, Dana Harrington Conner
Back To The Drawing Board: Barriers To Joint Decision-Making In Custody Cases Involving Intimate Partner Violence, Dana Harrington Conner
Dana Harrington Conner
For survivors of intimate partner violence, custody is, without question, one of the most important issues addressed by our legal system. For battered women, the court’s decision regarding their children is critical. As a result, legal scholars have examined, in depth, the value of sole custody awards in favor of battered women, as well as the dangers of joint custody. To that end, this Article considers, beyond the obvious risks of physical harm, why joint legal custody is not a viable alternative to sole legal custody in cases involving intimate partner violence. In addition, by de-constructing the fundamental aspects of …
Failure To Protect From Domestic Violence In Private Custody Contests, Leslie J. Harris
Failure To Protect From Domestic Violence In Private Custody Contests, Leslie J. Harris
Leslie J. Harris
All 50 states and the District of Columbia require courts to consider domestic violence committed by one parent against the other in resolving a custody or visitation dispute between the parents. A significant number of states also have statutes or case law that requires courts to consider the occurrence of violence in a child’s household or proposed household in resolving such disputes, regardless of who commits the violence or at whom it is directed. This kind of law may be used against a parent, often a victim, who fails to protect a child from being exposed to the violence. This …
How Embedded Knowledge Structures Affect Judicial Decision Making: An Analysis Of Metaphor, Narrative, And Imagination In Child Custody Disputes, Linda L. Berger
How Embedded Knowledge Structures Affect Judicial Decision Making: An Analysis Of Metaphor, Narrative, And Imagination In Child Custody Disputes, Linda L. Berger
Linda L. Berger
We live in a time of radically changing conceptions of family and of the relationships possible between children and parents. Though undergoing “a sea-change,” family law remains tethered to culturally embedded stories and symbols. While so bound, family law will fail to serve individual families and a society whose family structures diverge sharply by education, race, class, and income. This article advances a critical rhetorical analysis of the interaction of metaphor and narrative within the specific context of child custody disputes. Its goal is to begin to examine how these embedded knowledge structures affect judicial decision making generally; more specifically, …
Child Support, Visitation, Shared Custody And Split Custody, Karen Czapanskiy
Child Support, Visitation, Shared Custody And Split Custody, Karen Czapanskiy
Karen Czapanskiy
No abstract provided.
Family Law Armageddon: The Story Of Morgan V. Foretich, Leslie J. Harris
Family Law Armageddon: The Story Of Morgan V. Foretich, Leslie J. Harris
Leslie J. Harris
This book chapter tells the story of the contempt case brought against Elizabeth Morgan, a Washington, D.C., doctor imprisoned for her failure to produce her daughter for extended visitation with the ex-husband she accused of sexual abuse. The chapter sets the stage for the proceeding in terms of the shift in custody law in the mid-eighties from the maternal presumption to a preference for shared parenting and the discovery of and almost immediate backlash against allegations of childhood sexual abuse. It also details Morgan's parents' flight with the child to New Zealand and provides an update of what has happened …
The New Paradigm In Custody Law: Looking At Parents With A Loving Eye, Mary Kate Kearney
The New Paradigm In Custody Law: Looking At Parents With A Loving Eye, Mary Kate Kearney
Mary Kate Kearney
No abstract provided.