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Full-Text Articles in Law
Family Law, Allison Anna Tait
Family Law, Allison Anna Tait
Law Faculty Publications
In the past year, Virginia courts have addressed a range of family law questions—new and old—that reflect the changing landscape of families and marriage. Questions related to same-sex marriage and divorce have begun to appear on Virginia court dockets, including an important case the Supreme Court of Virginia decided this year with respect to same-sex couples cohabiting and the termination of spousal support. Family law courts also saw shifts in gender norms—wives paying spousal support to their husbands and fathers being awarded physical custody of their children. These legal questions tested the limits of statutory language and helped to expand …
Nonmarriage, June Carbone, Naomi Cahn
Nonmarriage, June Carbone, Naomi Cahn
Maryland Law Review
Now that the Supreme Court has reshaped the laws of marriage, attention is shifting to nonmarriage. The law no longer treats intimate couples who do not marry as either deviant or deprived. Yet, rather than regulate nonmarriage in a systematic way, the law applies two inconsistent doctrines to govern these relationships. This Article is the first to explore the fundamental contradiction in the legal approach to unmarried partners. While the laws governing financial obligations between unmarried couples are moving toward a deregulatory model that radically differs from the status-based regulation of marriage, the laws of custody and support insist on …
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 …
Kar V. Kar, 132 Nev. Adv. Op. 63 (August 12, 2016), Briana Martinez
Kar V. Kar, 132 Nev. Adv. Op. 63 (August 12, 2016), Briana Martinez
Nevada Supreme Court Summaries
The Court considered an appeal from a district court order denying a motion to modify child custody and support. The Court held that the district court lost exclusive, continuing jurisdiction when the parents and child left Nevada. However, this did not end the jurisdictional analysis. The district court should have considered whether it retained jurisdiction under NRS 125.315(2) and NRS 125.305.
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 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
Pace Law Review
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 …
Inequity In Private Child Custody Litigation, Dale Margolin Cecka
Inequity In Private Child Custody Litigation, Dale Margolin Cecka
Law Faculty Publications
This article explores the history and implications of a two-tiered system for adjudicating matrimonial-as opposed to nonmatrimonial- custody matters. As the author uncovered by calling every clerk's office in every major city in the country, matrimonial matters are under a different jurisdiction or part of court in nine states.' This differential treatment has implications for the outcome of private custody cases. It also reflects a bias in the administration of justice, based on race and socioeconomic class. Perhaps most importantly, it causes the government and other outside parties (such as court appointed guardians ad litem) to be more involved …
Religion And Child Custody, Margaret Brinig
Religion And Child Custody, Margaret Brinig
Journal Articles
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 …
When It Comes To Parents, Three's No Longer A Crowd: California's Answer To In Re M.C., Jason De Jesus
When It Comes To Parents, Three's No Longer A Crowd: California's Answer To In Re M.C., Jason De Jesus
Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review
The California Legislature recently amended the California Family Code by granting courts the authority and discretion to find that a child can have more than two parents. This Article addresses the issues raised by this amendment, focusing on the rare instances in which rejecting a third parent's claim for custody would be detrimental to the child. By exploring public perceptions of multiple parentage and assessing recent cases highlighting the discretion courts use to find that a child has more than two parents, this Article concludes that recognizing that a child has more than two parents can protect not only the …
Nonmarital Families And The Legal System's Institutional Failures, Clare Huntington
Nonmarital Families And The Legal System's Institutional Failures, Clare Huntington
Faculty Scholarship
As along-time critic of family law, I find it odd to be singing the system's praises. And yet I am. Sort of. In this issue of the Family Law Quarterly, which addresses cohabitation and nonmarital families, I want to focus on what happens when relationships end. For all its shortcomings, family law provides an institution to help divorcing couples restructure their families following the end of relationships. For nonmarital families, not so much. Unmarried parents theoretically can go to court when they separate, but most do not. Thus., as a practical matter, the legal system leaves unmarried parents without an …