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Full-Text Articles in Law
Religion And Child Custody, Carl E. Schneider
Religion And Child Custody, Carl E. Schneider
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In this Essay, I want to reflect on some problems at the intersection of religion, law, and the family. Specifically, I will explore the ways courts may consider a parent's religiously motivated behavior in making decisions about the custody of children. More precisely still, I will ask two questions. First, may a court refuse to award custody because of a parent's religiously motivated behavior in a dispute between a natural mother and a natural father? Second, when should a court agree to resolve a dispute between divorced parents over the religious upbringing of their children? These are topics of quiet …
Minor Changes: Emancipating Children In Modem Times, Carol Sanger, Eleanor Willemsen
Minor Changes: Emancipating Children In Modem Times, Carol Sanger, Eleanor Willemsen
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Article reports on the use of still another mechanism for removing children in conflict with their parents: statutory emancipation, the process by which minors attain legal adulthood before reaching the age of majority. Statutorily emancipated minors can sign binding contracts, own property, keep their earnings, and disobey their parents. Although under eighteen, they are "considered as being over the age of majority" in most of their dealings with parents and third parties. Thus, while emancipated minors can sign contracts and stay out late, their adult status also means that their parents are no longer responsible for the minors' support. …
Redefining The Family: Recognizing The Altruistic Caretaker And The Importance Of Relational Needs, Beverly Horsburgh
Redefining The Family: Recognizing The Altruistic Caretaker And The Importance Of Relational Needs, Beverly Horsburgh
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Part I of this Article describes the general nonrecognition of altruism in the law. It then focuses on contract law, discussing cases involving parties who cohabitate without formalizing their relationship in a marriage, and those who are not sexually intimate but are nevertheless interrelated members of an extended family. I argue that when a relationship ends, a caretaker becomes aware of her sacrifice and effort on behalf of another and experiences a sense of loss. However, recovery in contract requires the perverse recharacterization of the parties as self-seeking strangers impersonally bargaining over market services in a commodity exchange. Courts indulge …