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A Feminist Proposal To Bring Back Common Law Marriage, Cynthia Grant Bowman Dec 2014

A Feminist Proposal To Bring Back Common Law Marriage, Cynthia Grant Bowman

Cynthia Grant Bowman

No abstract provided.


Theories Of Domestic Violence In The African Context, Cynthia Grant Bowman Dec 2014

Theories Of Domestic Violence In The African Context, Cynthia Grant Bowman

Cynthia Grant Bowman

No abstract provided.


In Windsor'S Wake: Section 2 Of Doma's Defense Of Marriage At The Expense Of Children, Tanya Washington Dec 2014

In Windsor'S Wake: Section 2 Of Doma's Defense Of Marriage At The Expense Of Children, Tanya Washington

Tanya Monique Washington

No abstract provided.


Work, Family, And Discrimination At The Bottom Of The Ladder, Stephanie Bornstein Nov 2014

Work, Family, And Discrimination At The Bottom Of The Ladder, Stephanie Bornstein

Stephanie Bornstein

With limited financial resources, few social supports, and high family caregiving demands, low-wage workers go off to work each day to jobs that offer low pay, few days off, and little flexibility or schedule stability. It should come as no surprise, then, that workers' family lives conflict with their jobs. What is surprising is the response at work when they do. This Article provides a survey of lawsuits brought by low-wage workers against their employers when they were unfairly penalized at work because of their caregiving responsibilities at home. The Article reflects a review of cases brought by low-wage hourly …


The Undue Burden: Parental Notification Requirements For Publicly Funded Contraception, Stephanie Bornstein Nov 2014

The Undue Burden: Parental Notification Requirements For Publicly Funded Contraception, Stephanie Bornstein

Stephanie Bornstein

This article analyzes the legal impact of legislative proposals in 1998 and 1999 to require parental notification for minors seeking publicly funded contraception. Part I explores the history of Title X and some of its amendments, the HHS interpretive “squeal rule,” and the federal courts' rejection of the HHS rule based on the congressional intent behind Title X. Part II focuses on the Parental Notification Act of 1998 and its likelihood for success against a constitutional challenge, based on an analysis of precedent on parental consent requirements for contraception and abortion. Part III discusses the change in the legislative and …


The Crisis Of Child Custody: A History Of The Birth Of Family Law In England, Danaya Wright Nov 2014

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 Nov 2014

"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 Nov 2014

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 Nov 2014

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 …


The Family Law Canon In A (Post?) Racial Era, Shani M. King Nov 2014

The Family Law Canon In A (Post?) Racial Era, Shani M. King

Shani M. King

While the debate about a post-racial society rages, our justice system continues to operate in a way that is race-conscious. It seems as though most of the discussion about race and the justice system concerns criminal justice, juvenile justice, education, and immigration. But race consciousness also impacts family law. Nonetheless, the family law canon does not scrutinize race-based disparities in laws, procedures, and outcomes, and that omission feeds a mistaken notion of a race-blind or a post-racial society. One consequence of this omission is that it obscures race-based decision making by legislatures, judges, legal reform organizations, legal scholars, lawyers, and …


Alone And Unrepresented: A Call To Congress To Provide Counsel For Unaccompanied Minors, Shani M. King Nov 2014

Alone And Unrepresented: A Call To Congress To Provide Counsel For Unaccompanied Minors, Shani M. King

Shani M. King

The legal rights of children who enter a country without their parents or other guardians, including the right to legal representation in immigration proceedings, differ vastly across the globe. This Article is the first to show that unaccompanied minors lie at the nexus of international and regional human rights standards governing the treatment of immigrants, children, and civil counsel and to show how the development of human rights standards in these three areas underscores the importance of and the need for counsel for unaccompanied minors. Part I illustrates why unaccompanied minors in the United States need legal representation by focusing …


Owning Laura Silsby’S Shame: How The Haitian Child Trafficking Scheme Embodies The Western Disregard For The Integrity Of Poor Families, Shani M. King Nov 2014

Owning Laura Silsby’S Shame: How The Haitian Child Trafficking Scheme Embodies The Western Disregard For The Integrity Of Poor Families, Shani M. King

Shani M. King

Using the Laura Silsby Haitian adoption case as a window into child placement schemes that affect poor families, this Article proceeds in four parts. Part I tells the story of the Silsby case and shows how the idea of rescuing poor Haitian children became the narrative that ultimately excused Silsby’s decision to move Haitian children who were not orphans across the border to the Dominican Republic. Part II describes the development of intercountry adoption (ICA) as a means of “saving” poor children and explains how the strength of this rescue narrative feeds illicit child trafficking schemes. Part II also explores …


U.S. Immigration Law And The Traditional Nuclear Conception Of Family: Toward A Functional Definition Of Family That Protects Children's Fundamental Human Rights, Shani M. King Nov 2014

U.S. Immigration Law And The Traditional Nuclear Conception Of Family: Toward A Functional Definition Of Family That Protects Children's Fundamental Human Rights, Shani M. King

Shani M. King

Although the paramount purpose of United States immigration law is not to protect the integrity of family, U.S.immigration law does explicitly aim to do so in certain circumstances. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) includes family reunification provisions, for example, which allow United States citizens and lawful permanent residents to petition for family members who live in other countries to join them in the United States. Even the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), often described as a draconian statute, technically allows otherwise removable "aliens" to remain in the United States if removal would result in …


Challenging Monohumanism: An Argument For Changing The Way We Think About Intercountry Adoption, Shani M. King Nov 2014

Challenging Monohumanism: An Argument For Changing The Way We Think About Intercountry Adoption, Shani M. King

Shani M. King

The Convention on the Rights of the Child' (CRC) provides a legal framework that establishes a child's right to be raised in the context of her family and her culture. We regularly violate this most fundamental right of children because we fail to come to terms with our imperialist orientation toward the world. This failure has been caused, in part, by how we have constructed our way of thinking about intercountry adoption. We now have a conception of intercountry adoption that I refer to in this Article as MonoHumanism. In the context of intercountry adoption, MonoHumanism means that children are …


Asking The Family Question, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol Nov 2014

Asking The Family Question, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

Today, the international community is taking strides to address the needs/concerns of the family and to develop norms regarding its protection. However, principles of international law that address issues regarding the family are relatively new. Moreover, to date, these principles have primarily focused on certain specific rights, such as children's rights, women's rights, and child labor rights, rather than incorporating family well-being as a central aim of all international law and relations. This essay proposes a fundamental shift in the approach to international policy and law-making, as well as the engagement of international relations, to include a family-sensitive, culturally inclusive, …


The "F" Factor: Fineman As Method And Substance, Nancy Dowd Nov 2014

The "F" Factor: Fineman As Method And Substance, Nancy Dowd

Nancy Dowd

In this book review, Professor Dowd reviews Feminist and Queer Legal Theory: Intimate Encounters, Uncomfortable Conversations, edited by Martha Albertson Fineman, Jack E. Johnson, and Adam P. Romero (2009). Professor Dowd exposes the particular impact of the “F” factor by first describing the contributions of this volume and then exploring the methodological and substantive aspects of the “F” factor.


Multiple Parents/Multiple Fathers, Nancy E. Dowd Nov 2014

Multiple Parents/Multiple Fathers, Nancy E. Dowd

Nancy Dowd

Multiple parents, especially multiple fathers, are a social reality but not a legal category. The assumption that every child has, or should have, two, but only two, parents remains a core operating assumption of family law. Yet at the same time, our knowledge of the existence of multiple fathers, whether birthfathers, stepfathers, psychological fathers or other categories, has found some reflection in cases that have granted some relational rights to fathers who do not fill the single place allotted for "legal father." In this Article, Professor Dowd proposes that it is time to think not if, but how, to recognize …


Foreword - A Dedication To Barbara Bennett Woodhouse, Nancy E. Dowd Nov 2014

Foreword - A Dedication To Barbara Bennett Woodhouse, Nancy E. Dowd

Nancy Dowd

Families and family law are at the cutting edge of social policy. As we navigate through difficult times, we are reminded not only of the importance of families, but also of their vulnerability. The challenge for family law and policy is to remain responsive and relevant. This requires that we confront the realities of families, their needs and issues. We live in times of enormous diversity in family forms. That reality is frightening and worrisome to some, but reminds us that it is how families function, rather than what they look like, that is most important. Embracing function over form …


Parentage At Birth: Birthfathers And Social Fatherhood, Nancy E. Dowd Nov 2014

Parentage At Birth: Birthfathers And Social Fatherhood, Nancy E. Dowd

Nancy Dowd

Deciding who should be a child's legal parents at birth seems a simple task. Instinctively, the answer is the child's biological mother and father. Historically, the answer would have been different depending on whether the child was born within a marriage or not; marriage trumped biology, at least with respect to fathers. A husband was generally presumed to be the father of a child born to his wife, even if there was no genetic connection. A number of changes have moved parentage away from the marital/genetic/patriarchal model that valued the marital family above genes or social fatherhood. Modern principles of …


(Re)Constructing The Framework Of Work/Family, Nancy E. Dowd Nov 2014

(Re)Constructing The Framework Of Work/Family, Nancy E. Dowd

Nancy Dowd

When we talk about the connections between work, family, and marriage, what are our assumptions or our implicit model? In this essay, I hope to expose the importance of questioning the framework within which we operate. Marriage continues to be a core focus of the typical family law course. As a matter of public policy, supporting and valuing marriage, and concern about the conflict between work and family because of the strains it imposes on marriage, makes balancing work and family within a marital framework a focus of law and policy. In this essay, I argue that we need to …


The Role Of Legal Education In The Emerging Legal Specialty Of Pediatric Law, Diane C. Geraghty Nov 2014

The Role Of Legal Education In The Emerging Legal Specialty Of Pediatric Law, Diane C. Geraghty

Diane C. Geraghty

No abstract provided.


Undocumented Children And Families In America: An Interdisciplinary Exploration Of Challenges And Emerging Opportunities, Diane C. Geraghty Nov 2014

Undocumented Children And Families In America: An Interdisciplinary Exploration Of Challenges And Emerging Opportunities, Diane C. Geraghty

Diane C. Geraghty

No abstract provided.


5. American Professional Society On The Abuse Of Children In Support Of Petitioner, Ohio V. Clark (Merits), Thomas D. Lyon Oct 2014

5. American Professional Society On The Abuse Of Children In Support Of Petitioner, Ohio V. Clark (Merits), Thomas D. Lyon

Thomas D. Lyon

No abstract provided.


Ban Harms Georgia Kids, Tanya Washington Oct 2014

Ban Harms Georgia Kids, Tanya Washington

Tanya Monique Washington

No abstract provided.


Throwing Black Babies Out With The Bathwater: A Child-Centered Challenge To Same-Sex Adoption Bans, Tanya Washington Oct 2014

Throwing Black Babies Out With The Bathwater: A Child-Centered Challenge To Same-Sex Adoption Bans, Tanya Washington

Tanya Monique Washington

No abstract provided.


Once Born, Twice Orphaned: Children's Constitutional Case Against Same-Sex Adoption Bans, Tanya Washington Oct 2014

Once Born, Twice Orphaned: Children's Constitutional Case Against Same-Sex Adoption Bans, Tanya Washington

Tanya Monique Washington

No abstract provided.


Loving Grutter: Recognizing Race In Transracial Adoptions, Tanya Washington Oct 2014

Loving Grutter: Recognizing Race In Transracial Adoptions, Tanya Washington

Tanya Monique Washington

No abstract provided.


Suffer Not The Little Children: Prioritizing Children's Rights In Constitutional Challenges To "Same-Sex Adoption Bans", Tanya Washington Oct 2014

Suffer Not The Little Children: Prioritizing Children's Rights In Constitutional Challenges To "Same-Sex Adoption Bans", Tanya Washington

Tanya Monique Washington

No abstract provided.


Amicus Brief In United States V. Windsor By Scholars For The Recognition Of Children's Constitutional Rights, Tanya Washington, Catherine Smith, Susannah Pollvogt Oct 2014

Amicus Brief In United States V. Windsor By Scholars For The Recognition Of Children's Constitutional Rights, Tanya Washington, Catherine Smith, Susannah Pollvogt

Tanya Monique Washington

No abstract provided.


What About The Children? Child-Centered Challenges To Same-Sex Marriage Bans, Tanya Washington Oct 2014

What About The Children? Child-Centered Challenges To Same-Sex Marriage Bans, Tanya Washington

Tanya Monique Washington

No abstract provided.