Law Commons^™

Inside The Castle: Law And Family In 20th Century America, By Joanna L. Grossman And Lawrence M. Friedman (Book Review), Michael S. Ariens

Faculty Articles

Inside the Castle: Law and Family in 20th Century America, by Joanna L. Grossman and Lawrence M. Friedman, is an entertaining and occasionally frustrating history. In the book’s introduction, the authors offer two big ideas. Their first idea promotes the instrumental explanation of law, and the second idea is the rise in the last part of the twentieth century of what the authors call “individualized marriage.”

Both these ideas have been long promoted by Lawrence M. Friedman, one of the nation’s foremost legal historians, and in many respects, the evidence adduced by the authors confirms both big ideas. Grossman and …

Singing Songs In A Strange Land: The Plight Of Haitian Children In The Space Of International Adoption., Glenys P. Spence

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

The best interests of children are not served by severing the familial bonds contemplated by international adoption law. Nonetheless, because of the high costs of the international adoption process, efforts to adopt their Haitian orphan relatives are ignored. In attempts to guarantee the “best interests of the child” are met, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children Co-Operative Respect of Intercountry Adoptions (Adoption Convention) were created as the two governing bodies of international adoption law. Global South countries, including Haiti, however, have not ratified the Adoption Convention. …

Wrongful Adoption: A Guide To Impending Tort Litigation In Texas., Fred S. Wilson

St. Mary's Law Journal

Texas has an opportunity to improve a necessary tool of family law by recognizing and advancing wrongful adoption. There is an underlying lack of recognition for the interests of adoptive parents in adoption law. Those who choose to adopt necessarily rely on the information provided by an adoption agency in making their decision. As such, adoptive parents are particularly vulnerable to misrepresentation about the pertinent history of the adoptee. Recent cases in other states demonstrate the progression of wrongful adoption as a tort, yet many inadequacies remain. The necessary progression of wrongful adoption calls for the imposition of a duty …

The Magic Circle: Inclusion Of Adopted Children In Testamentary Class Gifts, Victoria M. Mather

Faculty Articles

In two recent Texas appellate court decisions, the courts were faced with the problem of deciding whether a testator meant to include, or at least did not intend to exclude, adopted children in a testamentary class gift. Courts across the United States have struggled with this issue in recent years, and an increasing number are holding that gifts to children, issue, or lineal descendants do not necessarily exclude adopted children. However, in both Texas cases, the courts held that the adopted children could not take as members of the class. This result is contrary to both the modem trend of …

Tutela Processual Do Menor (Procedural Guardianship Of The Minor), Roberto Rosas

Faculty Articles

SUMMARY: I. ACTIVE AND PASSIVE CAPACITY OF THE SMALLEST. II. DEFENSE OF THE SMALLEST. III. THE INTEGRATION OF THE MINOR IN THE SOCIETY: ADOPTION AND LEGITIMATION OF ADOPTION.