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Full-Text Articles in Law
Cracks In The Cost Structure Of Agency Adoption, Andrea B. Carroll
Cracks In The Cost Structure Of Agency Adoption, Andrea B. Carroll
Journal Articles
No abstract provided.
Reviving Proxy Marriage, Andrea B. Carroll
Reviving Proxy Marriage, Andrea B. Carroll
Journal Articles
Marriage is merely a contract. It creates myriad rights and responsibilities - essentially conferring a status - but the American states recognize without exception that the parties’ relationship is at base nothing more than a contractual one. Still, modern society has elevated the marriage contract above all others. This distinction has overwhelmingly focused on the very personal nature of the marital relationship, a feature nonexistent in the arms-length contractual dealings with which we are accustomed to working when applying contract law. As a result, marriage is subject to a number of requirements, even at the level of contractual formation, which …
Re-Regulating The Baby Market: A Call For A Ban On Payment Of Birth Mother Living Expenses, Andrea B. Carroll
Re-Regulating The Baby Market: A Call For A Ban On Payment Of Birth Mother Living Expenses, Andrea B. Carroll
Journal Articles
More than fifty years ago, state law on domestic infant adoption changed to uniformly prohibit the practice of baby selling, a development that eliminated the “black market” for babies that many argued previously existed. Nonetheless, one need not look far to find that the United States’ domestic adoption system is broken even today, and the cost structure of the domestic adoption scheme is the greatest offender. A domestic adoption currently costs in the neighborhood of $40,0000, with the vast majority of the associated expenses coming not from the payment of any professional fees, but rather from the payment of living …
Do Joint Parenting Laws Make Any Difference?, Margaret Brinig, Douglas W. Allen
Do Joint Parenting Laws Make Any Difference?, Margaret Brinig, Douglas W. Allen
Journal Articles
Using a unique data set on divorcing couples, we analyze the effects of a change in legal entitlement on the outcomes for divorcing couples. In particular, we analyze the 1997 change to custody provisions in the State of Oregon. Prior to 1997, Oregon assigned custody, based on the discretion of the court, in the best interests of the child. This was changed to a presumption- of joint parenting, which manifests in the courts encouraging and imposing joint (or shared) custody in cases that otherwise would have had sole custody arrangements. We find that the law had several implications for divorce …
Parents: Trusted But Not Trustees Or (Foster) Parents As Fiduciaries, Margaret F. Brinig
Parents: Trusted But Not Trustees Or (Foster) Parents As Fiduciaries, Margaret F. Brinig
Journal Articles
Some fifteen years ago, Elizabeth and Robert Scott wrote an important article making the case that parents could be usefully described using a fiduciary model. This paper explains why their model fits foster parents better than biological or adoptive parents, at least in the sense that Tamar Frankel explains in her new book on fiduciary law.
Belonging And Trust: Divorce And Social Capital, Margaret F. Brinig
Belonging And Trust: Divorce And Social Capital, Margaret F. Brinig
Journal Articles
To whom do spouses belong? Do they belong to their communities as well as each other and their immediate families? These questions are explored in an empirical paper demonstrating ways in which social capital in communities may affect even the marriages of people living in them.
Child Support Guidelines: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, Margaret F. Brinig, Douglas W. Allen
Child Support Guidelines: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, Margaret F. Brinig, Douglas W. Allen
Journal Articles
Child support guideline systems do more than simply determine the amount of income to be transferred from the noncustodial to the custodial household. They create incentives, one way or another, for spouses to divorce and seek custody and support payments. We examine three cases found in North America, and find that the common method of income shares provides a decent guideline that does not create any perverse incentives for divorce. Percentage-of-obligor-income methods do worse than other systems, and can cause increases in divorce rates for families in which one spouse earns a high income. Finally, the Canadian system, which is …