Law Commons^™

Missouri's Innocent Citizens: An Examination Of Missouri's Response To Domestic Violence Incidents Against Children And Teens, Keith P. Freie

Keith P Freie

In 2010 the Missouri Attorney’s General’s Office created a Domestic Violence Task Force for the purpose of analyzing Missouri’s Domestic Violence laws. In 2011, the Missouri General Assembly enacted Senate Bill 320 which included several changes to Missouri’s domestic violence laws stemming from several recommendations from the Attorney General’s Task Force. While Missouri’s 2011 domestic violence law is a comprehensive solution to the many unaddressed needs of child and teen domestic violence victims, additional solutions need to be considered to fully address the problem. Those solutions may include creating special domestic violence and child abuse courts and creating educational programs …

Back To The Drawing Board: Barriers To Joint Decision-Making In Custody Cases Involving Intimate Partner Violence, Dana Harrington Conner

Dana Harrington Conner

For survivors of intimate partner violence, custody is, without question, one of the most important issues addressed by our legal system. For battered women, the court’s decision regarding their children is critical. As a result, legal scholars have examined, in depth, the value of sole custody awards in favor of battered women, as well as the dangers of joint custody. To that end, this Article considers, beyond the obvious risks of physical harm, why joint legal custody is not a viable alternative to sole legal custody in cases involving intimate partner violence. In addition, by de-constructing the fundamental aspects of …

Teaching Social Justice Lawyering: Systematically Including Community Legal Education In Clinical Legal Education, Margaret Johnson, Catherine Klein, Margaret Barry, Lisa Martin, A. Camp

Margaret E Johnson

There is a body of literature on clinical legal theory that urges a focus in clinics beyond the single client to an explicit teaching of social justice lawyering. This Article adds to this emerging body of work by discussing the valuable role community legal education plays as a vehicle for teaching skills and values essential to single client representation and social justice lawyering. The Article examines the theoretical underpinnings of clinical legal education, community organizing and community education and how they influenced the authors’ design and implementation of community legal education within their clinics. It then discusses two projects designed …

Let's Get Serious: Spousal Abuse Should Be A Complete Bar To Inheritance, Carla Spivack

Carla Spivack

I argue that a finding that a spouse or intimate partner committed domestic violence should bar that person’s inheritance from the victim under a will, a will substitute (such as a trust) and under intestacy – in other words, in any form. Unlike the few similar proposals in the literature, I advocate a complete bar, and I situate the proposal in the context of inheritance law in general and fault-based inheritance regimes in particular. Further, unlike previous proposals, I justify the bar as an important use of the law’s expressive function and as a systemic approach to domestic violence. I …

Coerced Debt: An Empirical Examination Of The Role Consumer Credit In Domestic Violence, Angela K. Littwin

Angela K Littwin

When one pictures domestic violence, consumer credit probably does not come to mind. Physical and sexual abuse in intimate relationships has become an acknowledged reality. Structural abuse, which includes tactics such as isolating victims from other relationships and cutting off access to transportation, has also made headway in the public consciousness. Even forms of economic abuse that depress victims’ income have been well-documented. But there is another facet of domestic violence that has not yet been recognized: financial abuse through consumer credit. As consumer lending has permeated American life, violent partners have begun using debt as a means of exercising …

Coalition, Cross-Cultural Lawyering, And Intersectionality: Immigrant Identity As A Barrier To Effective Legal Counseling For Domestic Violence Victims, Jessica H. Stein

Jessica Stein

Cultural differences can be the most difficult barrier to overcome and the hardest to define when working with immigrant victims of domestic violence. This issue also seems to be the most puzzling and frustrating to attorneys, with answers that can be uncomfortable and that offend a progressive, liberal sense of lawyering. Drawing on critical race theory, I argue that the problems faced by immigrant victims in seeking help can only be solved by the recognition of the intersectionalities apparent in immigrant domestic violence cases, by the use and encouragement of cross-cultural lawyering, requiring a sincere effort by attorneys to be …

The State-Created Danger Doctrine In Domestic Violence Cases: Do We Have A Solution In Okin V. Village Of Cornwall-On-Hudson Police Department?, Atinuke O. Adediran

Atinuke Adediran

Batterers As Agents Of The State: Challenging The Public/Private Distinction In Intimate Partner Violence-Based Asylum Claims, Marisa S. Cianciarulo

Marisa S. Cianciarulo

Intimate partner violence has been recognized by asylum-providing countries as a form of persecution. Nevertheless, it has often been difficult for battered women to establish their eligibility for asylum. Frustratingly, it is often the public/private distinction that is the culprit in the failure of survivors of intimate partner violence to prove their asylum claims. Adjudicators of asylum claims often view intimate partner violence as a private matter: a husband harming his wife on account of personal reasons. This scenario stands in stark contrast to the more traditional asylum claim: an agent of the state harming a citizen on account of …