Law Commons^™

Proving The Validity Of Marriage, Peter N. Swisher

Law Faculty Publications

The importance of proving the validity of a marriage is not limited to the practice of family and has far-reaching social, legal, and economic implications in other areas of the law as well. For example, wrongful death statutes in Virginia limit recovery of a statutory beneficiary to the legal spouse rather than the de facto spouse. Other areas of the law including intestate succession and probate law, real property law, Social Security benefits, worker's compensation statutes, insurance benefits, and spousal support rights are likewise directly affected by the validity of a marriage.

Thus, a Virginia practitioner, during the course of …

Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy: Broadening The Scope Of Child Abuse, Michael T. Flannery

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Legal Protection For Victims Of Domestic Violence: A Guide For The Treating Physician, Jane C. Murphy

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Rejoinder, Larry I. Palmer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Child Abuse: Should You Report It?, David F. Forte

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This article discusses the options under the Code of Professional Responsibility for a domestic relations attorney who acquires confidential or secret information about child abuse by a client.

If Black Is So Special, Then Why Isn't It In The Rainbow?, Sharon E. Rush

UF Law Faculty Publications

In the modern day, defining "family" becomes less of a theoretical debate when one's own family unit is different from the traditional married, middle-class mother and father with their biological children. For non-traditional families, redefining family takes on enormous practical significance and may actually enable people to create families. Laws permitting transracial adoptions and surrogacy are illustrative. Moreover, a broader definition of family provides greater legal security to non-traditional families. Without such legal protection, non-traditional families live in fear of traditional laws tearing them apart. Rather than using a standard that promotes hegemony in custody disputes, decisionmakers should become aware …

Marriage, Morals, And The Law: No-Fault Divorce And Moral Discourse, Carl E. Schneider

Articles

In this Essay, I want to reflect on no fault-divorce and the social attitudes that underlie it. In particular, I want to consider that reform in light of an article I wrote some years ago entitled Moral Discourse and the Transformation of American Family Law. There I argued that in recent years the language of American family law has changed notably: today family law issues are decreasingly discussed in the language of morality. In other words, legal institutions have decreasingly talked about those issues in moral terms. Rather, they have tended to avoid handling some moral issues altogether-often by …

Lawyers, Mediation, And The Management Of Divorce Practice, Craig A. Mcewen, Lynn Mather, Richard J. Maiman

Journal Articles

Despite a widespread assumption that divorce mediation and divorce lawyers are incompatible, lawyers do play active-if largely unexamined-roles in many mediation programs. This article reports on the work of lawyers in a state with mandatory mediation. We find that lawyers in Maine have generally embraced mediation because it helps them manage problems inherent in divorce practice. Mandated divorce mediation facilitates both settlement negotiation and trial preparation, permits client participation in decisionmaking without requiring lawyers to surrender control, provides a forum for resolving both legal and nonlegal issues, and promotes efficient case management.

Way We Live Now: A Discussion Of Contracts And Domestic Arrangements, The, Carol Weisbrod

Faculty Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

Nondivorce Support And Property Rights, Peter N. Swisher

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Child Support In Maryland: Time For Change?, Barbara A. Babb

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Force African-American Fathers To Parent Their Delinquent Sons - A Factor To Be Considered At The Dispositional Stage, Lundy Langston

Journal Publications

What species can survive and function when a substantial segment of its young male population is harnessed by the burdens of substance abuse, unemployment, and incarceration? Empirical data suggests that these maladies have infected African-American males at a rate alarmingly disproportionate to that of other races. This trend, if it continues, suggests that America is creating a dysfunctional class. In this Article the term "dysfunctional" refers to a predicament wherein African-American males engage in violent activities.' Their conduct may be attributable to their inability to contribute to the family or smaller groups which form the foundation of the social order …

Whatever Happened To The American Dream?, Susan P. Leviton

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Alimony And Efficiency: The Gendered Costs And Benefits Of Economic Justification For Alimony, Jana B. Singer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Good Mother: The Limits Of Reproductive Accountability And Genetic Choice, R. Alta Charo, Karen H. Rothenberg

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Grandparents, Parents And Grandchildren: Actualizing Interdependency In Law, Karen Czapanskiy

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Child Support, Visitation, Shared Custody And Split Custody, Karen Czapanskiy

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Case Of Clothing And Smell Obsession In A Bisexual Adult Woman, Marianne Wesson

Publications

No abstract provided.

Defining The Scope Of The Constitutional Right To Marry: More Than Tradition, Less Than Unlimited Autonomy, 70 Notre Dame L. Rev. 39 (1994), Donald L. Beschle

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Married Women And Property, Joan C. Williams

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Is Coverture Dead? Beyond A New Theory Of Alimony, Joan C. Williams

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of Realistic Due Process Rights Of Children Versus Parents, Raymond C. O'Brien

Scholarly Articles

The purpose of this Article is to analyze the Santosky presupposition and demonstrate why it is misdirected. In particular, the Article posits that the clear and convincing standard adopted by the Court deprives the child of his or her due process rights. The minimum standard should be reduced to at least one of preponderance of the evidence. Such a standard would recognize the so-called parental presumption, i.e. the historical preference given to parents, but give greater recognition to the rights of the child.

This Article examines the due process concerns of parent and child from both a legal and a …

Your Right To Privacy And Children's Rights/Family Law: A Selective Bibliography, Sandra S. Klein

Journal Articles

In a society increasingly aware of real or perceived social inequities, it is not surprising to note a greater concern for the rights of children and their families. It is also apparent that privacy issues are an integral subset of the larger social sphere of interests. Privacy aspects can be seen to be involved pervasively throughout the area of law dealing with children and families, especially in view of the fact that there is obvious potential for conflict not only between families and the state, but between children and the families of which they are a part

Marriage And Opportunism, Margaret F. Brinig, Steven M. Crafton

Journal Articles

Spouse abuse is no longer a secret. It has become a thorn in America's conscience. Abuse even warranted a lengthy Supreme Court discussion in an opinion on abortion. It is certainly worth thinking about whether anything systemic caused the apparent outbreak of violence in the home. If there is a legal "fix" that would remove incentives to abuse, and therefore reduce the incidence of abuse at the margin, we should know about it.

It is the thesis of this article that increased abuse and other undesirable behavior is a natural consequence of the fact that in some states the marriage …

Mommy Has A Blue Wheelchair: Recognizing The Parental Rights Of People With Disabilities, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Parents' Religion And Children's Welfare: Debunking The Doctrine Of Parents' Rights, James G. Dwyer

Faculty Publications

The scope, weight, and assignment of parental rights have been the focus of much debate among legal commentators. These commentators generally have assumed that parents should have some rights in connection with the raising of their children. Rarely have commentators offered justifications for attributing rights to persons as parents, and when they have done so they have failed to subject those justifications to close scrutiny. This Article takes the novel approach of challenging parental rights in their entirety. The author explores the fundamental questions of what it means to say that individuals have rights as parents, and whether it is …

Comment On Jana Singer's Alimony And Efficiency, Margaret F. Brinig

Journal Articles

I propose to make three comments on Professor Singer's article. First, I will present my views on the limitations of law and economics when applied to family law. Second, I will discuss why specialization between husbands and wives is not necessarily efficient, and perhaps not even the best use of law and economics in the study of the family. Finally, and perhaps most controversially, I will question whether there are gender differences that should impact alimony law.

Finite Horizons: The American Family, Margaret F. Brinig

Journal Articles

In the summer of 1992, while I was reading and thinking about Martha Minow's latest book, I was struck with my double role as a responsible adult. Vacationing in the north woods of Wisconsin with my mother, I suddenly needed to care for her as well as my own small children. Generational connections, important before, swelled hugely in crisis. As I caught my breath between hospital runs and kids' activities, I was thankful that I had received so much from my parents during my childhood. And I resolved to rethink the relationships between parents and children, adults and elderly.

Policy …

The Effect Of Transaction Costs On The Market For Babies, Margaret F. Brinig

Journal Articles

Among the more controversial ideas advanced by prominent United States Circuit Court Judge and law professor Richard Posner is his suggestion that a market in babies would rectify many of the problems of the adoption system. His concept has, to say the least, provoked a tremendous reaction in various segments of American society. His critics proclaimed that sales of children would serve to demean the children and their mothers, relegating them to the status of mere commodities. Unscrupulous but wealthy parents might purchase children solely to abuse them. "Baby-selling" became a code word for the foolish extreme to which its …

The Value Of Black Mothers' Work, Dorothy E. Roberts

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.