Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Institution
Articles 1 - 4 of 4
Full-Text Articles in Law
A Lesbian-Centered Critique Of Second-Parent Adoptions, Julie Shapiro
A Lesbian-Centered Critique Of Second-Parent Adoptions, Julie Shapiro
Faculty Articles
When lesbian couples start families, one woman often begins with all the legal entitlements of parenthood, either by giving birth or by virtue of adopting a child, while the other woman has no legal rights. She is a non-legal parent. Absent legal rights she suffers many critical disadvantages. Second-parent adoptions have been developed to allow lesbians to create families with two-legal parents. They have been widely hailed as a solution to the problem of the non-legal parent. This article argues, however, that for many women they may actually make matters worse. Because some women can use second-parent adoptions, women who …
De Facto Parents And The Unfulfilled Promise Of The New Ali Principles, Julie Shapiro
De Facto Parents And The Unfulfilled Promise Of The New Ali Principles, Julie Shapiro
Faculty Articles
Alternative families - those that do not fit the classic nuclear family model - have been the focus of legal reform over the last twenty years. The American Law Institute has produced model legislation recognizing de facto parents as holders of some limited rights. To some this is a more flexible regime that would benefit non-nuclear families, in particular lesbian families. This article critiques the ALI draft, demonstrating that its promise is largely illusory.
Count The Brown Faces: Where Is The “Family” In The Family Law Of Child Protective Services, Ana M. Novoa
Count The Brown Faces: Where Is The “Family” In The Family Law Of Child Protective Services, Ana M. Novoa
Faculty Articles
Can a system developed from intrusion into the lives of the poor be reconstituted to provide services that will nurture the quality of the lives of all children? If not, then the system should be scrapped and start over. Child Protective Services (CPS) has never recovered from its roots in distrust and discrimination against the poor and its mistaken defense of a false moral high-ground, which is perceived from the narrow focus of child-saving rather than on the legitimate and long term needs of children. The foster care system’s lack of concern for natural parents reflects centuries of a dual …
What Place For Family Privacy?, Martha Albertson Fineman
What Place For Family Privacy?, Martha Albertson Fineman
Faculty Articles
This nuclear unit is thought to be in "crisis" because of the tendency of many marriages to dissemble and dissolve. Some people claim that society is also in a state of crisis as a result of marital instability. Many are concerned by the assembling of "deviant" and competing intimate entities claiming entitlement to the benefits and privileges previously extended to marriage." The family has become the symbolic terrain for the cultural war in which our society is increasingly mired. If one believes the family is not inherently limited to any essential or natural form, but is as contrived as any …