Law Commons^™

More Heat Than Light: A Critical Assessment Of The Gay Parenting Literature, 1995--2010, Douglas W. Allen Professor

Douglas W Allen Professor

Since 1995 there have been fifty-two studies of gay parenting which include some type of child outcome measure. The vast majority of these studies conclude that children raised by gay parents perform as well, if not better, than their counterparts in heterosexual families. This conclusion, which may or may not be true, is not scientifically warranted due to the limitations of the studies These include: some results are misreported; the entire literature is exploratory in nature and made up of small qualitative samples, biased data, and other research design failures; the studies concentrate almost exclusively on lesbian families; and outcome …

Resolving Family Conflicts, Jana Singer, Jane Murphy

Jana B. Singer

Over the past two decades, virtually all areas of family law have undergone major doctrinal and theoretical changes - from the definition of marriage, to the financial and parenting consequences of divorce, to the legal construction of parenthood. An equally important set of changes has transformed the resolution of family disputes. This 'paradigm shift' in family conflict resolution has reshaped the practice of family law and has fundamentally altered the way in which disputing families interact with the legal system. Moreover, the changes have important implications for the way that family law is understood and taught. This volume examines the …

Family Law: Cases, Text, Problems, 5th Edition, Ira Ellman, Paul Kurtz, Lois Weithorn, Brian Bix, Karen Czapanskiy, Maxine Eichner

Karen Czapanskiy

Family law is an interdisciplinary area, and the materials in this work reflect the numerous disciplines influencing this field of law. This book is policy-oriented, with non-legal social science featured in the extensive note materials to provide a rich and varied learning experience and a practice resource tool. Notes do more than call attention to difficult questions of legal doctrine and policy; they illuminate them.

The authors use a problem approach throughout, in addition to comprehensive case law sources. Problems provide an ideal mechanism for students to acquire the ability to apply legal rules to concrete fact patterns.

New Directions For Family Law In The United States, Sanford N. Katz

Sanford N. Katz

This article provides a survey of one major development in family law in the United States that has occurred during the most recent past. This development is the change that has occurred in marriage-like relationships. The article begins with a discussion of contract cohabitation and the extent to which it reflected a change from traditional views of formal or informal marriage as the only legally acceptable model for adults who desired to live together. It shows how contract cohabitation laid the groundwork for the establishment of domestic partnership laws. These laws were first adopted by municipalities and then by states …

Preserving The Family Through Change For The Sake Of Future Generations, Sanford N. Katz

Sanford N. Katz

Within the last fifty years, a transformation has taken place in American law. Before then, family relationships, like parent-child relationship, were clearly defined by biology or adoption. Marriage was defined by gender. Marriage certificates and birth certificates evidenced one's legal status. The transformation that has occurred was the legal recognition that took reality into account that relationships can develop without formalities. No longer can it be said that either one is in a certain status or one is not. Marriage-like relationships have been recognized, like civil unions, as well as de facto parenthood. American law has now recognized that marriage …

Law On The Books Vs. Law In Action: Under-Enforcement Of Morocco’S Reformed 2004 Family Law, The Moudawana, Ann M. Eisenberg

Cornell International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

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 …

Identifying Sperm And Egg Donors: Opening Pandora’S Box, Mary Kate Kearney

Mary Kate Kearney

No abstract provided.

Home State, Cross-Border Custody, And Habitual Residence Jurisdiction: Time For A Temporal Standard In International Family Law, Todd Heine

Annual Survey of International & Comparative Law

This article addresses three jurisdictional standards that arise in every cross-border child custody dispute between European Union Member States and the United States: home state, cross-border, and habitual residence jurisdiction. These jurisdictional standards face uncertainty in many cases.

First, this article provides a history of family law jurisdiction in the United States and thoroughly reviews home state jurisdiction in United States domestic law. While domestic family lawyers know this standard, the standard’s rigidity and fragmented application among the states baffle many foreign family lawyers.

Second, this article offers an overview of the remarkable emergence of family law in European Union …

A Primer On The History And Proper Drafting Of Qualified Domestic Relations Orders, Terrence Cain

Terrence Cain

The divorce rate in the United States is slightly more than one-half the marriage rate. Divorce is a fact of life in this country, and will likely be so for the foreseeable future. On August 23, 1984, the divorce lawyer’s job got more complicated when Congress created the Qualified Domestic Relations Order (“QDRO”) as part of some significant amendments to ERISA. QDROs are necessary because before those 1984 ERISA amendments, a lot of divorced persons discovered that they could be deprived of their marital or community property interest in their former spouses’ retirement plans. For most divorcing couples, the two …

Child Support For Adult Children, Margaret Ryznar

Margaret Ryznar

Although family law requires parents to support their minor children, the question of post-majority support—or child support for adult children—is entirely different. Some states permit this type of child support, while others do not. Those affected by this divergence in approaches include college students, unemployed people, disabled people, and of course, their parents—at a time of financial difficulty for many. The approach of each jurisdiction to this issue rests on whether the family is viewed as a social support system and whether intergenerational obligations exist. To help analyze these questions, this Article uses a comparative approach, considering the relevant law …

All Your Eggs In One Basket: Why Contract Law Proves Unreliable In Frozen Embryo Adoption Cases, Austin R. Caster

Austin R Caster

This article will show why infertile couples cannot unequivocally rely on good faith, consensual contracts in cases of assisted reproductive technology because the law is so unsettled. Each section will show why, because of alleged public policy implications, contract doctrines or clauses such as (1) the termination of parental rights, (2) the doctrine of waste, and (3) liquidated damages still remain almost completely unreliable in a matter regarding assisted reproductive technology. Though this uncertainty affects infertile couples trying to complete their families through various methods including adoption, surrogacy, in vitro fertilization, and artificial insemination, this article will focus on cases …

To Grandmother’S House We Go: Grandparent Visitation After Stepparent Adoption, Peter Zablotsky

Peter Zablotsky

No abstract provided.

Providing Attorneys For Children In Dependency And Termination Of Parental Rights Proceedings In Florida: The Issue Updated, Michael J. Dale

Faculty Scholarship

Florida's system for providing protection and safety to children in the State's child welfare system has changed over the past decade. Regretfully, the changes do not appear to have had a significant impact in two areas: increasing the safety and protection of children in the system' and providing children with independent attorneys to advocate on their behalf. Investigations, lawsuits, grand juries, amendments to court rules, and newspaper articles continue to demonstrate the myriad failures in the Florida system. Two notorious examples hi-lite the shortcomings: the cases of the foster child, Rilya Wilson, who disappeared in 2001, and Gabriel Myers, who …

Elizabeth Cady Stanton And The Notion Of A Legal Class Of Gender, Tracy A. Thomas

Akron Law Faculty Publications

In the mid-nineteenth century, Elizabeth Cady Stanton used narratives of women and their involvement with the law of domestic relations to collectivize women. This recognition of a gender class was the first step towards women’s transformation of the law. Stanton’s stories of working-class women, immigrants, Mormon polygamist wives, and privileged white women revealed common realities among women in an effort to form a collective conscious. The parable-like stories were designed to inspire a collective consciousness among women, one capable of arousing them to social and political action. For to Stanton’s consternation, women showed a lack of appreciation of their own …

Elizabeth Cady Stanton And The Notion Of A Legal Class Of Gender, Tracy A. Thomas

Tracy A. Thomas

In the mid-nineteenth century, Elizabeth Cady Stanton used narratives of women and their involvement with the law of domestic relations to collectivize women. This recognition of a gender class was the first step towards women’s transformation of the law. Stanton’s stories of working-class women, immigrants, Mormon polygamist wives, and privileged white women revealed common realities among women in an effort to form a collective conscious. The parable-like stories were designed to inspire a collective consciousness among women, one capable of arousing them to social and political action. For to Stanton’s consternation, women showed a lack of appreciation of their own …

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do: Comments On Martha Fineman's Cracking The Foundational Myths: Independence, Autonomy, And Self-Sufficiency, , Suzanna Danuta Walters

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Bursting The Foundational Myths Of Reproductive Labor Under Capitalism: A Call For Brave New Families Or Brave New Villages? , Mary Romero

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do: Comments On Martha Fineman's Cracking The Foundational Myths: Independence, Autonomy, And Self-Sufficiency, , Suzanna Danuta Walters

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Bursting The Foundational Myths Of Reproductive Labor Under Capitalism: A Call For Brave New Families Or Brave New Villages? , Mary Romero

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Strategies Of Muslim Family Law Reform, Kristen Stilt, Swathi Gandhavadi

Faculty Working Papers

Family law in Muslim-majority countries has undergone tremendous change over the past century, and this process continues today with intensity and controversy. In general, this change has been considered one of "reform," defined loosely as the adoption of national laws to modify the rules of Islamic law (fiqh) that had been applicable and predominant in the particular country in an effort to improve the rights of women and children. In most Muslim-majority contexts, however, the rules of fiqh remain particularly (and in some jurisdictions uniquely) relevant in the area of family law, and the reform process is usually presented as …

Three Lies And A Truth: Adjudicating Maternity In Surrogacy Disputes, Browne C. Lewis

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Historically, courts were called on to answer the following question: What makes a man a legal father? Courts applied different presumptions to arrive at the answer. For example, if the case involved a married couple, the woman's husband was presumed to be the legal father.1 In situations involving an unmarried woman, the man who helped to conceive the child was the legal father. While paternity was being litigated, maternity was resolved-the woman who gave birth to the child was the child's legal mother. The phrase “momma's baby, papa's maybe” reflected society's attitude towards maternity. Since the woman who gave birth …

2011 Cardozo Life (Issue 2), Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Life

Table of Contents:

The Innocence Project at 20, page 4

Are You a Gladiator or a Peacemaker?, page 8

Top News & Events, Class Notes, page 12

News from Programs, Centers & Journals, page 16

Faculty Briefs, page 23

And… Action! The Indie Film Clinic’s First Scene, page 26

Immigration Justice: From Both Sides, page 28

Filling the Justice Gap, page 30

Alumni News & Advancement, page 34

Endnote, page 42

Looking Back, page 44

Deadbeats, Deadbrokes, And Prisoners, Ann Cammett

Scholarly Works

Historically, child support policy has targeted absent parents with aggressive enforcement measures. Such an approach is based on an economic resource model that is increasingly irrelevant, even counterproductive, for many low-income families. Specifically, modern day mass incarceration has radically skewed the paradigm on which the child support system is based, removing millions of parents from the formal economy entirely, diminishing their income opportunities after release, and rendering them ineffective economic actors. Such a flawed policy approach creates unintended consequences for the children of these parents by compromising a core non-monetary goal of child support system – parent-child engagement – as …

Annual Survey Of Periodical Literature, Nancy Ver Steegh

Faculty Scholarship

The Annual Review of Periodical Literature provides a sampling of law review articles published between November 1, 2009, and October 31, 2010. The survey highlights the variety and depth of family law scholarship produced during the year and calls attention to currently debated "hot topics." Readers are encouraged to read articles of interest in their entirety because the summaries included in the survey are necessarily abbreviated.

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.

Old Lessons For A New World: Applying Adoption Research And Experience To Art, Naomi R. Cahn

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This article suggests that knowledge derived from adoption-related research and experience can be used to improve law, policy and practice in the world of assisted reproductive technologies (ART), particularly with respect to sperm, egg and embryo "donations." While there are numerous and significant differences between adoption and ART, the article identifies several areas in which adoption's lessons could be useful. These include secrecy and the withholding of information; a focus on the best interests of children; the creation of "nontraditional" families, particularly as more single, gay and lesbian adults use ART; the impact of market forces; and legal and regulatory …

The Family Law Canon In A (Post?) Racial Era, Shani M. King

UF Law Faculty Publications

While the debate about a post-racial society rages, our justice system continues to operate in a way that is race-conscious. It seems as though most of the discussion about race and the justice system concerns criminal justice, juvenile justice, education, and immigration. But race consciousness also impacts family law. Nonetheless, the family law canon does not scrutinize race-based disparities in laws, procedures, and outcomes, and that omission feeds a mistaken notion of a race-blind or a post-racial society. One consequence of this omission is that it obscures race-based decision making by legislatures, judges, legal reform organizations, legal scholars, lawyers, and …

Family Law Scholarship Goes To Court: Functional Parenthood And The Case Of Debra H. V. Janice R., Suzanne B. Goldberg, Harriet Antczak, Mark Musico

Faculty Scholarship

Family law literature, while diverse in its exploration of contemporary families, also offers important threads of consensus. These strong points of coherence, when brought together with relevant case law, can be a useful means of advancing the academic conversation as well as engaging directly with courts to shape the law's development.

In a field as complex as family law, myriad academic viewpoints on any given issue often make it difficult to imagine scholarly discussion having utility for courts. As we aim to show here, however, amicus briefs can be important vehicles for synthesizing the literature, highlighting basic points of consensus …

Judging Parents, Judging Place: Poverty, Rurality, And Termination Of Parental Rights, Lisa Pruitt, Janet Wallace

Lisa R Pruitt

Parents are judged constantly, by fellow parents and by wider society. But the consequences of judging parents may extend beyond community reputation and social status. One of the harshest potential consequences is the state’s termination of parental rights. In such legal contexts, the state assesses parents’ merits as parents in relation to a wide array of their characteristics, decisions and actions, including where the parents live.

Among those parents judged harshly in relation to geography are impoverished parents who live in rural places. We argue that such judgments are unjust because poor rural parents often do not have ready access …