Law Commons^™

Alimony Treatment For A Single Payment, Douglas A. Kahn

Articles

Before 1942 alimony paid to a former spouse was not included in the spouse’s gross income. In 1942 Congress adopted the antecedent to section 71. Although an alimony recipient must recognize gross income, section 215 provides the payer with a nonitemized deduction for the payment. Therefore, the alimony tax provisions provide a congressionally approved income-splitting arrangement which can benefit the parties by shifting income from a high-bracket taxpayer to one in a lower tax bracket. The parties can divide the resulting savings between them by altering the amount paid to the former spouse.

Who Sues For Divorce? From Fault Through Fiction To Freedom, Lawrence M. Friedman, Robert V. Percival

Robert Percival

No abstract provided.

Community Based Divorce Education Programmes: Short-Term And Longer-Term Impacts, Sherrill Hayes, Lori Pelletier

Faculty and Research Publications

Surveys of mandatory parent education in the USA (M J Geasler and K R Blaisure, ‘A review of divorce education programme materials’ (1998) 47 Family Relations 167–175; M J Geasler and K R Blaisure, ‘1998 Nationwide survey of court-connected divorce education programmes’ (1999) 37 Family and Conciliation Courts Review 36–63; S L Pollet and M Lombreglia, ‘A nationwide survey of mandatory parent education’ (2008) 46(2) Family Court Review 375–394) have demonstrated the positive impact of well-designed, evidence-based programmes on children and families. Divorce education programmes for parents are now required in many jurisdictions in 46 states in the USA (Pollet …

Community Based Divorce Education Programmes: Short-Term And Longer-Term Impacts, Sherrill W. Hayes, Lori Pelletier

Sherrill W. Hayes

What’S The Constitution Got To Do With It? Regulating Marriage In Pakistan, Karin Carmit Yefet

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

[...] the supreme law of the land seems to embody a blatant contradiction. The Pakistani Constitution extends protection to an impressive catalog of fundamental rights, placing Pakistan in line with some of the most western-minded constitutional regimes in the world.3 At the same time, in contrast to the American-style constitutional commitment to separate church and state,4 the Pakistani regime is constitutionally committed to integrate the two, in the sense that all laws must conform to the injunctions of Islam as a condition of their constitutional validity.5 So the same Constitution that protects western fundamental rights also elevates Islamic law, a …

Report Of The Law Reform Committee On Ancillary Orders After Foreign Divorce Or Annulment, Aqbal Singh, Debbie Ong, Yock Lin Tan, Tiong Min Yeo

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

A matrimonial order of divorce, nullity or legal separation is often followed by ancillary orders relating to division of matrimonial property, custody of children and maintenance. Under Singapore law, many of the court’s powers in respect of these types of orders depend on the court having jurisdiction to pronounce on the status of the marriage. If an order made by a foreign court is recognised to have annulled or dissolved the marriage, then it is not possible for the Singapore court to assume jurisdiction in respect of the marriage; there is no marriage to speak of anymore. The legal consequence …

At A Cross-Road: Anti-Same-Sex Marriage Policies And Principles Of Equity: The Effect Of Same-Sex Cohabitation On Alimony Payments To An Ex-Spouse, Jill Bornstein

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In the wake of anti-gay marriage policies in the United States, courts and state legislature alike are struggling to reconcile these policies with well-established principles of equity in the law. This note examines states' anti-same-sex marriage policies as they relate to the states' respective policies regarding alimony termination. Generally, upon divorce, the dependent spouse from a dissolving marriage will receive alimony payments from the independent spouse until the death or remarriage of the dependent spouse. Many states have expanded the definition of "remarriage" to include a dependent spouse's cohabitation with another individual in a financially interdependent, conjugal relationship. Terminating alimony …

Parent Education Programs: Review Of The Literature And Annotated Bibliography, Barbara A. Babb, Gloria Danziger, Judith D. Moran, Itta Englander

All Faculty Scholarship

Court-connected parent education programs are an integral family service component in most of the nation’s family courts. These programs are implemented to enable the courts to respond efficiently and effectively to the proliferation of cases involving separation, divorce, and related issues such as child custody and access (Sigal, Sandler, Wolchik, and Braver, 2008; Pollet and Lombreglia, 2008; McIntosh and Deacon-Wood, 2003). Since 2007, parent education classes are mandatory in forty-six states (Pollet and Lombreglia, 2008). In Maryland, every court with jurisdiction over divorce and child custody matters utilizes some form of parent education.

The findings discussed in this literature review …

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

Jana B. Singer

No abstract provided.

Incentivizing Divorce, Andrea B. Carroll

Journal Articles

Marriage is an important relationship, both for the parties to it and for society as a whole. Its benefits, stemming from the economies of scale and joint consumption inherent in the relationship, are largely unquestionable. And when marriage fails, the results are rather staggering. Economically, it is estimated that the annual cost of divorce to American taxpayers approaches $30 billion. From a social science perspective, the negative impacts of divorce on women and children have long been decried. In the face of these facts, we expect family law to fulfill a certain role. It should channel parties into the relationship …

Divorce Reform And Gender Justice, Jana B. Singer

Jana B. Singer

The modern shift from fault-based to no-fault divorce has disappointed those who expected the no-fault system to eliminate economic inequality between divorced women and men. The fact that women and their dependent children invariably experience economic hardship after a divorce has caused Lenore Weitzman and other commentators to romanticize the "good old days" of fault-based divorce. Professor Singer attacks the logic of this nostalgia by demonstrating that women were 'not[' better off under the fault-based system. She then proposes an investment partnership model of post-divorce allocation which would insure a fair result for both spouses.

Divorce Obligations And Bankruptcy Discharge: Rethinking The Support/Property Distinction, Jana B. Singer

Jana B. Singer

The Bankruptcy Code currently divides divorce-related obligations into two categories: awards or agreements in the nature of support are non-dischargeable; obligations arising from property divisions can be discharged in the same manner as ordinary commercial debts. Because recent developments in family law have undermined the support/property distinction and because privately negotiated divorce agreements often fail to distinguish between payments intended to serve as support and those intended to distribute property, the Code's reliance on this classification often leads to confusion and hardship for divorce obligees. In addition, because of the rise of equitable distribution as the dominant method of allocating …

Behavioral Economic Issues In American And Islamic Marriage & Divorce Law, Ryan M. Riegg

Ryan M. Riegg

Incompetence To Maintain A Divorce Action: When Breaking Up Is Odd To Do, Douglas Mossman, Amanda N. Shoemaker

Douglas Mossman

The law has well-established provisions for handling divorce actions initiated on behalf of persons already adjudged incompetent or by competent individuals against incompetent spouses. But how should a court respond if a mentally ill petitioner who is competent to manage most personal affairs seeks to divorce a spouse for bizarre, very odd, or crazy-sounding reasons? Whether to allow a divorce action when the petitioner is motivated by psychotic ideas about a spouse is a matter addressed in just a few published cases, and then only indirectly. Largely unanswered are questions about whether domestic relations courts have the authority to stop …

You Take The Embryos But I Get The House (And The Business): Recent Trends In Awards Involving Embryos Upon Divorce, Mark Strasser

Mark Strasser

Various state courts have been asked to decide who should have control of remaining frozen embryos upon divorce. Different models have been proposed, ranging from enforcement of prior agreements to balancing the needs and desires of the parties to requiring both parties to agree before implantation can take place. This article discusses some of these models, concluding both that the enforcement of the initial agreement model is preferable to the others proposed and that one of the most popular current models--the contemporaneous consent model—is a public policy disaster that should be repudiated at the earliest opportunity.

The Pursuit Of Life, Liberty, Happiness…And Fairness? Property Division In American And English Big Money Divorce Cases, Margaret Ryznar

Margaret Ryznar

Eyebrows have recently arched not only at the high sums involved in big money divorce cases, but also at the amount of ink spilled on this relatively small subset of divorce cases. Yet, it is precisely in big money cases that fairness acquires substantial haziness. Is it fair for a high-wage earner to pay an ex-spouse half of his future profits? Or, would it be fairer for the ex-spouse to be awarded less than half, but still receive millions of dollars? Such questions are particularly acute in short marriages or when one spouse is at fault for the divorce. Courts …

The Slip And Fall Of The California Legislature In The Classification Of Personal Injury Damages At Divorce And Death, Helen Y. Chang

Helen Y Chang

This article critiques California’s classification and treatment of personal injury damages at divorce and death. Of the nine community property states, California is the only state not to follow a replacement or analytic approach in classifying personal injury damages. Since the current statute was enacted in 1968, California has seen important developments in no-fault divorce reform, the rise of women’s rights, and tort law but California has failed to update its mechanistic formula for personal injury damages in the marital property context.

California’s present rule classifies personal injury damages as community property during marriage but awards the monies to the …

Marriage And Divorce: Legal Foundations, Azizah Y. Al-Hibri

Law Faculty Publications

A six-volume work, this set constitutes a major revision and massive expansion of the 1995 Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World. In addition to covering Islamic societies in the modern world from the eighteenth century to the present, as the earlier four-volume set did, it will add a depth of historical background going back to the pre- Islamic era. The new reference also covers the full geographical extent of Islam by focusing not only on the countries in which Islam is dominant, but also on regions in which Muslims live as minorities, such as Europe and the Americas.

The One-Size-Fits-All Family, Margaret F. Brinig, Steven L. Nock

Journal Articles

Family policy and the law based on it assume universals. That is, if marriage improves the welfare of the majority of couples and their children, it is worth pushing as a policy initiative. Further, laws will be written (or kept on the books) that privilege marriage over other family forms. Similarly, research that tells us that divorce harms children except following the relatively small number of highly conflicted marriages, spawns efforts to preserve troubled marriages or even to roll back liberal or relatively inexpensive divorce laws. With yet another example, since adopted children mostly do better than children left either …

Aleem V. Aleem: A Divorce From The Proper Comity Standard—Lowering The Bar That Courts Must Reach To Deny Recognizing Foreign Judgments, Rajni K. Sekhri

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Rights Of Divorced Lesbians: Interstate Recognition Of Child Custody Judgments In The Context Of Same-Sex Divorce, Kathryn J. Harvey

Fordham Law Review

This Note explores the issue of interstate recognition of child custody, which arises in the context of same-sex divorce. The Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act (PKPA) requires states to grant full faith and credit to all child custody orders; on the other hand, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) allows states to deny full faith and credit to judgments “arising out of” same-sex marriage. This Note argues that DOMA partially repeals the PKPA, such that states need not grant full faith and credit to divorce and child custody decrees in the context of same-sex marriage. Further, this Note argues that because …

Goodbye Homo Economicus: Cognitive Dissonance, Brain Science, And Highly Effective Collaborative Practice, Pauline H. Tesler

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Child Support And (In)Ability To Pay: The Case For The Cost Shares Model, Pamela Foohey

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Currently enacted child support guidelines primarily focus on maintaining children's economic well-being when a single household is split into two. This article argues that this focus discounts another consideration which, when combined with the current analysis, could further advance children's well-being: the ability of parents to pay. An analysis of payment characteristics demonstrates that lower child support obligations may increase the amount of child support paid on average. Lowering presumptive obligations will make lower-income parents better able and more likely to pay their obligations, thereby increasing the amount of child support paid to lower-income children, while at most only marginally …

Nevada Alimony: An Important Policy In Need Of A Coherent Policy Purpose, The Honorable David A. Hardy

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Family Law Doctrine Of Equivalence, Amy L. Wax

Michigan Law Review

Students of patent law learn the doctrine of equivalents. According to the doctrine, a patent protects an invention that does "the same work in substantially the same way, and accomplish[ es] substantially the same result," as the device described in the patent, even if it differs "'in name, form, or shape." In her new book, Nancy Polikoff has fashioned something like a parallel doctrine for families. Let's call it (with a slight play on words) the family law Doctrine of Equivalence. In today's world, according to Polikoff, a broad set of relationships now plays the same role as marriage and …

The Rights Of Women And Role Of Superior Judiciary In Pakistan With Special Reference To Family Law Case From 2004-2008, Muhammad Munir Dr.

Dr. Muhammad Munir

Granting and protecting the rights of women in the domain of family law remains one of the most important areas of legislation in Pakistan. The role of judiciary is vital to ensure that the rights of women are protected because decisions of the superior judiciary are binding on the lower courts under the doctrine of precedent. This work focuses on cases decided by the superior judiciary in Pakistan over the period of five years to know the various remedies sought by helpless women. This article finds that legislation in the area of family law protects women to a greater degree …