Law Commons^™

The Right To Unmarry: A Proposal, Brian L. Frye, Maybell Romero

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

When I say I'm in love, you better believe I'm in love, L-U-V.

[April 2, 2020] BLF: This is a marriage proposal in the form of a law review article. In this Article, I observe that Maybell Romero and I are in love. I want to marry her, and I believe she wants to marry me. At least I'll find out pretty soon. But we cannot marry each other right now, because we are both currently married to other people.

Maybell and I want to end our existing marriages, and our respective spouses have even agreed to divorce. But the …

Family Unity Revisited: Divorce, Separation, And Death In Immigration Law, Albertina Antognini

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Families are integral to immigration law and policy, and family-based immigration accounts for the majority of legal entry into the United States. Legislative, judicial, and scholarly discussions that address immigration law's family-based categories rely nearly exclusively on the principle of family unification, which has long been a cornerstone policy of immigration law. Yet the family-based provisions of immigration law do more than unify intact families; understanding families as dynamic entities that experience change reveals an immigration system that acknowledges a flexible family structure in determining status.

The principal aim of this Article is to present a more complete description of …

Kentucky Law Survey: Family Law, Louise Everett Graham

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article addresses some of the family law developments occurring since the Kentucky Law Journal last published a Kentucky law survey. Space limitations preclude discussion of every post-1985 change. Instead, this Article focuses on general trends, significant cases, and legislative developments.

Inquiry into family law developments in Kentucky is timely, not only because of the social importance of family relations, but also because of other contemporaneous efforts at family law reform. The American Law Institute ("ALl") is currently considering a final draft of principles governing family dissolution. That draft, and the discussions that surround its ultimate acceptance or rejection by …

Starting Down The Road To Reform: Kentucky's New Long-Arm Statute For Family Obligations, Louise Everett Graham

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Kentucky has long needed a comprehensive family law provision for its long-arm statute. Before the general long-arm statute was amended by the 1992 General Assembly, it addressed only a narrow class of paternity cases among its specific jurisdictional provisions, ignoring the need for long-arm jurisdiction in other domestic relations cases. A second long-arm statute provided jurisdiction over some nonresidents to establish or enforce child support obligations. In the contexts of divorce and child support, Kentucky's failure to claim constitutionally available jurisdiction deprived Kentucky residents of important protection.

Recent amendments to Kentucky statutes fill previous gaps and expand Kentucky's jurisdiction in …

Using Formulas To Separate Marital And Nonmarital Property: A Policy Oriented Approach To The Division Of Appreciated Property Upon Divorce, Louise Everett Graham

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Over the past ten years every writer venturing to discuss domestic relations must have been tempted to emphasize the importance of his or her work by opening with mention of the growing number of divorce cases confronting the court system. Beyond its numerical impact upon the judicial process, however, divorce litigation provides an important opportunity for the study of property rights and the institutions from which those fights are derived. Divorce cases increasingly involve difficult and complex questions concerning the marital property rights of the marriage partners. The importance of marital property cases is broader than the individual rules that …

Kentucky Law Survey: Domestic Relations, Louise Everett Graham

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The following article presents a survey of domestic relations law in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. During the survey period, the Kentucky appellate courts faced a series of cases that involved not only the usual problems relating to property division, post divorce support obligations and child custody, but which also implicated a number of federal statutory attempts' to regulate areas long considered solely the province of state regulation. The presence of new federal legislation in these areas represents Congressional attempts to solve some major difficulties in the domestic relations area. Few persons would argue, for example, that the battle for jurisdiction …

Kentucky Law Survey: Domestic Relations, Louise Everett Graham, Janet Jakubowicz

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In the decade since Kentucky's adoption of the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act (UMDA), appellate domestic relations opinions have focused primarily upon property division and child custody. Recent decisions continue this emphasis but also address problems regarding the marital relationship, spousal maintenance, and child support. This article provides a survey of Kentucky law in the field of domestic relations.

Joint Custody, Carolyn S. Bratt

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Shared custody has traditionally been looked upon with disfavor by the courts. Similarly, some professionals in the field of child development oppose the concept of shared custody. There are, however, several advantages to shared custody. The legal system benefits, as judges escape the unenviable task of playing Solomon. The child benefits because both parents continue to have a voice in the child’s upbringing, and the child continues to enjoy the love, advice, and companionship of both parents. In addition, because both parents share the responsibility of child raising, neither is faced with the loss of self-esteem which results from being …

The Uniform Disposition Of Community Property Rights At Death Act, Sarah N. Welling

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In 1977, eight of the United States use community property systems instead of the common law systems used in the other 42 states. Because the community property system is totally alien to common law states which do not recognize community interests in property, when domiciliaries of a community property state migrate to a common law state problems develop over the definition of property rights. Two questions usually arise: do the spouses’ rights and interests in the community property change if they move to a common law state? And if not, how are these rights and interests protected? The first question …