Law Commons^™

Substantive Parenting Arrangements In The Usa: Unpacking The Policy Choices, Margaret Brinig

Journal Articles

Policy makers in the US currently debate whether to keep discretionary child custody standards, that is, “best interests of the child” clarified by some factors, or to move to a more rule-based system, such as a presumptive shared parenting regime. This article briefly sets out the problem, theoretical and evidence-based ways of approaching it, and some new results from a study of court documents from one US state indicating that a strong presumption of shared custody is associated with an increase in post-decree domestic violence. While presumptions or de facto rules should facilitate bargaining, these results may tip the balance …

Stop Making Court A First Stop For Many Low Income Parents, Jane C. Murphy

All Faculty Scholarship

In the wake of the unrest over police misconduct in cities across the country, calls for reform have focused on the criminal justice system — making police, prosecutors, and criminal courts more accountable and just. While much work needs to be done in that arena, too little attention has focused on the ways in which low income families are hurt in civil courts. Many more men, women and children from low income communities of color pass through the doors of our family courts every day than those who interact with the criminal justice system. Some come to court as a …

Possible Bias In Asset Valuations: An Application Of The Fraud Risk Triangle To Divorce Cases, Jennifer Tomasetti

Honors Projects in Accounting

No abstract provided.

Is There A Way Forward In The 'War Over The Family'?, Linda C. Mcclain

Faculty Scholarship

When Judge Posner, in Baskin v. Bogan, expressed incredulity -- given actual demographic trends in family formation -- that state marriage laws excluding same-sex couples furthered interests in “channeling” procreative sex and addressing accidental pregnancy, he brought together two conversations about marriage, family law, and family life that too often proceed independently. In the first, same-sex couples challenging marriage laws and the courts who rule in their favor emphasize the high stakes of exclusion by characterizing marriage as an incomparable institution and a signal that one’s intimate commitment is worthy of equal respect and dignity. To be left out of …

Taming The Tigers: Domestic Violence, Legal Professionalism, And Well-Being, Jill C. Engle

Journal Articles

Domestic violence kills thousands of American women every year. In 2013, one of them was my client. My law school clinic represented a woman divorcing her abusive husband after twenty years of marriage. Three days after we served him with the divorce complaint, he walked into the grocery store where she worked and shot her dead. He then turned the gun on himself, and died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds. The lead student working her case listened in horror as one of our local colleagues who had heard the breaking news described it to her in a phone call to the …

Should Divorce Be More Taxing?: Structuring Tax Reduction To Reduce Inequality, Stephanie Mcmahon

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Scholars debate whether Congress should address nonrevenue objectives through the tax code. This Article furthers this research agenda by examining a case in which interested groups misinterpret Congress's limited objectives for targeted tax reduction. In this case of limited congressional objectives (tax reduction) but broader societal objectives (helping divorcing spouses and children of divorce), this Article questions whether these other nonrevenue objectives are furthered by the targeted tax reduction.

This examination of divorce-related taxation emphasizes the importance of narrowly tailoring tax policies to broader, nonrevenue goals as opposed to viewing tax reduction as an end in itself. If we want …

Taxing Compensatory Stock Rights Transferred In Divorce, Gregg Polsky, Kathleen Delaney Thomas

Scholarly Works

Stock-based compensation has become increasingly prevalent in recent years. As a result, many high net worth divorces now result in the transfer of compensatory stock rights from the employee spouse to the nonemployee spouse as part of the marital settlement. Despite this growing trend, the tax consequences of these transfers have not yet been explored fully. This Article endeavors to fill this void and explain both the planning opportunities and potential pitfalls in transferring compensatory stock rights in divorce. These transfers can shift ordinary income from a high-bracket spouse to a lower-bracket spouse, creating a tax surplus that enlarges the …

Divorce Equality, Allison Anna Tait

Law Faculty Publications

The battle for marriage equality has been spectacularly successful, producing great optimism about the transformation of marriage. The struggle to revolutionize the institution of marriage is, however, far from over. Next is the battle for divorce equality. With the initial wave of same-sex divorces starting to appear on court dockets, this Article addresses the distinctive property division problems that have begun to arise with same-sex divorce and that threaten, in the absence of rule reform, to both amplify and reinscribe problems with the conventional marital framework. Courts have failed to realize the cornerstone concept of equitable distribution-marriage as an economic …

How Child Abuse Hotlines Hurt The Very Children They’Re Trying To Protect, Dale Margolin Cecka

Law Faculty Publications

The recent media obsession with “free range” parenting has illuminated a policy issue which rarely affects parents who debate free range parenting: the exploitation of child abuse reporting hotlines.

Whither/Wither Alimony?, June Carbone, Naomi R. Cahn

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Can alimony be saved? Historically, alimony protected women's dependence during marriage. The most fundamental challenge for its continuation therefore rests on reconciling alimony with an era in which the majority of women, including 71% of mothers with children under 18, are in the labor market. This requires reconsideration of the nature of marriage, not just as a partnership ideal, which arguably it has long been, or as a relationship between equals, which has emerged more recently, but as an integrated part of a new economic model. This review of The Marriage Buyout by Cynthia Starnes assesses her justification for the …