Law Commons^™

Puzzling Over Children's Rights, John Coons, Robert Mnookin, Stephen Sugarman

John Coons

This Article Discusses the Movement Started in The 1960's to Improve Children's Legal Rights and How They are Treated Under the Law. The Authors Explore the Intellectual Foundations of Our Conventions About Children and Share Some of The Puzzles that They Have Identified. They Discuss When Childhood Begins and Ends, Whether Children are Worse off or Better off Now Than in The Past, and Whether the Purpose of Childhood is Only a Concern of The Present or Is It Preparation for Future Adulthood. They Discuss Children's Entitlements to The Goods of The World in Relation to Their Parents, Other Adults, …

Between Home And School, Laura Rosenbury

Laura A. Rosenbury

This article challenges family law's traditional paradigm for allocating authority between parents, children and the state. Pursuant to that paradigm, parents enjoy almost complete authority over their children while at home; the state may require children to attend school and may regulate school curricula; and children must submit to the authority of either their parents or teachers. This settled equilibrium ignores a fundamental reality: children are not confined to home and school. Much of childhood takes place in spaces between home and school, at playgrounds, churches, sporting fields, music rooms and after-school clubs. Family law has been virtually silent about …

The Crisis Of Child Custody: A History Of The Birth Of Family Law In England, Danaya Wright

Danaya C. Wright

This article attempts to show that the inter-spousal custody cases of the nineteenth century created such a crisis in equity that they eventually demanded a new court structure and a new set of legal doctrines. The custody cases posed such a profound threat to the stability and authority of the Chancery courts that within fifty years an entirely new court system was required. That court system combined the tripartite jurisdictions of the law, equity, and ecclesiastical courts in matrimonial matters. While many scholars and historians have applauded that moment, I would suggest that the new court was merely a way …

Famigration (Fam Imm): The Next Frontier In Immigration Law, Kari E. Hong

Kari E. Hong

The recently published article, Immigration’s Family Values by Professor Kerry Abrams and R. Kent Piacenti, and the forthcoming Removing Citizens: Parenthood, Citizenship, and Immigration Courts by Kari Hong examine how, when, and why immigration law uses a different definition of family than the one used in state courts. Despite their differences, in conversation, these two pieces highlight how the Department of Homeland Security likely is either following misguided policies or pursuing improper objectives when creating a federal family law. Crimmigration (Crim Imm) scholarship successfully identified the ways in which the (purported) civil proceedings of immigration law needed the extra constitutional …

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.

The Privatization Of Family Law, Jana Singer

Jana B. Singer

No abstract provided.

Family Law: Cases, Materials, And Problems, Peter Swisher, Anthony Miller, Jana Singer

Jana B. Singer

The Second edition of Family Law addresses contemporary family law issues and analyzes the public and private dichotomy in contemporary family law relationships.

Book Review Of The Place Of Families: Fostering Capacity, Equality, And Responsibility By Linda C. Mcclain, Karen Czapanskiy

Karen Czapanskiy

No abstract provided.

The Formless City Of Plato's Republic: How The Legal And Social Promotion Of Divorce And Same-Sex Marriage Contravenes The Principles And Undermines The Projects Of The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, Scott Fitzgibbon

Scott T. FitzGibbon

In the Republic, Plato describes a stage in social decay called “formlessness,” where all sorts of differences are accepted and none is preferred. No one need hold office or obey. People are impatient with all the ties that ought to bind them. Plato's formess city displays three deplorable features. One is the denigration of law and custom. A second is ethical skepticism or nihilism. A third is the repudiation of duty. These features also characterize the divorce culture and the same-sex marriage movement. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights reflects a philosophy quite the reverse of Plato’s formless city. Its …