Family Law Commons^™

Challenging Myths And Stereotypes In Domestic Violence Cases, Jennifer Koshan

Canadian Journal of Family Law

Survivors of domestic violence, who are disproportionately women, face numerous myths and stereotypes about the veracity, nature, and extent of violence they and their children experience. In legal disputes, they encounter allegations that they have lied about or exaggerated domestic violence out of vengeance, jealousy, or to gain an advantage in family law proceedings; that their partners are victims too; that abuse ends at separation or is irrelevant unless it is physical; and that it has no impact on children or only matters if it does. Although scholars and activists have revealed how these allegations are tainted by false and …

“This Isn’T Justice”: Abused Women Navigate Family Law In Greater Vancouver, Wendy Chan, Rebecca Lennox

Canadian Journal of Family Law

With the implementation of the Family Law Act in 2013, the family legal system in British Columbia saw a series of progressive reforms. These include the recognition of emotional, psychological, and financial control as family violence, a new protection order process to replace the limited restraining orders formerly available to abuse victims, a mandate that courts consider how exposure to family violence impacts children, and minimum mandatory training standards for family dispute resolution professionals. While there has been a great deal of legal commentary on these new provisions, there is a paucity of scholarly research documenting the experiences of frontline …

Mediator Discretion In Cases Involving Intimate Partner Violence, Michaela Keet, Jeff Edgar

Canadian Journal of Family Law

Mediation is a centerpiece in the ‘agreement culture’ around family law litigation. It is recognized by the courts as offering inherent protections to deal with challenging cases such as those involving intimate partner violence. To learn more about how mediators invoke and view the process’s protections, we conducted a series of interviews with senior mediators, trainers, and policymakers in the field. This article synthesizes current views within the mediation field about how to identify and screen for IPV, and implications for process management. At the heart of these interviews was the theme of mediator discretion: mediators describe and value discretion …

The Intersection Of Child Protection And Family Law Systems In Cases Of Domestic Violence, Wanda Wiegers

Canadian Journal of Family Law

Both the child protection and the family law systems are intended to promote the best interests of children, and both can profoundly affect the relationships between children and their parents or caregivers. Over the past two decades, both systems have also accorded more weight in the assessment of best interests to how exposure to domestic violence can harm or place children at risk. However, these systems have evolved differently, are governed by different statutes, and are administered in different ways. Child protection proceedings purport to have primarily a protective function and invariably involve a public agency, while family law proceedings, …

Front Matter

Canadian Journal of Family Law

No abstract provided.

If More Mormons Attended University, Would Canada Be Okay With Polygamy? Unpacking Literatures Of Social Exclusion In Canada’S Continued Criminalization Of Polygamy, Maxime D. Matthew

Canadian Journal of Family Law

In 2011, the British Columbia Supreme Court (BCSC) held it was constitutional to criminalize polygamy, framing the issue as principally about harm. I argue the Reference re: Section 293 of the Criminal Code of Canada furthers a literature of social exclusion, reifying an oversimplified binary: polygamy is harmful, polyamory is moral. Using narrative theory, I explore how these mutually constituted opposites build off each other. Polygamist Mormons are often denied whiteness, seen as an unpatriotic and racialized Other. Mormon women are othered by their attire and, despite still falling under section 293, denied agency. In contrast, the court views …

La Violence Conjugale, Familiale Et Sexuelle Dans La Réforme Du Droit De La Famille Québécois : État Des Lieux Et Solutions, Suzanne Zaccour

Canadian Journal of Family Law

Le projet de loi n^o 2, adopté en juin 2022, a prévu quelques mesures pour améliorer la réponse du système judiciaire à la violence conjugale et familiale. Or, ces mesures sont insuffisantes. Cet article analyse les nouveaux changements législatifs et présente les transformations qui manquent toujours à l’appel pour une véritable protection des mères et des enfants victimes de violence. Les solutions proposées sont les suivantes :

1) Faciliter l’identification des violences conjugales et familiales en interdisant aux tribunaux de tirer des inférences négatives quant à la capacité parentale des mères qui rapportent une situation de violence et en …

Eliminating Cash Bail In Washington State—Amending Criminal Rule 3.2, Simran Kaur

Seattle University Law Review

This Note discusses the following three parts. Part I provides an overview of the cash bail system, its history, and its contemporary use in Washington state. Part II presents the effects of bail on pretrial release, analyzing low-income and racial inequalities and the adverse impacts it can have on the accused. Part III focuses on solutions and alternatives to the cash bail system, using other states as case studies.

Promoting Corporate Diversity: The Uncertain Role Of Institutional Investors, Jill Fisch

Seattle University Law Review

Two developments are having an impact on corporate decisions. One is the increased engagement by institutional intermediaries and a shift in the focus of that engagement from corporate governance to environmental and social issues. The other is a heightened societal awareness of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) issues, particularly the importance of diversity in corporate leadership. This Article considers the intersection between the two. It describes how institutional investors have focused their attention on increasing diversity in corporate leadership, the potential motivations for that focus, and the impact of that focus, to date. It highlights the tensions that result from …

America’S Hidden Citizens: The Untold Stories Of The Unconscionable Deportations Of Its International Adoptees, Halley Cody

Seattle University Law Review

This Note addresses how the U.S. should rectify the harms it has perpetrated on non-citizen adoptees by amending the current deportation statutes to prevent their deportation. Part I addresses the history of adoption in the U.S. and related effects on immigration law. Part II highlights the stories of Adam Crapser and Philip Clay, who were adopted by American families who failed to naturalize them as minors, and who were subsequently deported after they sustained criminal records. Part III examines the policy goals behind deportation as a consequence of criminal convictions, as well as remedies instituted to prevent unwarranted deportation and …

Inadequate Privacy: The Necessity Of Hipaa Reform In A Post-Dobbs World, Katherine Robertson

Seattle University Law Review

Part I of this Comment will provide an overview of HIPAA and the legal impacts of Dobbs. Part II will discuss the anticipatory response to the impacts of Dobbs on PHI by addressing the response from (1) the states, (2) the Biden Administration, and (3) the medical field. Part III will discuss the loopholes that exist in HIPAA and further address the potential impacts on individuals and the medical field if reform does not occur. Finally, Part IV will argue that the reform of HIPAA is the best avenue for protecting PHI related to reproductive healthcare.

Universal Forms Of Influence: Support For Women On Boards, Cindy A. Schipani, Paula J. Caproni

Seattle University Law Review

There are various efforts underway to increase gender diversity on corporate boards, including legislation in California, a recent SEC approved comply or explain rule for companies listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange, and efforts by institutional investors such as State Street and BlackRock to recognize the value diversity brings to corporate decisionmaking. Although some of these efforts are being contested in the courts, many companies have begun to comply with these initiatives.

This Article is organized as follows. Part I provides an overview of several efforts to increase gender diversity on boards along with numerous research studies showcasing the benefits …

“Statistics Are Human Beings With The Tears Wiped Away”: Utilizing Data To Develop Strategies To Reduce The Number Of Native Americans Who Go Missing, Lori Mcpherson, Sarah Blazucki

Seattle University Law Review

On New Year’s Eve night, 2019, sixteen-year-old Selena Shelley Faye Not Afraid attended a party in Billings, Montana, about fifty miles west of her home in Hardin, Montana, near the Crow Reservation. A junior at the local high school, she was active in her community. The party carried over until the next day, and she caught a ride back toward home with friends in a van the following afternoon. When the van stopped at an interstate rest stop, Selena got out but never made it back to the van. The friends reported her missing to the police and indicated they …

Domestic Violence, Precarious Immigration Status, And The Complex Interplay Of Family Law And Immigration Law, Janet Mosher

Articles & Book Chapters

Survivors of domestic violence must frequently navigate multiple legal processes, as well as the various administrative systems that provide crucial supports and resources. For women with precarious immigration status, navigation is made all the more challenging not only because immigration and/or refugee law processes are added to the array of legal domains to be navigated, but because their access to supports and resources is both restrictive and in flux, shifting along with the changes in their immigration status.

Drawing from interviews with experienced lawyers and case law searches, I explore many of the intersections between family law and immigration law …

Nestlé V. Doe: A Death Knell To Corporate Human Rights Accountability?, Phillip Ayers

Seattle University Law Review

The Supreme Court in Nestlé v. Doe held that foreign plaintiffs who claimed to be victims of overseas tortious conduct by corporate defendants had no jurisdiction to sue in federal courts using the Alien Tort Statute. This Comment looks at the history of the Alien Tort Statute, from its inspiration, long dormancy, and recent reinvigoration beginning in the 1980s. The Comment then explores the background of Nestlé and its issues with child slavery in its cocoa supply chain. From there, the Comment analyzes the Nestlé v. Doe decision, and posits an alternative outcome. Finally, this Comment looks for a new …

Pregnant Workers Fairness Acts: Advancing A Progressive Policy In Both Red And Blue America, Deborah Widiss

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Pregnant workers often need small changes—such as permission to sit on a stool or to avoid heavy lifting—to stay on the job safely through a pregnancy. In the past decade, twenty-five states have passed laws that guarantee pregnant employees a right to reasonable accommodations at work. Despite the stark partisan divide in contemporary America, the laws have passed in both Republican- and Democratic-controlled states. This Essay offers the first detailed case study of this remarkably effective campaign, and it shows how it laid the groundwork for analogous federal legislation, passed in December 2022, that ensures workers across the country will …

Corporate Governance And Gender Equality: A Study Of Comply-Or-Explain Disclosure Regulation, Aaron A. Dhir, Sarah Kaplan, Maria Arabella Robles

Seattle University Law Review

In 2020, the Nasdaq Stock Market filed a proposal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seeking permission to adopt a board diversity-related disclosure requirement for its listed companies. In 2021, the SEC approved the proposal, thus entrenching Nasdaq’s position as the most significant stock exchange to date to mandate listing rules that reflect the intention of diversifying corporate boardrooms. Nasdaq’s movement into the diversity space is not the first attempt to address homogeneous boards in the U.S. In 2009, the SEC adopted a rule requiring publicly traded firms to report on whether they consider diversity in identifying director nominees. …

Judicial Ethics And The Eradication Of Racism, Dontay Proctor-Mills

Seattle University Law Review

In 2020, the Washington Supreme Court entrusted the legal community with working to eradicate racism from its legal system. Soon after, Washington’s Commission on Judicial Conduct (hereinafter the Commission) received a complaint about a bus ad for North Seattle College featuring King County Superior Court Judge David Keenan. Along with a photo of Judge Keenan’s face, the ad included the following language: “A Superior Court Judge, David Keenan got into law in part to advocate for marginalized communities. David’s changing the world. He started at North.” The Commission admonished Judge Keenan for violating the Code of Judicial Conduct, in part …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Why Corporate Boards Should Include Lgbtq+ People, Jeremy Mcclane, Darren Rosenblum

Seattle University Law Review

Corporate boardrooms sit at the heart of most of society’s most consequential decisions but fall far short of the diversity of our society. The current movement toward board diversification aims to remedy the underrepresentation of marginalized groups on corporate boards. More recently, some efforts have included LGBTQ+ people, even though the basis for their inclusion on corporate boards remains largely unstated. This Article examines both the normative and instrumental bases for LGBTQ+ inclusion in board diversity initiatives, articulating unspoken assumptions and linking LGBTQ+ people to the broader inclusion effort. In so doing, it begins to surface the unique issues LGBTQ+ …

Subsidiarity & Vulnerability Theory: A Case Study For Deepening The Relationship Between Catholic Social Teaching And The Responsive State, Nathaniel Romano

Catholic University Law Review

Religion and religious voices have long had a role to play in shaping community norms and values and public policy; this role continues in contemporary America. Yet, legitimate questions arise about the extent of this role and its place in a pluralist and democratic state. These questions are particularly pronounced when religion is perceived as partisan, a situation that seems apparent in contemporary America. Hoping to combat this perception, this paper explores the relationship between Catholic Social Teaching and Vulnerability Theory, aiming to show how religious values can inform legal theory across the political spectrum. This paper surveys both Catholic …

Living In A Legal Limbo: Mechanisms To “Fix” The Legal And Social Positions Of Unregistered Children In Indonesia, Hoko Horii, Theresia Dyah Wirastri

The Indonesian Journal of Socio-Legal Studies

This paper examines the reasons and consequences of a lacking birth-registration in Indonesia, as well as the mechanisms to ‘fix’ it. In order to avoid the legal and social consequences of the lack of registration, creative and ad-hoc solutions are crafted – not only by the individual families who face the problem, but also by their community, including local and state actors who are involved in the mechanisms and paperwork. These mechanisms exist also because of state’s reluctance to enforce regulation related to unregistered marriage and children born into unregistered marriage as these matters are religiously and culturally delicate. We …

Front Matter

Canadian Journal of Family Law

No abstract provided.

La Réception Au Québec Des Gestations Pour Autrui Délocalisées : La Filiation Post-Tourisme Procréatif En Mal D’Institution, Harith Al-Dabbagh

Canadian Journal of Family Law

L’essor de la gestation pour autrui transnationale, ces dernières décennies, a soulevé à l’égard du droit international privé des questions souvent épineuses. Au Québec, l’illicéité des conventions de mères porteuses a eu pour corollaire de pousser un certain nombre de couples en mal d’enfant à recourir à cette pratique à l’étranger où la loi locale l’autorise. La question est alors de savoir si l’enfant, né au terme de ce processus, peut voir sa filiation établie à l’égard du parent d’intention dépourvu du lien filial avec l’enfant. Après quelques tergiversations, la jurisprudence a admis, au nom de l’intérêt de l’enfant, …

(Mis)Recognition Of Customary Marriages: A Comparative Analysis Of Canadian And South African Family Law, Corbin W. Golding

Canadian Journal of Family Law

This paper explores the methods of recognizing customary marriages conducted between Indigenous participants within Canada and South Africa, respectively. It primarily focuses on the functional and philosophical consequences of these methods on the validity of the customary marriages. This paper begins by establishing the problem of misrecognition, which is an injustice that devalues and dehumanizes marital relationships that differ from the European norm. It then turns to an analysis of the forms of recognition in both Canada and South Africa. The former is examined through an investigation of historical case law and more recent constitutional issues, while the latter analysis …

The Influence Of Landmark Judgments And Statutory Changes On The Family Litigation Explosion: A Citation Network Analysis, Joseph Hickey, Lyndsay Campbell, Jörn Davidsen

Canadian Journal of Family Law

Family law in many countries has changed radically since the 1960s. However, despite family law’s central importance, few detailed quantitative analyses of the relationship between legal developments (landmark judgments and statutory changes) and the amount and subject of family litigation have been made. We examine this relationship using a unique dataset of citations among Canadian family law judgments from all levels of the court hierarchy. The network analysis draws attention to significant changes in law and legal practice over time. Not only did litigation increase overall, but the number of judgments involving multiple legal issues grew dramatically in the mid-1990s, …

A Gender-Based Approach To Historical Child Support: Comment On Colucci V Colucci, Jodi Lazare, Kelsey Warr

Canadian Journal of Family Law

In June 2021 the Supreme Court of Canada (the “Court”) released Colucci v Colucci, its second decision in twelve months dealing with the complex subject of historical (commonly referred to as retroactive) child support. The case worked a significant shift in the law, arguably the first major revision to the law since the Court’s initial consideration of historical child support in DBS, in 2006. This comment suggests that Colucci represents a new understanding of the way that claims for historical child support should be considered in Canadian family law. The comment argues that in changing the applicable framework, …

Antiabortion Civil Remedies And Unwed Fatherhood As Genetic Entitlement, Yvonne F. Lindgren

Faculty Works

Antiabortion civil remedy laws in effect in five states grant putative fathers the right to sue abortion providers for wrongful death regardless of their relationship to the gestating parent. While these laws represent an important new development in the movement to restrict the abortion right, they also expand parental recognition of unwed fathers. Constitutional law requires that unwed fathers who seek to assert parental rights must establish that they possess both biological connection and a relationship with their child or the gestating parent—what has come to be known as “biology-plus.” However, antiabortion civil remedy laws vest parental recognition and rights …

Online Legal Help-Seeking For Victims Of Intimate Partner Violence During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Christina S. Walker

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Legal, court, and criminal justice professionals regularly navigate court procedures and processes through online portals. They know where to locate applicable court rules, such as a specific section on a court website or a departmental contact. However, these tasks can be extremely daunting for laypersons seeking court assistance, especially for victims of violence who have limited time away from the abuser. To determine how state judicial branches make information available about protective order procedures and general information to a layperson, especially to victims of intimate partner violence, this study assessed court websites of five states where intimate partner violence (IPV) …

Determining Marriage Length In Support Calculations: Should Cohabitation Count?, Mark Strasser

Journal of Law and Policy

Many states have sought to make spousal support awards more predictable by linking them to marital length. States doing so must decide whether to include premarital cohabitation within the calculation determining marriage duration, which for many couples will significantly affect the ultimate determination. This Article discusses some of the difficulties in achieving consistency and predictability in marital length determinations, focusing on how the supreme courts in Massachusetts and North Dakota have sacrificed those goals in their attempts to achieve what they likely thought to be more equitable results in individual cases.