Family Law Commons^™

Toward A Private Law Of Intimates' Obligations, Emily J. Stolzenberg

Faculty Publications

When former cohabitants ask courts to distribute property at the end of a nonmarital relationship, they usually lose—even when the partners were as economically intertwined as spouses. Family law scholars have traditionally criticized these cases in terms of longstanding gendered ideas about family relationships. This Article proposes a complementary account at the intersection of feminist and private law theory: that the law of voluntary obligations is not adequately developed to protect intimates’ cooperation. Although marital status law aims to safeguard thick cooperation between spouses and contract law captures a range of more market-based cooperation, for historically contingent reasons, little doctrine …

Protecting Dependent Children In Bankruptcy, Michael D. Sousa, L. Alexis Whitley Esq.

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Justice Delayed By Design: The Harms Of Our Protracted Divorce System, Laurie S. Kohn

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Same-Sex Parental Rights: How Relying On Mutual Consent At The Time Of Artificial Insemination And Childbirth Can Uphold Legal Parentage Of Separated Same-Sex Couples, Danielle M. Digrazia

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Nonconsensual Family Obligations, Emily Stolzenberg

Faculty Publications

Even as the pandemic has both highlighted and compounded the challenges many U.S. families face in meeting their members’ basic needs, efforts to expand public subsidies for caretaking have gained little traction. Scholars have identified many historical and practical reasons for Americans’ entrenched skepticism toward the welfare state. Ideas matter, too, and this Article uncovers and critiques one that works to limit collective financial responsibility for families: the conviction that family support obligations must be legitimated through consent.

In family law, as in liberal political theory, consent works to reconcile state regulation with individual freedom. But because consent is a …

Properties Of Intimacy, Emily J. Stolzenberg

Faculty Publications

Today, nearly nineteen million U.S. adults are cohabiting with an intimate partner. Yet family law continues to struggle with the question whether these unmarried partners should have relationship-based rights in one another’s property. Generally speaking, states answer “no.” Because cohabitants are not spouses, they’re treated like strangers. As a result, their property rights usually follow title, and richer partners tend to walk away with a large proportion of the property acquired during the relationship. This Article shows the “cohabitant problem” to be no anomaly, but rather the clearest manifestation of family law’s overarching structure. In marital property regimes as well …

Collaborative Family-Making: From Acquisition To Interconnection, Pamela Laufer-Ukeles

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

The New Family Freedom, Emily J. Stolzenberg

Faculty Publications

In family law, “autonomy” has traditionally meant freedom from state interference in one’s intimate life. This Article describes an emergent, libertarian vision of autonomy as property rights that also demands freedom from other family members. This conception, “choice about obligations,” holds redistribution of resources between intimates to be illegitimate unless the richer party “chose” to take on financial obligations ex ante by ceremonially marrying or formally contracting. But as more people conduct their intimate lives outside these legal institutions, choice about obligations increasingly collides with another, more fundamental, family law principle: the imperative to “privatize dependency,” i.e., to redistribute resources …

What To Expect When Someone Is Expecting For You: New Jersey Needs To Protect Parties To Gestational Surrogacy Agreements Following In Re T.J.S., Melissa Ruth

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

The Virtue Of Obscurity, Colin Starger

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

This essay is the third in a series exploring the implications of the recent landmark Supreme Court case, United States v. Windsor. Specifically, this essay responds to the first essay in this series, SOMETHING TO (LEX LOCI) CELEBRATIONIS, by Megan Penrose. This discussion was inspired by Meg Penrose’s article, UNBREAKABLE VOWS: SAME-SEX MARRIAGE AND THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO DIVORCE, published in Volume 58:1. The series is meant to serve as an open forum for scholars and practitioners to weigh in on one of the most significant Supreme Court decisions of the 21st century.

Querying Edith Windsor, Querying Equality, Jeffrey A. Redding

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

This essay is the second in a series exploring the implications of the recent landmark Supreme Court case, United States v. Windsor. Specifically, the essay intends to “sound some skepticism…about the majority opinion…and especially the vision of equality articulated by it.” This discussion was inspired by Meg Penrose’s article, UNBREAKABLE VOWS: SAME-SEX MARRIAGE AND THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO DIVORCE, published in Volume 58:1. The series is meant to serve as an open forum for scholars and practitioners to weigh in on one of the most significant Supreme Court decisions of the 21st century.

Something To (Lex Loci) Celebrationis?, Meg Penrose

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

This essay is the first in a series exploring the implications of the recent landmark Supreme Court case, United States v. Windsor. This discussion was inspired by Meg Penrose’s article, UNBREAKABLE VOWS: SAME-SEX MARRIAGE AND THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO DIVORCE, published in Volume 58:1. The series is meant to serve as an open forum for scholars and practitioners to weigh in on one of the most significant Supreme Court decisions of the 21st century.

United States V. Windsor And The Future Of Civil Unions And Other Marriage Alternatives, John G. Culhane

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

This essay is the fourth in a series exploring the implications of the recent landmark Supreme Court case, United States v. Windsor. Specifically, this essay focuses on the future of civil unions. This discussion was inspired by Meg Penrose’s article, UNBREAKABLE VOWS: SAME-SEX MARRIAGE AND THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO DIVORCE, published in Volume 58:1. The series is meant to serve as an open forum for scholars and practitioners to weigh in on one of the most significant Supreme Court decisions of the 21st century.

Caregiver Payments And The Obligation To Give Care Or Share, Merle H. Weiner

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

“The Pursuit Of Happiness” Comes Home To Roost? Same-Sex Union, The Summum Bonum, And Equality, Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Working Paper Series

John Locke understood human happiness to amount to the removal of "uneasiness." This paper argues that,to the extent that the United States is a nation dedicated to "the pursuit of happiness" understood as the removal of "uneasiness," same-sex unions or marriages should be given legal recognition. While Locke defended a variation on traditional marriage on the grounds of progenitiveness and care for dependent offspring, his more foundational commitment to the importance of the removal of uneasiness precludes, on pain of inconsistency, limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples. This paper argues, furthermore, that conservatives and neo-conservatives who celebrate this nation's being …

Unbreakable Vows: Same-Sex Marriage And The Fundamental Right To Divorce, Meg Penrose

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

All Dogs Go To Heaven... Or Divorce Court: New Jersey Unleashes A Subjective Value Consideration To Resolve Pet Custody Litigation In Houseman V. Dare, Eric Kotloff

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Same-Sex Marriage And The Establishment Clause, Geoffrey R. Stone

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

What Yoder Wrought: Religious Disparagement, Parental Alienation And The Best Interests Of The Child, Jeffrey Shulman

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

A Privacy Right To Public Recognition Of Family Relationships - The Cases Of Marriage And Adoption, David D. Meyer

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Let's Talk About Sex: School Surveys And Parents' Fundamental Right To Make Decisions Concerning The Upbringing Of Their Children, Robert Kubica

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Legalizing Families: Solutions To Adjudicate Parentage For Lesbian Co-Parents, Margaret S. Osborne

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Embryo Donation: Unresolved Legal Issues In The Transfer Of Surplus Cryopreserved Embryos, Charles P. Kindregan Jr., Maureen Mcbrien

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Building A Doll's House: A Feminist Analysis Of Marital Debt Dischargeability In Bankruptcy, Peter C. Alexander

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Day Care And Parental Employment: What Weight Should They Be Given In Child Custody Disputes, Debra L. Swank

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Termination Of Parental Rights: The Psychological Parent Standard, Vanessa L. Warzynski

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Family Surrogate Laws: A Necessary Supplement To Living Wills And Durable Powers Of Attorney, Ardath A. Hamann

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Custody Rights Of Gay And Lesbian Parents, David M. Rosenblum

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Getting The Facts: Empirical Evaluation And The Constitutionality Of Pre-Abortion Parental Notification Statutes, Stephen J. Anderer

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

The Pennsylvania Protection From Abuse Act: 1988 Amendments Provide Greater Protection To Victims Of Domestic Violence, Ellen S. Frank

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.