Family Law Commons^™

An Argument For The Inclusion Of Children Without Medicare, Raymond C. O'Brien

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Representing A Victim Of Domestic Violence, Catherine F. Klein, Leslye E. Orloff

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Domestic Partnership: Recognition And Responsibility, Raymond C. O'Brien

Scholarly Articles

A domestic partnership is a business or political recognition of two adults seeking to share benefits normally conferred upon married couples. To date, partnerships have conferred benefits only; the most logical progression is for partnerships to include responsibilities of support, commitment and obligation within the economic partnership construct of emerging family law. When this occurs, heterosexual couples may lack incentive, but homosexual couples will achieve surer due process recognition regardless of same-sex marriage litigation.

Civil, Constitutional And Criminal Justice Responses To Female Partner Abuse: Proposals For Reform, Mark Anthony Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

Female partner abuse -- the battering inflicted by heterosexual men upon their wives, common-law spouses and intimate partners -- is a pervasive phenomenon in North American society. Through a comparative analysis of the responses to female partner abuse in Buffalo (New York), Toronto and London (Ontario) this paper demonstrates that pro-arrest policing policies have a vital role in curbing conjugal violence. Nevertheless, any truly effective response to female partner abuse must link the criminal justice system with other areas of the law as well as community services. With this interdisciplinary approach as a governing paradigm, several reforms are proposed. These …

An Analysis Of Realistic Due Process Rights Of Children Versus Parents, Raymond C. O'Brien

Scholarly Articles

The purpose of this Article is to analyze the Santosky presupposition and demonstrate why it is misdirected. In particular, the Article posits that the clear and convincing standard adopted by the Court deprives the child of his or her due process rights. The minimum standard should be reduced to at least one of preponderance of the evidence. Such a standard would recognize the so-called parental presumption, i.e. the historical preference given to parents, but give greater recognition to the rights of the child.

This Article examines the due process concerns of parent and child from both a legal and a …

Coordinating Family Violence Cases: A Suggested Approach, Catherine F. Klein

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Providing Legal Protection For Battered Women: An Analysis Of State Statutes And Case Law, Catherine F. Klein, Leslye E. Orloff

Scholarly Articles

This Article presents a comprehensive survey of civil protection order statutes and state appellate opinions in all fifty jurisdictions, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. We examine recent developments and trends, and highlight innovations. We include recommendations for further legislative reform and for creative development of case law. We have incorporated available social science research, the published policies and recommendations of judicial authorities, and the legal literature written by domestic violence experts. Moreover, our recommendations are based on our experience as domestic violence advocates. Each of us has represented battered women in court for more than a decade.

In …

The Decontextualization Of Domestic Violence, Lisa G. Lerman

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Domestic Violence: The District Of Columbia’S New Mandatory Arrest Law, Catherine F. Klein

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Incest And Intrafamilial Child Abuse: Fatal Attractions Or Forced And Dangerous Liaisons?, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Aids: Perspective On The American Family, Raymond C. O'Brien

Scholarly Articles

This paper will focus on the probable impact of AIDS upon family law and family issues in America. Although it is still too early to tell precisely what effect AIDS will have in these areas, it is essential for lawyers and other professionals to begin a dialogue now in order to face the many challenges which lie ahead as the disease continues to spread and impact family relationships.

Among the many subjects discussed below is the likely trend that fear of infection and death will restrict the societal demand and acceptance of new definitions of family. In order to provide …

Fetal Abuse: Culpable Behavior By Pregnant Women Or Parental Immunity?, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate the pressing need of the law to take decisive action in imposing tort liability for willful and malicious conduct by drug addicted women during their pregnancy. Liability should be imposed notwithstanding the warnings from civil libertarians that the enforcement of such a policy would most assuredly give rise to "prenatal police patrols.'

The Case Of Baby M: Love’S Labor Lost, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Mediation Of Wife Abuse Cases: The Adverse Impact Of Informal Dispute Resolution On Women, Lisa G. Lerman

Scholarly Articles

This Article articulates a law enforcement critique of domestic violence mediation. It will explain the feminist view that mediation in abuse cases is based on misconceptions about the nature of wife abuse, and that mediation not only fails to protect women from subsequent violence, but also perpetuates their continued victimization.

The Article will recommend that other remedies be preferred over mediation. Recognizing that many programs will persist in mediation of wife abuse cases, however, the Article recommends that those programs should adopt procedures which will offer protection to victims of abuse, will make clear to the abuser that stopping the …

A Model State Act: Remedies For Domestic Abuse, Lisa G. Lerman

Scholarly Articles

The problem of domestic violence has been the subject of increasing national concern. In response to that concern, states have enacted legislation providing protection to victims of domestic violence, encouraging improved police enforcement of protection law's, and constructing appropriate legal sanctions against abusers. Drafting comprehensive legislation to address this problem is difficult because both civil and criminal remedies are needed, because the needs of battered women are diverse and complex, and because effective protection requires a coordinated response by courts, law enforcement agencies, mental health personnel, and the bar. While some new legislation on wife abuse has been enacted in …

Illegitimacy: Suggestion For Reform Following Mills V. Halbluetzel, Raymond C. O'Brien

Scholarly Articles

In the recent decision of Mills v. Habluetzel, the Supreme Court implies that as technology advances and scientific tests make the determination of biological paternity more certain, the state or governmental interest in avoiding evidentiary problems of false claims, will cease to justify the use of any facile statutory denials of substantive rights claimed by illegitimates First, in the advent of scientific ability to prove the fact of paternity, unrealistic legal prerequisites or statutory limitations extinguishing the rights of illegitimates will not prevail under a constitutional analysis. Second, the use of science implies greater inquiry into all aspects of the …

Freedom And Choice In Constitutional Law, John H. Garvey

Scholarly Articles

The constitutional rights of children, the mentally ill, and other legally incompetent persons have been the subject of much litigation in the past twenty years. In this Article, Professor Garvey develops a general theory to explain the different ways in which persons of diminished capacity can be said to enjoy constitutional protections. He first notes that, of the various constitutional provisions, only one kind -freedoms, which protect the right to make choices - pose serious difficulties when applied to persons of diminished capacity. He then proposes a hierarchy of ways in which we can attribute freedoms to such persons: the …

Divorce Law Practice (Part 2), Harvey L. Zuckman

Scholarly Articles

Part 2 of an overview of divorce law practice deals with custody and visitation arrangements, pretrial activities and the negotiation of separation and property settlement agreements. Part 1 discussed the initial interview, the problem of multiple clients, and the three kinds of separation agreements.

Divorce Law Practice (Part 3), Harvey L. Zuckman

Scholarly Articles

Part 3 of an overview of divorce law practice deals with contested and uncontested divorce trials, post divorce litigation, and multistate complications. Parts 1 and 2 discussed the initial interview, separation agreements, custody and visitation arrangements, and pretrial activities.

Artificial Insemination Redivivus: Permutations Within A Penumbra, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

Judicial and legislative action are needed in order to chart a course of stability for decision-making in the field of artificial insemination. Because of the lethargy and benign neglect of the medical profession itself in policing this area, the courts will be forced to impose new and higher standards of care and responsibility, thereby tightening the laws of malpractice. Additional clarifying legislation will also have to be enacted creating a presumption at law of legitimacy for the issue born of consensual AID and thereby establishing both the legal rights and duties of the consenting husband. Donor liability should be scrupulously …

Protection Of Battered Women: A Survey Of State Legislation, Lisa G. Lerman

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Divorce Law Practice (Part 1), Harvey L. Zuckman

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Child, Parent, State And The Due Process Clause: An Essay On The Supreme Court’S Recent Work, John H. Garvey

Scholarly Articles

This Article will suggest that the right of autonomy, which limits state control over children, should be considered to reside not in the child alone, but in the family, just as the right against state interference with the family structure resides in the family. The shift in focus from children's rights to family rights implicitly accounts for the mental, physical, and emotional differences between children and adults. Moreover, protecting a family's right of autonomy insures that decisions on behalf of the child will be made by those presumptively best able to make such decisions, the parents.

Guide To The New D.C. Marriage And Divorce Law, Harvey L. Zuckman

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Recent Developments In American Divorce Legislation, Harvey L. Zuckman

Scholarly Articles

The "no fault divorce" revolution continues apace. Since publication of Professor Fox's and my survey of non fault divorce legislation in the Journal of Family Law in the summer of 1973, seven more states have amended their divorce laws to provide in some way for non fault divorce. Today more than forty states are in the non fault column.

The Physician's Decision Making-Role In Abortion Cases, Raymond B. Marcin, Julia Marcin M.D.

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

The Aba Family Law Section V. The Nccusl: Alienation, Separation And Forced Reconciliation Over The Uniform Marriage And Divorce Act, Harvey L. Zuckman

Scholarly Articles

The movement for divorce reform in the United States is a natural reaction to the nearly unmixed evil spawned by the fault system of divorce inherited from the English ecclesiastical courts. The need to establish the fault of one spouse in order to obtain dissolution of the marriage led, in many cases, to unnecessary additional discord between the parties where the divorce was contested, collusion between them where it was not, and perjury, subornation of perjury and distortion of our system of justice in either situation. While the conviction that the system must be replaced by something better is not …

The Ferment In Divorce Legislation, Harvey L. Zuckman, William Fox

Scholarly Articles

Marriage as we know it in America is undergoing rigorous re-examination and even hostile attack in the last third of the twentieth century in part because of the doubt expressed in some quarters that this venerable institution meets the psychological and sociological needs of the mass of men and women. And since, as one wag has put it, marriage is the "cause" of divorce, one can expect great ferment in the area of divorce law as well. Such is in fact the case. The legislatures, the prime source of divorce law, after a period of neglect sometimes going back to …

Artificial Insemination: No Longer A Quagmire, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

With the recent decision in People v. Sorenson, a significant departure in ritualistic thinking in the area of domestic relations was signaled when it was determined that if a consenting husband allows an act of artificial insemination to be performed on his wife, and the positive result of the act is a child, the husband is-accordingly-liable for the child's support. No social stigma of illegitimacy will be imprinted on the child and no question of adultery can be raised as to the wife and donor or doctor.

Through A Test Tube Darkly: Artificial Insemination And The Law, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

Although written forty-four years ago, this article provides a foundational analysis of the then-nascent beginnings of the legalization of artificial insemination from the judicial posture taken by the state of California to the legislative stance of Oklahoma. Analyzing the consequences of artificial insemination by a donor (A.I.D.) and by a woman’s husband (A.I.H.), the consequences of these procedures on family law — and especially illegitimacy — inheritance, and adultery, are studied and evaluated.

In order to provide some degree of stability and predictability to this obviously contentious area within Law, Science, and Medicine, this article urges measured experimentation in genetics …