Family Law Commons^™

Surrogacy From The Perspectives Of Economic And Civil Liberties, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The field of law and economics, of which Judge Posner is the leading theorist, has offered a rich and sophisticated framework for thinking about a wide variety of problems at the interface of law and society. The theory, based on economic principles for understanding behavioral incentives and disincentives, is widely taught in law schools and is influential in scholarship. I have not always agreed with the application of the theory to complex problems of individual and group behavior, yet I constantly have been impressed with the elegance of the writing and analysis.

Judge Posner thinks about surrogacy arrangements in terms …

Divorce, Children's Welfare, And The Culture Wars, Elizabeth S. Scott

Faculty Scholarship

Are children harmed when their parents divorce? If so, should parents' freedom to end marriage be restricted? These questions have generated uncertainty and controversy in the decades since legal restraints on divorce have been lifted. During the 1970s and 80s, the traditional conviction that parents should stay together "for the sake of the children" was supplanted by a view that children are usually better off if their unhappy parents divorce. By this account, divorcing parents should simply try to accomplish the change in status with as little disruption to their children's lives as possible. This stance has been challenged sharply …

Family Development Deductions - An Alternative To Repealing The Estate Tax, Richard J. Kovach

University of Richmond Law Review

Opposing political and social interests have long conducted a vigorous debate on whether gratuitous transfers of wealth should invoke federal excise taxes. Attempts to eliminate wealth transfer taxes reached a peak in the summer of 2000, when the Senate passed repeal legislation overwhelmingly approved by the House of Representatives. Those supporting repeal point out that wealth transfer taxation discourages work and savings while encouraging consumption. They further assert that transfer taxation revenue does not constitute a very significant portion of total federal revenue. The supporters of repeal also emphasize how the complexity of these taxes has created a parasitic service …

Self-Defense And Subjectivity, Victoria Nourse

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The law of self-defense has rarely produced as much academic or popular heat as it has in the past two decades. Widely publicized trials, such as the Goetz and Menendez cases, have generated deep-seated fears of a law unmoored from principle. Those fears have generated a standard public critique--that the criminal law has become too soft and subjective, too wedded to syndrome science and prone to weak-kneed affection for defendants. The criminal law has lost its "objectivity," so the argument goes. The poster child, and even the alleged cause of this development, is the battered woman.

In this article, the …

Family Law: Whose Kids Are They, Anyway?: Analyzing Troxel V. Granville And The Current State Of Oklahoma's Grandparent Visitation Statute, Natania M. Soto

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Care As A Public Value: Linking Responsibility, Resources, And Republicanism, Linda C. Mcclain

Faculty Scholarship

I begin this Article with the preceding two statements concerning care for children because they focus on the relationship between resources and responsibility and capture two conflicting approaches to that relationship. The first statement resists a definition of "responsibility" that leaves out the work of social reproduction, that is, of caring for children and preparing them to take their place as responsible, self-governing members of society. Highlighting the lack of resources that poor parents face when tackling the work of social reproduction, the statement also suggests common ground among parents across class lines as to the importance of caring for …

Separated Spouses, Joanna L. Grossman

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Foster Care: The Border Of Family Identity Maintaining, (Re)Creating, Destroying, Zanita E. Fenton

Articles

No abstract provided.

"Please Let Me Be Heard:" The Right Of A Florida Foster Child To Due Process Prior To Being Committed To A Long-Term, Locked Psychiatric Institution, Bernard P. Perlmutter, Caroline S. Salisbury

Articles

No abstract provided.

Law, Marriage, And Intimate Commitment, Milton C. Regan

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Does society have any interest in the stability of marriage per se - that is, apart from any concerns about the impact of divorce on children or financially dependent spouses? Should law try in any way to reinforce an ethic of commitment in marriage as a good in and of itself? . . . Two social trends make this a timely issue. First is the steady erosion of the link between marriage and procreation over the last generation. More married couples do not have children; more children are born outside of marriage. A second trend is the rise of unmarried …

Calibrated Commitment: The Legal Treatment Of Marriage And Cohabitation, Milton C. Regan

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

A couple of points are worth making at the outset of my argument. First, I speak in this Essay primarily about the extension of benefits to domestic partners, rather than the imposition of duties upon them. That is because this has been the focus of most of the debate about the legal treatment of married and unmarried couples. I readily acknowledge, however, that a fuller debate would consider not only when domestic partners should be given rights, but also when they should assume certain responsibilities. Indeed, as I will make clear, one reason for rejecting certain claims by unmarried couples …

A Family Affair: Constitutional And Prudential Interests Implicated When Homosexuals Seek To Preserve Or Create Parent-Child Relationships, Kif Skidmore

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Vermont Civil Unions, Full Faith And Credit, And Marital Status, Lewis A. Silverman

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Foreword, Edward D. Spurgeon, Charles P. Sabatino, Nancy M. Coleman, Stephen R. Mcconnell, Rebecca C. Morgan

Georgia Law Review

The Joint Conference on Legal/Ethical Issues in the Progression of Dementia grew out of the pressing need to address the very real legal and ethical dilemmas that arise in situations like the one of Marie McDonough Larson and her family. Five groups joined forces to sponsor the Conference: the Borchard Foundation Center on Law and Aging; the Alzheimer's Association; the American Bar Association's Commission on Legal Problems of the Elderly; the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys; and the University of Georgia School of Law. Held at the Center for Continuing Education at the University of Georgia, the Conference spanned …