Family Law Commons^™

A Search For Reason In Fairy Tales, John F. Fernandez

St. Thomas Law Review

A fairy1 tale: Once upon at time (not so very long ago), in a land (not so far away) lived a beautiful queen (well, actually a "runner up ") with a golden voice. The beautiful queen reined over her people and sang of sunshine. Some of the queen's subjects had felt that they were not treated fairly by the laws of the land and sought to have their unfair treatment prohibited. Apparently, this caused the queen to develop a fear and hatred for these subjects. These subjects had done nothing to the queen. Yet, the queen made it her mission …

Opening Another Exit From Child Welfare For Special Needs Children - Why Some Gay Men And Lesbians Should Have The Privilege To Adopt Children In Florida, Cynthia R. Mabry

St. Thomas Law Review

This article addresses the question of whether some gay and lesbian adults should be permitted to adopt any children in the State of Florida, especially children with special needs. Part I more clearly describes children with special needs. Part II discusses who may adopt special needs children. Part III briefly covers gay and lesbian adoption statistics. Part IV sets forth general and specific factors that may be used in determining whether a particular gay man or lesbian is suitable for adopting children in Florida. This section also enumerates and discusses reasons that are offered to support bans on same-sex adoption. …

Pulpits And Platforms: The Role Of The Church In Determining Protest Among Black Americans, Scott T. Fitzgerald, Ryan Spohn

Center on Children, Families, and the Law: Faculty Publications

This article further specifies the relationship between church-based resources, group identification and political activism among black Americans. Previous research indicates that political communication within churches and activism within the church serve to motivate political participation. Our research suggests that, net of relevant controls, activism within the church does not significantly increase protest politics. A key determinant of protest participation is attending a church that exhibits a politicized church culture, and this effect is contingent upon educational attainment and membership in secular organizations. Hence, the church serves as a crucial context for the dissemination of political messages and exposure to opportunities …

Contesting Conservatisms, Family Feuds And The Privatization Of Dependency, Brenda Crossman

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

The End Of Poverty: Economic Possibilities For Our Time By Jeffrey Sachs Penguin Press, 2005, Elizabeth Hahn

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Border Crossings: Understanding The Civil, Criminal, And Immigration Implications For Battered Immigrants (And Others) Fleeing Across State Lines With Their Children, Catherine F. Klein, Leslye E. Orloff, Hema Sarangapani

Scholarly Articles

This article provides an overview of the impact of state criminal parental kidnapping or custodial interference statutes on immigrant survivors of domestic violence who already have left or wish to leave their state with their children. Specifically, it discusses the jurisdictional laws that relate to interstate custody, criminal implications of intrastate versus interstate custodial interference, the varying applicability of custodial interference statutes for parents who do and do not have court-ordered custody of their children, statutory exceptions or defenses available to survivors of domestic violence facing prosecution on charges of criminal parental kidnapping, and immigration consequences related to a conviction …

Marriage, Divorce, And Inheritance Laws In Sierra Leone And Their Discriminatory Effects On Women, Pamela O. Davies

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

The Profits And Penalties Of Kinship: Conflicting Meanings Of Family In Estate Tax Law, Bridget J. Crawford

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article critically examines the conflicting estate tax definitions of family in I.R.C. Sections 2036, 2032A and 6166. The sections use terms such as family and related in ways that conflict with each other and with lay understanding of the terms. From an historical perspective, the multiple estate tax definitions reflect the Code sections' distinct purposes. From a theoretical perspective, they acknowledge the personal and economic interconnectedness within families as well as diversity in the structure of family arrangements. The existing definitions of family fall short, however, in that they fail to recognize the full range of associational arrangements that …

Squeezing Subjectivity From The Doctrine Of Unconscionability, Paul Bennett Marrow

Cleveland State Law Review

Issues of unconscionability are most often encountered in two arenas: commercial agreements and family law agreements. In the first arena this Article proposes that the analysis should focus on the impact of a suspect term on the integrity of the contracting system or to an enabling statute. If a contract term materially undermines or compromises the integrity of the system for contracting or the integrity of an enabling statute, it should be found unconscionable. In the family law arena things differ because of the substance of the relationships involved and because the need for mutual consideration is de-emphasized. Accordingly, in …

How Parents And Children Disappear In Our Courts - And Why It Need Not Ever Happen Again, James A. Cosby

Cleveland State Law Review

Part One of this Article further examines those moral, factual and legal dynamics in the family that make these cases so difficult. Part Two summarizes the present state of the law, and demonstrates precisely where and why the current legal approach is falling short. I will show how the law specifically fails to adequately define the rights of parents, substantively as well as procedurally and, I will furthermore demonstrate how, in their current forms, the doctrines of parental autonomy and the best interests of the child are far too broad and too rigid for many cases involving the parent-child relationship. …

Differentiating Types Of Domestic Violence: Implications For Child Custody, Nancy Ver Steegh

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines child custody determinations through the lens of a domestic violence typology. The resulting analysis (1) reconciles competing viewpoints and contradictory evidence about domestic violence; (2) matches families with appropriate child custody court procedures and services such as parent education, mediation, supervised visitation and parent coordination; and (3) exposes serious deficiencies in current domestic violence childcustody statutes.

An Empirically-Supported Rational Basis For Prohibiting Adoption, Foster Parenting, And Contested Child Custody By Any Person Residing In A Household That Includes A Homosexually-Behaving Member, George A. Rekers

St. Thomas Law Review

Representative empirical evidence and common sense reasoning are reviewed below which necessitate the logical conclusion that households with one or more homosexually-behaving adults or adolescents should be prohibited from adoption and from foster parenting, and were found to be less capable of providing the best family structure in cases of contested child custody. Hundreds of additional scientific studies also support these three reasons for this rational basis, but space limitations necessitate the presentation of only a number of representative sources of supporting evidence here.

Trends On (Inter-Country) Adoption By Gay And Lesbian Couples In Western Europe, Paul Vlaardingerbroek

St. Thomas Law Review

In this article I will analyze Western European developments in the field of (inter-country) adoption by homosexuals. Some countries have accepted the legal possibility of adoption by homosexual individuals and/or couples, although this does not mean that in all cases children can be adopted by lesbian and gay persons. There are several restrictions on intercountry adoption. The jurisprudence of the European Court on Human Rights with regard to adoption by homosexuals is still rather restrictive. In this article, I will analyze the following questions: whether it is a human right to adopt or to be adopted; and, if adoption should …

The Inner Lives Of Children In Lesbigay Adoption: Narratives And Other Concerns, Lynn D. Wardle

St. Thomas Law Review

This article attempts to review some of the serious, non-stereotyped concerns that underlie some of the objections of thoughtful legal commentators to adoption of children by gay and lesbian couples or partners. These objections fall into four categories of significant concern: (1) the best interests of children, (2) the integrity of the legal institution of adoption, (3) inappropriate judicial behavior, including manifestation of bias and animus, and the exercise of (legislative) policy-making prerogatives, and (4) the failure to explore, much less carefully consider, alternative solutions (and the hasty abandonment of processes of careful, incremental change to embrace a radical, but …

Family Norms In Adoption Law: Safeguarding The Best Interests Of The Adopted Child, Camille S. Williams

St. Thomas Law Review

Because a number of negative circumstances or outcomes correlate with non-conjugal couple household structures and alternative sexualities, 6 lowering the high standard for adoptive parents that has been the hallmark of best adoption practices in the U.S. may not be the best option for addressing the needs of children whose biological parents cannot care for them.

Adult Sexual Desire And The Best Interest Of The Child, Richard G. Wilkins, Trent Christensen, Eric Selden

St. Thomas Law Review

In Lofton v. Secretary of the Department of Children and Family Services, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit sustained Florida's legislative decision to restrict adoption to heterosexual married couples or unmarried individuals not engaged in homosexual conduct. The court rejected claims by prospective homosexual parents that Florida had impermissibly intruded upon their familial privacy rights, unconstitutionally burdened their right to private sexual intimacy, and - by treating homosexual applicants for adoption differently than heterosexual applicants - transgressed the commands of the Equal Protection Clause. The court properly rejected these contentions. All of the plaintiffs' claims ultimately …

Cautionary Tales Of Adoption: Addressing The Litigation Crisis At The Moment Of Adoption, Elizabeth Brandt

Articles

No abstract provided.

African American Intimacy: The Racial Gap In Marriage, R. Richard Banks, Su Jin Gatlin

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This essay is divided into three parts. Part I documents the extent of the racial gap in marriage. Part II uses the marriage patterns of affluent Black men in particular to speculate about how the relationships of Black men and women might be influenced by the relative numbers of men and women and the men's socioeconomic characteristics in ways that depress marriage rates. Part III connects the low rate of marriage among African Americans to the differing interracial marriage rates of Black men and women.

Achieving Batterer Accountability In The Child Protection System, Leigh Goodmark

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Policy Brief - Infant Care In Nebraska: Characteristics Of Providers, Quality Of Care, And Parent Perceptions, Kathy Thornburg, Helen Raikes, Brian Wilcox, Carolyn P. Edwards, Julia C. Torquati, Susan Hegland, Carla Peterson, Jean Ann Summers, Jane Atwater

Center on Children, Families, and the Law (and Related Organizations): Publications

In 2001, university researchers and state program partners in Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska initiated the Midwest Child Care Research Consortium. A random sample of 2,022 child care providers from all four states participated in the study representing licensed infant, toddler, and preschool centers and including Head Start and Early Head Start programs, license-exempt centers, and licensed and unlicensed family child care homes. In Nebraska, 508 providers participated in telephone interviews and 85 of those programs were randomly selected for an observational quality assessment. This report summarizes the survey responses of 236 Nebraska professionals providing care for infants and toddlers, …

Policy Brief: Compensation Of Early Childhood Teachers: What Value Do We Place On Young Children?, Kathy Thornburg, Helen Raikes, Brian Wilcox, Carolyn P. Edwards, Julia C. Torquati, Susan Hegland, Carla Peterson, Jean Ann Summers, Jane Atwater

Center on Children, Families, and the Law (and Related Organizations): Publications

In 2001, university researchers and state program partners in four states (Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska) initiated the Midwest Child Care Research Consortium (MCCRC). The focus of the Consortium’s work is to conduct a longitudinal study on a range of issues associated with early childhood program quality and the workforce. Across the four states, a random sample of 2,022 child care providers participated in the study representing licensed infant, toddler, and preschool centers as well as Head Start and Early Head Start programs, license-exempt centers, and licensed and unlicensed family child care homes. In Nebraska, 508 providers participated in telephone …

Non-Adversarial Case Resolution, Donald N. Duquette

Book Chapters

Professionals who work with children and parents have become increasingly dissatisfied with the customary reliance on the traditional adversarial system in resolving family-related disputes, including cases involving children's protection, placement, and permanent care. The power struggle in contested cases and hearings relating to child welfare may foster hostility among the parties and dissipate money, energy, and attention that could otherwise be used to solve problems cooperatively. Parties may become polarized, open communication may be discouraged, and there may be little investment in information sharing and joint problem solving. Children may suffer when adversarial tensions escalate and ameliorative services are delayed.

Representing Children And Youth, Donald N. Duquette, Marvin Ventrell

Book Chapters

Quality legal representation of all parties is essential to a high-functioning dependency court process. Quality legal representation of children in particular is essential in obtaining good outcomes for children. An adversarial court process that depends on competing independent advocacy to provide information will not produce good outcomes for litigants who lack competent advocates. Dependency court decisions are as good as the information on which the decisions are based. In order to promote the welfare of children in dependency court, therefore, children must be provided with competent independent legal representation.

Federal Child Welfare Law And Policy: Understanding The Federal Law And Funding Process., Miriam Rollin, Frank Vandervort, Ann M. Haralambie

Book Chapters

This chapter provides an overview of federal and uniform statutes that impact the practice of child welfare law.

Criminal Prosecution And Civil Remedies For Victims Of Sexual Offenses: Amendment Of The Rape Shield Law, Carol E. Jordan, Elizabeth S. Hughes, Mary Jo Gleason

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

In 2003, the Kentucky Supreme Court adopted the amended KRS 412, effectively making the language of KRE 412 consistent with the analogous Federal Rule of Evidence 412. Now, as in federal court, the provisions of the Rape Shield Law apply in both criminal and civil cases to govern when and how evidence of a victim's alleged sexual behavior or sexual predisposition may be introduced. The article describes the intent of the original Rape Shield Law and the implications of its amended version in both civil and criminal cases.

'Til Death Do Us Part ... After That, My Dear, You're On Your Own: A Practitioner's Guide To Disinheriting A Spouse In Illinois, 29 S. Ill. U. L.J. 207 (2005), Ronald Z. Domsky

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

You May Never See Your Child Again: The Batterer's Visitation Rights To Protect Children From Future Abuse, Prentice L. White

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Legal Images Of Fatherhood: Welfare Reform, Child Support Enforcement, And Fatherless Children, Jane C. Murphy

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article analyzes the issue of paternity disestablishment, an issue courts and legislatures have been struggling with over the last several years. For a variety of reasons explored in this Article, an increasing number of fathers have filed requests to set aside paternity orders seeking to be relieved of the legal obligations of fatherhood. As a result families have been destabilized and children are becoming fatherless. The implications for the future of the family are profound. Although some scholars have examined this phenomenon, none have addressed the link between paternity disestablishment and welfare reform.

This Article explores the law's evolving …

The Unconstitutionality Of Oklahoma's Statute Denying Recognition To Adoptions By Same-Sex Couples From Other States, Robert G. Spector

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

For The Well-Being Of Minnesota’S Foster Children: What Federal Legislation Requires, Gail Chang Bohr

William Mitchell Law Review

This article will discuss the federal legislation and regulations—ASFA and CFSR—that hold the states accountable for the health and well-being of children and adolescents in foster care. This article will also discuss how the Early Periodic Screening Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) program, the comprehensive health care services that states are required to provide through Medicaid, is used to address the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents in foster care. Critical to a discussion on the well-being of foster youth is the Chafee Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 that emphasized the states’ responsibility to ensure that youth in foster …