Family Law Commons^™

In Re Marriage Of Blackman And Blackman, 2008-Ca-100 (Blkft. Tr. Ct. App., Jun. 15, 2010), Blackfeet Appellate Court

Blackfeet Tribe

In the Blackfeet Tribal Court of Appeals, the Court held that Blackfeet Law and Order Code, Chapter 11 only allows appeal from final judgment. Because no final judgment had been rendered by the lower court, the appeal was without merit.

After Buffalo V. Burd, 2010-Ap-06 (Blkft. Tr. Ct. App., Jun. 15, 2010), Blackfeet Appellate Court

Blackfeet Tribe

In the Blackfeet Tribal Court of Appeals, the Court overturned the lower court’s reward of alimony, finding that Blackfeet Tribal Code does not have a law regarding alimony. The Court also dismissed a restraining order because there was nothing in the pleading to substantiate the need for a restraining order and the lower court did not hold a hearing regarding it.

Tribe V. Pepion, 2010-J-308 (Blkft. Tr. Ct. App., Jun. 15, 2010), Blackfeet Appellate Court

Blackfeet Tribe

In the Blackfeet Tribal Court of Appeals, the Court found that the Tribe had repeatedly violated the rights of Pepion, a minor, and had not followed the Blackfeet Family Code. The Court voided any outstanding probation obligations of Pepion.

Privatizing Family Law In The Name Of Religion, Robin Fretwell Wilson

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Embryo Fundamentalism, June Carbone, Naomi Cahn

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Private Relationships And Public Problems: Applying Principles Of Relational Contract Theory To Domestic Violence, Tamara L. Kuennen

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sprawl, Family Rhythms, And The Four-Day Work Week, Katharine B. Silbaugh

Faculty Scholarship

We evaluate the four-day work week against the background of other institutional and social practices and constraints. But we fix these other variables when considering the value of this work reform. For example, workers enjoy the commute time and expense savings associated with a four-day week. These savings would mean little if the commutes in question were negligible. Therefore, the value of the four-day work week depends in part on the social history that gave us increasingly substantial commutes. This Article seeks to highlight some of the institutional practices that influence the adoption of a four-day work week, particularly those …

The Fallacy Of Neutrality From Beginning To End: The Battle Between Religious Liberties And Rights Based On Homosexual Conduct, Rena M. Lindevaldsen

Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Bible plainly states that everyone must either "bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" or continue as "enemies in your mind." Un-Biblical thinking, like un-Bibical actions, leads one on a path away from God. Part II of this Article will briefly introduce a Biblical approach to thinking about contemporary issues and discuss how Christians can unwittingly abandon distinctively Biblical thinking under the guise of neutrality. Part III will present a number of cases that highlight the fallacy of neutrality in the battle between religious liberties and rights based on homosexual conduct. Part IV will contend that …

Sadowski V. United States Postal Service: One Step Closer To Delivering A Resolution To The Dispute On Individual Liability For Public Employees Under The Family And Medical Leave Act Of 1993, Leila Early

North Carolina Central Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Power Of The Parental Trump Card: How And Why Frazier V. Winn Got It Right, Jocelyn Floyd

Chicago-Kent Law Review

When two fundamental rights are in conflict, such that the protection of one requires the infringement of the other, courts must weigh those rights against each other to determine which is ultimately greater. In Frazier v. Winn, the Eleventh Circuit dealt with precisely such an issue: specifically, the rights of parents pitted against those of their children. This note explores the history of both parental rights and student's rights in school to show why the court appropriately affirmed that children's right to free speech is only as expansive as their parents allow, justified by the parents' fundamental right to …

(Re)Constructing The Framework Of Work/Family, Nancy E. Dowd

UF Law Faculty Publications

When we talk about the connections between work, family, and marriage, what are our assumptions or our implicit model? In this essay, I hope to expose the importance of questioning the framework within which we operate. Marriage continues to be a core focus of the typical family law course. As a matter of public policy, supporting and valuing marriage, and concern about the conflict between work and family because of the strains it imposes on marriage, makes balancing work and family within a marital framework a focus of law and policy.

In this essay, I argue that we need to …

The Meaning Of Marriage: Immigration Rules And Their Implications For Same-Sex Spouses In A World Without Doma, Scott C. Titshaw

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

An estimated 35,000 U.S. citizens are living in our country with same-sex foreign partners, but these couples have no right to stay here together on the basis of their relationship. Many of these Americans are faced with a choice between their partners and the country they love. This is true even if the couple is legally married in one of the growing number of U.S. states and foreign countries that recognize same-sex marriage. The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines “marriage” for all federal purposes as an exclusively heterosexual institution, stands squarely in their way. Reform options that would …

Disestablishing The Family, Alice Ristroph

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Whose Best Interests?: Custody And Access Law And Procedure, Noel Semple

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article compares the law of custody and access disputes with the procedure used to resolve them. The author argues that there is a fundamental contradiction between the two. The former focuses on the interests of the children involved to the exclusion of everything else. The latter, however, is controlled by and designed to protect the rights and interests of the adult parties to the dispute. Despite their doctrinal centrality in custody and access law, children are usually silent and invisible in custody and access procedure. To resolve this contradiction, the author proposes a focus on the costs and benefits …

Equal Access And The Right To Marry, Nelson Tebbe, Deborah A. Widiss

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

How should courts think about the right to marry? This is a question of principle, of course, but it has also become a matter of litigation strategy for advocates challenging different-sex marriage requirements across the country. We contend that courts and commentators have largely overlooked the strongest argument in support of a constitutional right to marry. In our view, the right to marry is best conceptualized as a matter of equal access to government support and recognition and the doctrinal vehicle that most closely matches the structure of the right can be found in the fundamental interest branch of equal …

The Collateral Consequences Of Masculinizing Violence, Jamie Abrams

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Before an enraged gunman fired thirty-six deadly shots into an exercise class filled with women, on August 4, 2009, in Pennsylvania, he blogged that his killing spree was the result of his failure to meet society’s expectations of him as a man. This violent act tragically affirms that hegemonic masculinity – a dominant form of masculinity whereby some types of men have power over women and over some other men – can directly cause violence against women and reveals both the underlying connection between masculinities scholarship and feminist scholarship and the value in exploring that linkage further in both theory …

Revitalizing The Adversary System In Family Law, Jane C. Murphy

All Faculty Scholarship

The way in which families resolve disputes has undergone dramatic change over the last decade. Scholars have focused much attention on a number of substantive law changes that have contributed to this transformation. These include the changing definitions of marriage, parenthood, and families. But less attention has been paid to the enormous changes that have taken place in the processes surrounding family dispute resolution. These changes have been even more comprehensive and have fundamentally altered the way in which disputing families interact with the legal system. Both the methods and goals of legal intervention for families in conflict have changed, …

Parental Entitlement And Corporal Punishment, James G. Dwyer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Essay: (Re)Constructing The Framework Of Work/Family, Nancy E. Dowd

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Partitioning Paternity: The German Approach To A Disjuncture Between Genetic And Legal Paternity With Implications For American Courts, Shelly Ann Kamei

San Diego International Law Journal

This paper will address the strengths and weaknesses of the German approach as well as the potential use of this approach by American states, with particular emphasis given to the conflict between the right to know one’s origins and a child’s right to care and support. Part II discusses the challenge of defining legal paternity in an age of genetic certainty. It will first give a brief explanation of how courts have used functional–social and genetic considerations in defining legal paternity. It will then evaluate the legal implications of this approach on the rights of the father, mother, and child. …

Editor's Note

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Class Differences In Women’S Family And Work Behaviors, Sharon Sassler, Amanda J. Miller

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

The Browning Of America—Multicultural And Bicultural Families In Conflict: Making Culture A Customary Factor For Consideration In Child Custody Disputes, Cynthia R. Mabry

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

The Children's Rights Amendment And Family Law, Fergus Ryan

Other resources

This blog entry is part of a carnival blog posted to http://humanrightsinireland.wordpress.com/ It addresses the provisions of the proposed constitutional amendment on children's rights, as formulated by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children, published in February 2010. This brief comment analyses the proposal, with particular reference to its potential impact on children in non-traditional family units.

Check-The-Box Regs And Gift Tax Discounts, Wendy G. Gerzog

All Faculty Scholarship

This article discusses the recent Tax Court decision in Pierre and the effect for gift tax purposes of an entity’s classification made under the check-the-box regulations. The court was split on what those regulations mean when they state that an entity is to be disregarded ‘‘for federal tax purposes.’’

Nebraska Safe Haven Snafu, Revisited, Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

The Need For A National Civil Justice Survey Of Incidence And Claiming Behavior, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Civil justice issues play a prominent role in society. Family law issues such as divorce and child custody, consumer victimization issues raised by questionable trade practices, and tort issues raised by surprisingly high estimated rates of medical malpractice, questionable prescription drug practices, and other behaviors are part of the fabric of daily life. Policymakers and interest groups regularly debate and assess whether civil problems are best resolved by legislative action, agency action, litigation, alternative dispute resolution, other methods, or some combination of actions. Yet we lack systematic quantitative knowledge about the primary events in daily life that generate civil justice …

Ohio Regional Forum Report Findings From The Survey And Small Small-Group Participation, Ryan Spohn

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

The Midwest Child Welfare Implementation Center (MCWIC) is collaborating with The Ohio Office of Families and Children (OFC) to develop and implement a new technical assistance (TA) model. This project is a part of Ohio's systemic effort to improve its child welfare outcomes, and will materially alter how OFC works with Ohio's county-administered child welfare offices. It will build Ohio's capacity to implement evidence-informed and promising child welfare interventions.

To inform the process of developing a new technical assistance model, MCWIC hosted a series of ten regional forums throughout the state during July, 2010. The purpose of these events was …

Emotional Abuse And Controlling Behaviors In Heterosexual Relationships: The Role Of Employment And Alcohol Use For Women And Their Partners, Egbert Zavala, Ryan Spohn

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

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of economic resources, status compatibility, and alcohol consumption on forms of nonphysical abuse, such as controlling and emotional abuse. Specifically, we focus on the connections between women’s employment, the employment of their partners, alcohol use, and women’s risk of abuse in intimate relationships. We hypothesize that women in intimate relationships with men will experience more emotional abuse to the extent that they are economically vulnerable. Moreover, abuse should increase if their employment status, in relation to that of their partner, challenges the man’s marital power. Moreover, alcohol use by women …

Private Relationships And Public Problems: Applying Principles Of Relational Contract Theory To Domestic Violence, Tamara L. Kuennen

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This Article maps out a new theoretical critique of no-drop prosecution policies, the criminal justice system’s predominant approach to domestic violence. No-drop rules compel prosecutors to make decisions about whether to pursue charges against a batterer without regard to the victim’s wishes. When the law mandates this approach, it not only enforces the criminal law, but also effectively terminates the relationship between the victim and her partner. This blunt response to what is often a complex situation indiscriminately dispenses with the many reasons a victim may want or need to preserve her intimate relationship. While numerous scholars have grappled with …