Family Law Commons^™

Back To The Future: How Illinois' Legalization Of Same-Sex Relationships Retroactively Affects Marital Property Rights, Eric J. Shinabarger

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Until 2011, Illinois viewed same-sex relationships as “against public policy” and refused to recognize any same-sex civil union or marriage. However, many Illinois residents traveled to progressive jurisdictions in order to enter into legal samesex relationships. Afterwards, they returned to their lives in Illinois and lived together as married couples despite Illinois’ lack of recognition.

When Illinois legalized same-sex civil unions in 2011 and same-sex marriages in 2014, it immediately flipped a switch and began retroactively recognizing same-sex relationships entered into in other jurisdictions. While this prevents same-sex couples from being forced to jump through hoops to re-legalize their relationships, …

The New Conflict Of Laws Code Provisions Of The Federal Republic Of Germany: Introductory Comment And Translation, Rainer Gildeggen, Jochen Langkeit

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Divorce Equality, Allison Anna Tait

Law Faculty Publications

The battle for marriage equality has been spectacularly successful, producing great optimism about the transformation of marriage. The struggle to revolutionize the institution of marriage is, however, far from over. Next is the battle for divorce equality. With the initial wave of same-sex divorces starting to appear on court dockets, this Article addresses the distinctive property division problems that have begun to arise with same-sex divorce and that threaten, in the absence of rule reform, to both amplify and reinscribe problems with the conventional marital framework. Courts have failed to realize the cornerstone concept of equitable distribution-marriage as an economic …

Taming The Tigers: Domestic Violence, Legal Professionalism, And Well-Being, Jill C. Engle

Faculty Scholarship

Domestic violence kills thousands of American women every year. In 2013, one of them was my client. My law school clinic represented a woman divorcing her abusive husband after twenty years of marriage. Three days after we served him with the divorce complaint, he walked into the grocery store where she worked and shot her dead. He then turned the gun on himself, and died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds. The lead student working her case listened in horror as one of our local colleagues who had heard the breaking news described it to her in a phone call to the …

How Child Abuse Hotlines Hurt The Very Children They’Re Trying To Protect, Dale Margolin Cecka

Law Faculty Publications

The recent media obsession with “free range” parenting has illuminated a policy issue which rarely affects parents who debate free range parenting: the exploitation of child abuse reporting hotlines.

Taxing Compensatory Stock Rights Transferred In Divorce, Gregg Polsky, Kathleen Delaney Thomas

Scholarly Works

Stock-based compensation has become increasingly prevalent in recent years. As a result, many high net worth divorces now result in the transfer of compensatory stock rights from the employee spouse to the nonemployee spouse as part of the marital settlement. Despite this growing trend, the tax consequences of these transfers have not yet been explored fully. This Article endeavors to fill this void and explain both the planning opportunities and potential pitfalls in transferring compensatory stock rights in divorce. These transfers can shift ordinary income from a high-bracket spouse to a lower-bracket spouse, creating a tax surplus that enlarges the …

Voided Vows: Annulment As A Full Faith And Credit Solution To The Same-Sex Divorce Conundrum, Katharine J. Westfall

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Family Unity Revisited: Divorce, Separation, And Death In Immigration Law, Albertina Antognini

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Families are integral to immigration law and policy, and family-based immigration accounts for the majority of legal entry into the United States. Legislative, judicial, and scholarly discussions that address immigration law's family-based categories rely nearly exclusively on the principle of family unification, which has long been a cornerstone policy of immigration law. Yet the family-based provisions of immigration law do more than unify intact families; understanding families as dynamic entities that experience change reveals an immigration system that acknowledges a flexible family structure in determining status.

The principal aim of this Article is to present a more complete description of …

Divorce Involving Domestic Violence: Is Med-Arb Likely To Be The Solution?, Dafna Lavi

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

After an introduction in chapter one, the second chapter of this article presents statistics regarding the phenomenon of domestic violence and presents the definition of “violence” (with its attendant difficulties). The third chapter presents the existing problems regarding the judicial handling of divorce cases in general and those involving violence in particular. The fourth chapter analyzes the academic discourse regarding the issue of mediation of divorce cases involving violence (the position of the proponents and the opponents, as well as the problems of the current situation). The fifth chapter proposes med-arb as addressing the issue of divorce mediation in the …

Faking Equity: A Critique Of The New York Equitable Distribution Statute As Applied To Licenses And Degrees Under The O'Brien Decision, Nicole Giannakis

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Defaults And Choices In The Marriage Contract: How To Increase Autonomy, Encourage Discussion, And Circumvent Constitutional Constraints, Andrew Blair-Stanek

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Hidden Home Videos: Surreptitious Video Surveillance In Divorce, Rebecca V. Lyon

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In divorce court, often a very contentious and emotional court, parties frequently use what they can to gain the upper hand. The invention of new technology gives them an even wider arsenal. While tracking each other on the computer or checking phone records has become common, courts are now encountering instances where one spouse has placed hidden video cameras around the house to catch the other spouse doing something wrong. Under many state laws, courts have been forced to conclude that the surreptitious video recordings are not illegal. Perhaps more surprisingly, a few courts have concluded that the law either …

Facilitating Forgiveness And Reconciliation In “Good Enough” Marriages, Solangel Maldonado

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

The article offers information on the long-term effects of divorce on children and parents under the analysis of the social science literatures. It informs that the U.S. Courts should encourage reconciliation between low-discord parents which in turn would help to save their marriage and protect their children from negative psychological effects of their divorce.

Bargaining In The Shadow Of The Best-Interests Standard: The Close Connection Between Substance And Process In Resolving Divorce-Related Parenting Disputes, Jana B. Singer

Faculty Scholarship

This essay, written for a Symposium celebrating the child custody scholarship of Professor Robert Mnookin, examines the close connection between changes in substantive child custody doctrine and changes in custody dispute resolution processes over the past 30 years. Part I of the article explores how the widespread adoption of an unmediated “best interest of the child” standard, and the ensuing rejection of the sole custody paradigm, precipitated a shift from adversarial to non-adversarial resolution of divorce-related parenting disputes. Part II of the essay reverses the direction of the analytic lens and considers how the shift from adversarial to non-adversarial dispute …

Tax Consequences Of Distributing Equity Compensation Rights In Divorce, Gregg Polsky, Jeffrey D. Fisher, Zachry R. Potter

Scholarly Works

This article discusses the federal tax issues arising from the equitable distribution of compensatory stock options and restricted stock in divorce. While the tax consequences of distributing vested options and shares are clear, the treatment of unvested rights is muddled. This article explains the state of the law and provides practical advice to divorce lawyers who confront these issues.

Family Law, Sharon K. Lieblich

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Marriage Is Between A Man And A Woman And . . . : Latest Evolution Of Marital Residence Regime In Contemporary China, Yu Di

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This Note discusses the controversial August 2011 Judicial Interpretation on the Marriage Law of China concerning the treatment of marital residence in divorce proceedings. The Interpretation gives great weight to the title under which the property is held, and commentators have criticized this approach as unfair to women. This Note examines the Interpretation from a historical and comparative viewpoint. Section I traces the development history of Chinese law of marital property. Section II summarizes the U.S. law on the most prominent scenario addressed by the new Interpretation, that of the distribution at divorce of a marital residence to the acquisition …

In Re Marriage Of Olhausen: The Characterization Of State Disability Retirement Benefits After Dissolution, John K. Hoover

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

In Re Marriage Of Brown: Every Family Lawyer Knows What It's Done--Do You Know What It Can Do?, Gordon Hartstein

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

"Rethinking" Embryo Disposition Upon Divorce, Michael T. Flannery

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Black Marriage, White People, Red Herrings, Melissa Murray

Michigan Law Review

Ralph Richard Banks's Is Marriage for White People? is worlds away from Agatha Christie's novels. Decidedly a work of nonfiction, Banks's book considers the plight of middle-class African Americans who, according to statistics, are the least likely of any demographic group to get and stay married. Despite these obvious differences, Is Marriage for White People? shares some important commonalities with Agatha Christie's mysteries. Banks seeks to solve a mystery, but red herrings draw attention away from the true issue that should be the subject of Banks's concern. The mystery, of course, is the black marriage decline. In 1950, 78 percent …

Family History: Inside And Out, Kerry Abrams

Michigan Law Review

The twenty-first century has seen the dawn of a new era of the family, an era that has its roots in the twentieth. Many of the social and scientific phenomena of our time - same-sex couples, in vitro fertilization, single-parent families, international adoption - have inspired changes in the law. Legal change has encompassed both constitutional doctrine and statutory innovations, from landmark Supreme Court decisions articulating a right to procreate (or not), a liberty interest in the care, custody, and control of one's children, and even a right to marry, to state no-fault divorce statutes that have fundamentally changed the …

Mediating The Religious Upbringing Issue In Divorce Cases, Katheryn M. Dutenhaver

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

The article presents information on the family dispute resolution based on divorce cases based on religion. The judicial orders in different jurisdictions related to custodial parent are considered. The difficulty facing the judges while deciding the remedies and the need of designing stand-alone dispute resolution system is discussed. The techniques utilized by the mediators in solving such disputes are also discussed.

How To Give The Dog A Home: Using Mediation To Solve Companion Animal Custody Disputes, Emily Franklin

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

The article presents information on the domestication of dogs with respect to the resolution of the custody disputes of the animals and the method of mediation for the solving the disputes of companion animals in the U.S. Companion animals are considered as the essential part of the family in the country. Information on the requirement of mediation with respect to the animal law and the family law of the U.S. is also presented.

Reimbursement Of Community Contributions To A Spouse's Education Upon Divorce: California Civil Code Section 4800.3, Suzanne E. Rand

Pepperdine Law Review

When the California Legislature passed California Civil Code section 4800.3, it attempted to create a remedy for the circumstances posed by the highly publicized case of In re Marriage of Sullivan. The legislature created a new cause of action for "reimbursement" of funds contributed to the education or training of a spouse. The question remains whether reimbursement is an equitable and workable remedy for the Sullivan type situation. This comment analyzes the section and suggests possible approaches to litigation of a section 4800.3 claim.

The Dischargeability In Bankruptcy Of Debts For Alimony And Property Settlements Arising From Divorce, John Francis Murphy

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Promoting The General Welfare: Legal Reform To Lift Women And Children In The United States Out Of Poverty, Jill C. Engle

Faculty Scholarship

American women and children have been poor in exponentially greater numbers than men for decades. The problem has historic, institutional roots which provide a backdrop for this article’s introduction. English and early U.S. legal systems mandated a lesser economic status for women. Despite numerous legal changes aimed at combating the financial disadvantage of American women and children, the problem is worsening. American female workers, many in low-paying job sectors, earn roughly twenty percent less than their male counterparts. Nearly forty percent of single mothers and their children subsist below the poverty level. The recession exacerbated this problem, mostly because unemployment …

An Incomplete Revolution: Feminists And The Legacy Of Marital-Property Reform, Mary Ziegler

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

As this Article shows, the conventional historical narrative of the divorce revolution is not so much incorrect as incomplete. Histories of the divorce revolution have focused disproportionately on the introduction of no-fault rules and have correctly concluded that women's groups did not play a central role in the introduction of such laws. However, work on divorce law has not adequately addressed the history of marital-property reform or engaged with scholarship on the struggle for the Equal Rights Amendment to the federal Constitution. Putting these two bodies of work in dialogue with one another, the Article provides the first comprehensive history …

An Incomplete Revolution: Reexaming The Law, History, And Politics Of Marital Property, Mary Ziegler

Scholarly Publications

Did the divorce revolution betray the interests of American women? While there has been considerable disagreement about the impact of divorce reform on women’s standard of living, many agree that judicial practices involving the division of marital property and the allocation of alimony have systematically disadvantaged women. Most often, in the courts and the academy, commentators see these practices as evidence of the need for family law reform.

These conclusions rely on a shared account of the history of divorce reform. According to this account, the transformation of divorce law in the 1970s and 1980s was a “silent revolution,” a …

The Future Of Family, Max D. Siegel

Student Articles and Papers

The State organizes society into families, implicating and often ignoring various liberty and equality interests while fortifying a “traditional” family structure comprised of one man, one woman, and their mutually and exclusively conceived offspring. This structure has historically benefited the heterosexual elite within the United States, but modern advancements for sexual minorities suggest a new standard for State recognition of family. Queer liberation will erase the traditional family by rewriting its legal and social dimensions, resulting in laws and policies that track more closely with familial bonds outside a heteronormative, man-woman binary. This Article explores the ramifications of enhanced queer …