Family Law Commons^™

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 …

Empirical And Theoretical Perspectives From Social Science On Gay Marriage And Child Custody Issues, Walter R. Schumm

St. Thomas Law Review

Research on lesbigay parenting issues is reviewed with an in-depth focus on a few examples of past research and a review of the merits of social science research cited recently by the American Civil Liberties Union in support of gay parenting rights. Those who have reviewed the literature have come to startling different conclusions. Neither side has fully grasped some of the limitations of certain key research studies. Some errors are such that one might wonder if peer review procedures had somehow failed. An analysis of a recent paper on same-gender sexual abuse reveals mixed findings. It appears that a …

Lawrence, Lofton, And Reasoned Judgment: On Who Can Adopt And Why, Mark Strasser

St. Thomas Law Review

Recently, in Lofton v. Security of Department of Children & Family Services, the Eleventh Circuit upheld Florida's gay adoption ban. The opinion is important for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that it was issued after the United States Supreme Court had decided Lawrence v. Texas. The Lofton court's reading of Lawrence was so implausible that it would have been easy for the Supreme Court to have reversed Lofton, while nonetheless offering an analysis significantly narrower than Lawrence. Regrettably, the Supreme Court denied certiorari when the decision was appealed, so we will simply have to wait and …

Between Dependency And Liberty: The Conundrum Of Children’S Rights In The Gilded Age, David S. Tanenhaus

Scholarly Works

Although legal scholars often assume that the history of children's rights in the United States did not begin until the mid twentieth century, this essay argues that a sophisticated conception of children's rights existed a century earlier, and analyzes how lawmakers articulated it through their attempts to define the rights of dependent children. How to handle their cases raised fundamental questions about whether children were autonomous beings or the property of either their parents and/or the state. And, if the latter, what were the limits of parental authority and/or the power of the state acting as a parent? By investigating …

The Columbus Project In The Family Court Of Western Australia: A Model Of Reflective Practice, Lisbeth Pike, Paul Murphy

Research outputs pre 2011

The Columbus Pilot project conducted in the Family Court of Western Australia during 2001-2003, was established to deal with cases that are characterised by violence. Paul Murphy and Lis Pike of the School of Psychology, Edith Cowan University, discuss how the Columbus process of jointly chaired interdisciplinary conferences in the court has influenced the evolution of a model of reflective practice.

Confronting The Agency In Battered Mothers, Elaine M. Chiu

Faculty Publications

Despite the progress of the last three decades, the American public and even feminists remain caught in a web of ambivalence and contradictory attitudes and beliefs about battered women. Are battered women traumatized victims who suffer at the hands of their individual abusers and from the systemic failures of a male-dominated culture? Are they, therefore, unable to save themselves or their children? In contrast, are these women survivors who manage to protect themselves as best they can under uniquely difficult circumstances? Do they deserve recognition for their efforts, or do battered women somehow contribute to or exacerbate their own abuse …

The Idea Of Adoption: An Inquiry Into The History Of Adult Adoptee Access To Birth Records, Elizabeth Samuels

All Faculty Scholarship

There has been in recent years and there continues to be intense debate around the country about whether to open original birth records to adult adoptees. Our understanding of the legal history relevant to the debate has been incomplete and inaccurate. According to this understanding, the state laws that closed court and birth records to the parties to adoptions generally closed these records for all time to all parties; the laws had a primary purpose of insuring lifelong anonymity for birth parents; and the laws became nearly universal by about the middle of the twentieth century. In fact, the history …

Machiavelli And A Unified Theory Of Economic Parental Responsibility: A Proposed Statute, Dana E. Prescott

St. Thomas Law Review

The evolution of a unified theory of economic parental responsibility derives from the coupling of modem dislocation of families and its material impact on children. Over the past three decades, the United States and much of Europe have struggled with the economic adjustments created by the dissolution of marriage as a matter of personal right rather than as an exception conferred by society. Divorce by itself, however, does not begin to define the boundaries of the adjustments, as serial relationships, remarriage and the non-marriage of parents create and compound economic uncertainty for children.

Deconstructing Children's Rights And Reimagining Children's Needs: A Gender, Race, And Class Analysis Of Infanticide, Beverly Horsburgh

St. Thomas Law Review

No abstract provided.

Contested Adoption And The Liberty Interest Of The Child, Marcus T. Boccaccini, Eleanor Willlemsen

St. Thomas Law Review

The Supreme Court of the United States has gone to significant lengths to outline an unwed father's rights in adoption cases, but has yet to address the child's rights in similar cases. It is these constitutionally protected rights, which are usually referred to as "liberty interests," that will be discussed in this Article.

Are Same-Sex Prenuptial Agreements Enforceable In Florida? Posik V Layton, Law And Policy, Brett A. Barfield

St. Thomas Law Review

Posik v. Layton has Florida lawmakers, attorneys, and gay rights activists paying attention. The Supreme Court of Florida, however, declined to accept the invitation to sort out this muddled opinion from a murky area of the law. The dispute in Posik arose from a failed lesbian relationship between the parties, who had drafted a contract analogous to a prenuptial agreement. Under the contract, Layton would provide financial support for the pair, and Posik would provide domestic services and live the remainder of her life with Layton. A liquidated damages provision, analogous to a support payment upon divorce, stated that Layton …

Kentucky Law Survey: Family Law, Louise Everett Graham

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article addresses some of the family law developments occurring since the Kentucky Law Journal last published a Kentucky law survey. Space limitations preclude discussion of every post-1985 change. Instead, this Article focuses on general trends, significant cases, and legislative developments.

Inquiry into family law developments in Kentucky is timely, not only because of the social importance of family relations, but also because of other contemporaneous efforts at family law reform. The American Law Institute ("ALl") is currently considering a final draft of principles governing family dissolution. That draft, and the discussions that surround its ultimate acceptance or rejection by …

Another Weapon For Combating Family Violence: Prevention Of Animal Abuse, Charlotte Lacroix

Animal Law Review

Dr. Lacroix discusses the correlation between different forms of family violence and suggests that family pets are just an­other victim. Dr. Lacroix proposes that stronger animal an­ticruelty laws may be part of the solution to reducing family violence because they enhance the likelihood of detection of an offender's abusive behavior.

Step Up Or Step Out: Unwed Fathers' Parental Rights Post-Doe And E. A. W., John E. Fennelly

St. Thomas Law Review

The issue of parental rights for unwed fathers continues to generate confusion and controversy. The United States Supreme Court, following an initial period of expansion, has reduced its constitutional oversight of state domestic relations law. This reduction has produced a dynamic redefinition of the parental rights of unwed fathers. Uncertainties, as reflected in recent Florida appellate decisions, remain. This Article will first trace the initial expansion and contraction of federal oversight into the area of parental rights. The Article will then explore the redefinition of these rights as developed by several state jurisdictions. Next, recent Florida developments that demonstrate that …

The Children We Abandon: Religious Exemptions To Child Welfare And Education Law As Denials Of Equal Protection To Children Of Religious Objectors, James G. Dwyer

Faculty Publications

The story of children who die because their parents, in observance of their own religious principles, withhold conventional medical treatment from them is a familiar one. In this Article, James G. Dwyer shows that the phenomenon of parents denying secular benefits to their children for religious reasons goes far beyond these few highly publicized cases, extending into the realm of education as well as medical care. Moreover, Dr. Dwyer shows that the federal and state governments endorse this practice by statutorily exempting 'religious objector' parents from otherwise generally applicable compulsory child care and education laws. He argues that courts addressing …

"Running Hard To Stand Still": The Paradox Of Family Law Reform, Mary Jane Mossman

Dalhousie Law Journal

This essay explores the paradox of family law reform in common law Canada, focusing particularly on reforms relating to family property and inter-spousal support in the decades after the first federal Divorce Act of 1968. The paradox of this law reform activity is well-expressed in Carol Smart's colourful phrase about the (lack of) impact of law reform for women in the United Kingdom. In her view, while it is inaccurate to say that nothing has been done to improve the position of women, it is equally impossible to demonstrate that there has been any linear development of progressive legislation; in …

Parents' Religion And Children's Welfare: Debunking The Doctrine Of Parents' Rights, James G. Dwyer

Faculty Publications

The scope, weight, and assignment of parental rights have been the focus of much debate among legal commentators. These commentators generally have assumed that parents should have some rights in connection with the raising of their children. Rarely have commentators offered justifications for attributing rights to persons as parents, and when they have done so they have failed to subject those justifications to close scrutiny. This Article takes the novel approach of challenging parental rights in their entirety. The author explores the fundamental questions of what it means to say that individuals have rights as parents, and whether it is …

A Constitutional Right Of Religious Exemption: An Historical Perspective, Philip A. Hamburger

Faculty Scholarship

Did late eighteenth-century Americans understand the Free Exercise Clause of the United States Constitution to provide individuals a right of exemption from civil laws to which they had religious objections? Claims of exemption based on the Free Exercise Clause have prompted some of the Supreme Court's most prominent free exercise decisions, and therefore this historical inquiry about a right of exemption may have implications for our constitutional jurisprudence. Even if the Court does not adopt late eighteenth-century ideas about the free exercise of religion, we may, nonetheless, find that the history of such ideas can contribute to our contemporary analysis. …

Law's Patriarchy, Lynne Henderson

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Words And The Door To The Land Of Change: Law, Language, And Family Violence, Martha Minow

Vanderbilt Law Review

Can words stem violence? More specifically, can anything anyone says halt the physical devastation inflicted daily behind the closed doors of family dwellings? Some people strike, beat, or burn their children. Some people assault their lovers, some their spouses; usually, men batter women.' Can words, uttered by anyone else, stop this violence?

Words of journalists expose family violence to public view. Words of legislatures and judges forbid and punish family abuse. Words of historians, novelists, television scriptwriters, social workers, feminist theorists, and songwriters depict and decry domestic violence against a backdrop of societal silence about it. But are there words …

The Parent-Child Privileges: Hardly A New Or Revolutionary Concept, Wendy Meredith Watts

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Constitutional Right To Home Instruction?, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Law Survey: Domestic Relations, Louise Everett Graham

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The following article presents a survey of domestic relations law in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. During the survey period, the Kentucky appellate courts faced a series of cases that involved not only the usual problems relating to property division, post divorce support obligations and child custody, but which also implicated a number of federal statutory attempts' to regulate areas long considered solely the province of state regulation. The presence of new federal legislation in these areas represents Congressional attempts to solve some major difficulties in the domestic relations area. Few persons would argue, for example, that the battle for jurisdiction …

William E. H. Tagupa's Review Of David Weisbrot, Abdul Paliwala, And Akilagpa Sawyerr's Law And Social Change In Papua New Guinea, William E. H. Tagupa

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

William E. H. Tagupa's Review Of David Weisbrot, Abdul Paliwala, And Akilagpa Sawyerr's Law And Social Change In Papua New Guinea, William E. H. Tagupa

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

The Rights Of Adolescents, Robert Batey

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Changing The Law On Personal Status Within A Liberal Interpretation Of The Sharia, Mohammed Al-Nowaihi

Faculty Book Chapters

Many minds, multiple energies and much cooperation has gone into the creation and production of this monograph. Principally it is the outcome of a seminar on the theme of "Law and Social Change: Problems and Challenges" which was organized and co-sponsored within the general framework of the Open University Seminar Series by the Department of Sociology-Anthropology-Psychology of the American University in Cairo and the National Center for Sociological and Criminological Research. The Open University Seminar, held annually, is a forum through which members of the AUC community and interested persons from the larger Egyptian community can come together to express …

Ponencia Presentada Al Consejo De Estado, Mario Lamar Y Presas

Mario Diaz Cruz Pamphlets

Acompañando un Proyecto de decreto - Ley relativo a los hijos ilegitimos.

A Proposed Non-Support Law, Charles Herbert Bass

Manuscript Thesis Collection

A study of how laws requiring support of families can help society.