Family Law Commons^™

Myths And Moms: Images Of Women And Termination Of Parental Rights, Odeana R. Neal

All Faculty Scholarship

For most of us, the word "mother" evokes a myriad of often conflicting images and emotions, expectations and disappointments, and gratitude and blame. What a mother is - our own mothers and the class of people who are mothers - means much more than that a woman has given birth. We expect mothers to provide their children with all the love, caring, nurturing, and emotional fulfillment that we perceive those children need and desire; we expect her to be all things that we want her to be when we need her to be them. A woman who can fulfill the …

Marriage And Divorce: Legal Foundations, Azizah Y. Al-Hibri

Law Faculty Publications

This unique reference is a comprehensive encyclopedia dedicated to the institutions, religion, politics, and culture in Muslim societies throughout the world. Placing particular emphasis on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World contains over 750 articles in four volumes on Muslims in the Arab heartland as well as South and Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

An invaluable resource, the Encyclopedia offers extensive comparative and systematic analyses of Islamic beliefs, institutions, movements, practices, and peoples on an international scale. The alphabetically arranged articles range from brief 500-word essays to major interpretive and synthetic treatment …

Does Mediation Systematically Disadvantage Women?, Margaret F. Brinig

Journal Articles

When state legislatures enabled spouses to obtain divorces without proving fault, one of the real achievements was lower transaction costs. Although the benefit of lower transaction costs for divorce is not completely noncontroversial, the relaxed proof requirements mean that lawyers do not necessarily have to be involved in divorce proceedings. The vast majority of marriage dissolutions involve written agreements between the parties. No-fault divorce also energized the divorce mediation movement.

Mediation is the least intrusive form of third-party involvement in a dispute. Whereas a judge or arbitrator imposes an outcome on the disputants, the mediator assists the parties in reaching …

Legal Protection For Victims Of Domestic Violence: A Guide For The Treating Physician, Jane C. Murphy

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Divorce, Custody, Gender, And The Limits Of Law: On Dividing The Child, Lee E. Teitelbaum

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Dividing the Child: Social and Legal Dilemmas of Custody by Elanor E. Maccoby and Robert H. Mnookin

"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 …

Tying A Slipknot: Temporary Marriages In Iran, Tamilla F. Ghodsi

Michigan Journal of International Law

The purpose of this Note is to analyze the institution of mut'a critically, but objectively. It is important to first understand that it is possible to learn something from this institution. The sanctioning of temporary marriages illustrates the pervasive role of law as a method of social control, a characteristic which has parallels in the West. Furthermore, the institution may be challenged on its merits. For example, this Note intends to illustrate how the lack of formalism and the presence of great ambiguity in the institution have contributed to its lack of acceptance in Iranian society. The institution's deficiencies demonstrate …

Lawyering For Social Change: The Power Of The Narrative In Domestic Violence Law Reform, Jane C. Murphy

All Faculty Scholarship

The role of the narrative or story in legal discourse has been explored and developed in legal scholarship over the last several years. The goals of the various calls for more storytelling in the legal context vary. They generally relate, however, to a desire to move away from exclusive reliance on abstract legal argumentation to persuade. The goals of ‘storytellers‘ are also linked to furthering an understanding of the dynamics of oppression based on race or gender, or both.

The judicial and legislative processes have always included a narrative component. Clinical legal scholarship has also explored the critical role of …

Child Care Enterprise, Community Development, And Work, Peter R. Pitegoff

Faculty Publications

Child care enterprise can be a vehicle for community-based economic development. Beyond the critical goal of child care service, day care as an enterprise can help build capacity for job creation and entrepreneurship in the inner city and in disadvantaged communities. Stable child care institutions with quality jobs can sound a counterpoint to the feminization of poverty. The demand for child care services is substantial and growing. In single parent families and in households with two working parents, day care is essential to enable parents to work or go to school. Further, high quality early childhood programs can have a …

Domestic Violence Law Poses Challenges For The Courts, Jane C. Murphy, Judith Wolfer

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Divorce Reform And The Legacy Of Gender, Milton C. Regan Jr.

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Illusion of Equality: The Rhetoric and Reality of Divorce Reform by Martha Albertson Fineman

Women's Work, Jana B. Singer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Law's Patriarchy, Lynne Henderson

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Domestic Violence Against Women: A Comparative Analysis Of Remedies Under The American And Indian Legal Systems, Anita Elizabeth Jacob Ninan

LLM Theses and Essays

The purpose of this thesis is to compare the legal remedies available to women who are the victims of domestic violence in the United States and India and analyze whether the existing laws in the two systems are effective and sufficient in combating this growing problem. Domestic violence against women is a reality. It haunts the female species form the cradle to the grave, manifesting itself in sociocultural crime peculiar to some societies like India, such as female feticide, female infanticide, bride burning dowry deaths, and wife battering (both a developing country like India and an economically developed country like …

Equality Theory, Marital Rape, And The Promise Of The Fourteenth Amendment, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

During the 1980s a handful of state judges either held or opined in dicta what must be incontrovertible to the feminist community, as well as to most progressive legal advocates and academics: the so-called marital rape exemption, whether statutory or common law in origin, constitutes a denial of a married woman's constitutional right to equal protection under the law. Indeed, a more obvious denial of equal protection is difficult to imagine: the marital rape exemption denies married women protection against violent crime solely on the basis of gender and marital status. What possibly could be less rational than a statute …

Individual Entitlement To The Financial Benefits Of A Professional Degree: An Empirical Study Of The Attitudes And Expectations Of Married Professional Students And Their Spouses, Rebecca Redosh Eisner, Ruth Zimmerman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Note describes the case law that delineated the factors examined in the study. Those factors are the financial support provided by the supporting spouse, the extent of personal sacrifice made by the supporting spouse, the length of the marriage and corresponding accumulated assets of the marriage at the time of the divorce, and the relative earning capacities of the two parties after the divorce. Part II discusses the design of the study, and specifically how we manipulated these factors in hypothetical vignettes to measure reactions to the factors. Part III presents the results and our conclusions …

Comment, Contracting For Security: Paying Married Women What They've Earned, Katharine K. Baker

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Consider The Consequences, Martha Minow

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Divorce Revolution: The Unexpected Social and Economic Consequences for Women and Children in America by Lenore J. Weitzman

The Unnecessary Doctrine Of Necessaries, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that neither the traditional nor the modem necessaries doctrines are justifiable in contemporary society. Part I investigates the practical effects of both the traditional and contemporary necessaries doctrines and demonstrates that neither is an effective mechanism for providing support to a needy spouse. While a more successful support remedy might be devised to replace modem and traditional versions of the necessaries rule, Part II shows that yet another reformulation would not be worthwhile because the theoretical underpinnings of the doctrine are faulty. There is no persuasive evidence to establish the existence of the narrow support problem the …

Inequality In Marital Liabilities: The Need For Equal Protection When Modifying The Necessaries Doctrine, Debra S. Betteridge

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note contends that the "primary/secondary" modification is unconstitutional because it ignores the husband's equal protection rights while unlawfully stigmatizing women as dependent. Part I discusses how the growing independence of women has led courts to modify the common law doctrine. Part II develops the test that the Supreme Court would apply in judging the constitutionality of any modification of the doctrine. Part III applies this test to the "primary/secondary" modification and concludes that the modification is unconstitutional and, therefore, not a legitimate reformation of the common law necessaries doctrine.

Community Property After Hisquierdo V. Hisquierdo, Marie Stefanini Newman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Comment will briefly discuss California's community property system, and the standards traditionally required by the Supreme Court for federal pre-emption of state property law. It will also examine the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Railroad Retirement Act which led the Court to conclude that the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution and demanded federal pre-emption in this case. It will discuss the Hisquierdo test for federal pre-emption, which the Supreme Court has since used to override state community property systems. Finally, it will evaluate whether the case was correctly decided.

Women's Rights And The Proposed Family Protection Act, Karen Flax

University of Miami Law Review

In this article, the author examines the potential ramifications of the Family Protection Act, a bill recently introduced in the Senate by Senators Jespen and Laxalt. The author criticizes the bill both as a mechanism for legislatively enforcing the traditional role of women in American society and as a threat to civil liberties in general.

Joint Custody, Carolyn S. Bratt

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Shared custody has traditionally been looked upon with disfavor by the courts. Similarly, some professionals in the field of child development oppose the concept of shared custody. There are, however, several advantages to shared custody. The legal system benefits, as judges escape the unenviable task of playing Solomon. The child benefits because both parents continue to have a voice in the child’s upbringing, and the child continues to enjoy the love, advice, and companionship of both parents. In addition, because both parents share the responsibility of child raising, neither is faced with the loss of self-esteem which results from being …

Unmarried Couples And Unjust Enrichment: From Status To Contract And Back Again?, Robert C. Casad

Michigan Law Review

In recent years, litigation over property arrangements between unmarried cohabitants has posed some old questions in a new light and has yielded some new answers. One of the most intriguing of these questions is whether a cohabitant has a right, upon dissolution of the relationship, to remuneration for household services rendered during the relationship. A spouse who contributed household services in an actual marriage, of course, may upon divorce receive a share of the property acquired by the other spouse during the marriage or may receive a monetary award as compensation for the contributions made to the other during the …

Divorce Law Reform In Michigan, B. H. Lee

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Few social questions touch the individual so intimately and foster such widely divergent views as the question of divorce. From those who regard marriage as a perpetual and indissoluble bond instituted by God to those who consider it a terminable contract between a man and a woman, every shade of opinion can be found. The subject of marital breakdown is neither new nor peculiar to our age. As one author has said: "The breakdown of marriage with provisions for divorce and remarriage is a phenomenon widely recognized in Babylonian, Hebrew, Greek and Roman law." Nevertheless, ever since Christianity established a …

Abortion Reform, Richard D. Lamm, Steven A.G. Davison

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

California Family Law Act, Meredith A. Nelson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

California's Family Law Act has been heralded as the first major change in the State's divorce provisions in one hundred years. The Act is an attempt to remedy two major criticisms of current divorce practice both in California and throughout the United States. First, those advocating reform believe that laws controlling the granting of divorces are in conflict with modem concepts of marriage and divorce. Many divorce laws impose punitive sanctions in an attempt to deter those who would otherwise seek a divorce. Second, notwithstanding their intent, divorce laws have not, in fact, reduced the frequency of divorce. The inability …

Through A Test Tube Darkly: Artificial Insemination And The Law, George P. Smith Ii

Michigan Law Review

A surge of interest and direct involvement with artificial insemination has interposed complicated and presently unsolved legal, social, cultural, religious, emotional, and psychological problems. It is not the purpose of this Article to undertake an exegesis of these interrelated areas or their ramifications. Central consideration, instead, is given to the special legal problems of adultery, illegitimacy, and support and inheritance manifest in any discussion of artificial insemination.

¿ Cuál De Las Legislaciones Actuales Satisface Mejor Las Exigencias De La Justica Respecto A Lo Que Debe Ser La Condición De La Mujer Así En El Orden Social Como En El De La Familia ?, Luis Estévez Y Romero

Mario Diaz Cruz Pamphlets

Tesis para el Doctorado en Derecho Civil y Canónico leída y sostenida en 29 de junio de 1879 [en la] Universidad de la Habana.

At head of title: Universidad de La Habana.