Family Law Commons^™

A Relational Model Of Family Lawyering: Exploring The Potential For Education, Practice, And Research, Jill Howieson, Lynn Priddis

Canadian Journal of Family Law

This article responds to what seems to be a "hot" millennium topic in the family law environment—namely the nature of the relationship between the family lawyer and the client. It proposes a model of family lawyering that puts the relationship with the client explicitly in the foreground of the process and suggests a research regime that could investigate the merits of the model. The authors refer to the model as a "relational model of family lawyering." The model involves family lawyers working within a partnering framework that incorporates attention to the relational aspects of the process, and in particular, to …

Protecting Survivors Of Domestic Violence Within The Insurance Regime: Opportunities To Seek Termination Or Variation Of Insurance Contracts, Elizabeth Adjin-Tettey

Canadian Journal of Family Law

A person whose life is insured under a life insurance contract for the benefit of another person does not have a contractual or common law right to terminate or otherwise affect the terms of the contract. As well, such contracts remain valid even after termination of the relationship that provided an insurable interest at the commencement of the contract. The existence of a life insurance contract might provide an incentive for the policy owner/beneficiary to cause harm to the insured person in order to collect the insurance money. Recovery of the insurance money is precluded on grounds of public policy …

Canon 1095 And The Dignitas Connubii: The Role Of Consent, Incapacity, And Psychic Anomalies In Cases Of Matrimonial Nullity, Roberto Rosas

Faculty Articles

This Article will focus on the following points: (1) the essential elements of marriage; (2) the basic principle of matrimonial consent; (3) the nature of consent; (4) acts through which consent is formed; (5) matrimonial nullity in Canon Law; (6) Canon Law and the Dignitas Connubil (Dignitas); and (7) recent jurisprudence concerning matrimonial nullity. It aims to shed light and clarify paragraphs 2 and 3 of Canon 1095 of the Code by making clear how the causes of defect of discretion of judgment and the inability to assume the essential obligations due to some sort of psychic disorder or anomaly …

Conferring Dignity: The Metamorphosis Of The Legal Homosexual, Noa Ben-Asher

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The legal homosexual has undergone a dramatic transformation over the past three decades, culminating in United States v. Windsor, which struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). In 1986, the homosexual was a sexual outlaw beyond the protection of the Constitution. By 2013, the homosexual had become part of a married couple that is “deemed by the State worthy of dignity.” This Article tells the story of this metamorphosis in four phases. In the first, the “Homosexual Sodomite Phase,” the United States Supreme Court famously declared in Bowers v. Hardwick that there was no right to …

Introduction: Invited Essays On The Implications Of Windsor And Perry

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Adoption And The Limits Of Contract In Victorian Adoption Case Law And George Eliot's Silas Marner, Sarah Abramowicz

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Marriage Equality, United States V. Windsor, And The Crisis In Equal Protection Jurisprudence, Susannah W. Pollvogt

Hofstra Law Review

The article discusses equal protection jurisprudence in America in relation to the U.S. Supreme Court's (USSC's) ruling in the 2013 marriage equality case United States v. Windsor. The views of USSC Justice Anthony Kennedy are mentioned, along with an unconstitutional animus legal doctrine and a heightened rational basis standard of review. The U.S. Constitution's Equal Protection Clause is addressed in relation to the nation's discrimination laws.

Do Tell! The Rights Of Donor-Conceived Offspring, Naomi Cahn

Hofstra Law Review

The article discusses the legal rights of donor-conceived children in America, and it mentions U.S. constitutional rights, the laws associated with donor conception in the country, and the concept of double disclosure. Parental rights and children's interests are mentioned, along with respect for familial autonomy and various aspects of U.S. family and health laws. Sperm and egg (ovum) donations are examined, along with the nation's fertility industry and assisted reproductive technology.

Two Direct Rights Of Action In Child Support Enforcement, Margaret Ryznar

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Further Standing Lessons, Heather Elliott

Indiana Law Journal

Professor Elliott wrote a piece for the Indiana Law Journal in 2012 (available here). In this article, she updates her analysis and explores the implications of both the health-care and marriage equality cases on the Court’s standing doctrine.

Windsor, Shelby County, And The Demise Of Originalism: A Personal Account, Dawn E. Johnsen

Indiana Law Journal

Essays on the Implication of Windsor and Perry

Evolving Values, Animus, And Same-Sex Marriage, Daniel O. Conkle

Indiana Law Journal

In this Essay, I contend that a Fourteenth Amendment right to same-sex marriage will emerge, and properly so, when the Supreme Court determines that justice so requires and when, in the words of Professor Alexander Bickel, the Court’s recognition of this right will “in a rather immediate foreseeable future . . . gain general assent.” I suggest that we are fast approaching that juncture, and I go on to analyze three possible justifications for such a ruling: first, substantive due process; second, heightened scrutiny equal protection; and third, rational basis equal protection coupled with a finding of illicit “animus.” I …

Standing To Appeal And Executive Non-Defense Of Federal Law After The Marriage Cases, Ryan W. Scott

Indiana Law Journal

Essays on the Implications of Windsor and Perry

Is The Full Faith And Credit Clause Still "Irrelevant" To Same-Sex Marriage?: Toward A Reconsideration Of The Conventional Wisdom, Steve Sanders

Indiana Law Journal

Essays on the Implications of Windsor and Perry

Contractualizing Custody, Sarah Abramowicz

Law Faculty Research Publications

Many scholars otherwise in favor of the enforcement of family contracts agree that parent-child relationships should continue to prove the exception to any contractualized family law regime. This Article instead questions the continued refusal to enforce contracts concerning parental rights to children’s custody. It argues that the refusal to enforce such contracts contributes to a differential treatment of two types of families: those deemed “intact”—typically consisting of two married parents and their offspring—and those deemed non-intact. Intact families are granted a degree of freedom from government intervention, provided that there is no evidence that children are in any danger of …

Leveling Up After Doma, Deborah A. Widiss

Indiana Law Journal

Essays on the Implication of Windsor and Perry

The Case For Mandatory Training On Screening For Domestic Violence In The Wake Of The Affordable Care Act, Nat Stern, Karen Oehme

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

The Origin Of Parental Rights: Labor, Intent, And Fathers, Dara Purvis

Faculty Scholarship

Most theories of parentage fail to explain the genesis of the right to parent - for example, why does a biological relationship generate parental rights? This Article shows that the law of parental rights mirrors theories of acquiring property, and that the law has shifted over time, from favoring a property right based in genetics to a Lockean theory of property rights earned through labor. The growth of Lockean labor-based theories is epitomized in reforms to parentage laws that incorporate functional theories of parenting, meaning that adults who perform caretaking work that creates a significant relationship with children are recognized …

Effects Of Clergy Reporting Laws On Child Maltreatment Report Rates, Frank E. Vandervort, Vincent J. Palusci

Articles

Child maltreatment (CM) reporting laws and policies have an important role in the identification, treatment, and prevention of CM in the United States (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [US DHHS], 2012). Abuse by a member of the clergy “is not only a personal and emotional betrayal, but [also] a spiritual betrayal, with secrecy amplified by the unprecedented and systemic cover-up committed by the Church hierarchy” (Coyne, 2011, p. 15). Recent controversies have resulted in the consideration of changes in mandated U.S. reporting laws that include increasing requirements for clergy and extension to additional professions (Freeh, Sporkin, & Sullivan, …

Abolish Anonymous Reporting To Child Abuse Hotlines, Dale Margolin Cecka

Law Faculty Publications

Part I of this Article traces the history of child abuse reporting hotlines. Part II describes the current law and practice behind child abuse reporting hotlines. Part III examines why anonymous reporting by the public is unnecessary and highly susceptible to abuse. Part IV analyzes the constitutional rights at stake in anonymous reporting, citing federal case law that contradicts current practice. Part V concludes with a proposal to abolish anonymous reporting and require all public reporting hotlines to adhere to published, written policies.

Comments: What's Yours Is Ours? Gamete Donation In The Marital Context: Why Courts And Legislatures Should Not Interfere With An Individual's Fundamental Right To Privacy, Emily K. Alt

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

From Third Parties To Parents: The Case Of Lesbian Couples And Their Children, Nancy Polikoff

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

The Contractualization Of Family Law In The United States, Fernanda Nicola, Adrienne Hunter Jules

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

The Child-Welfare System And The Limits Of Determinacy, Clare Huntington

Faculty Scholarship

To read Robert Mnookin’s seminal 1975 article, Child-Custody Adjudication: Judicial Functions in the Face of Indeterminacy, is to see a blueprint for legislative action. To a remarkable degree, the reforms Mnookin proposed to the child-welfare system are what Congress and the states adopted in the following two decades. And yet reading Mnookin’s article is also a Groundhog Day experience. The problems he described with the child-welfare system nearly forty years ago sound all too familiar today.

Mnookin famously argued that the best-interests standard was indeterminate in the context of the child-welfare system. According to Mnookin, this open-ended standard created …

In Re Sanders And The Resurrection Of Stanley V. Illinois, Joshua Gupta-Kagan

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay begins by reviewing Stanley v. Illinois, and outlines how that foundational case originally recognized parental rights in foster care cases yet became understood primarily as a private adoption case. Second, it explains how, simultaneously, family courts developed the One-Parent Doctrine and a related doctrine making it difficult to transfer custody of a child from an abusive or neglectful parent in one state to a non-offending parent in another. Both doctrines violate Stanley by allowing the State to take custody of children without ever proving parental unfitness. Cases adopting these doctrines literally ignore Stanley. Third, this Essay …

Testing The Boundaries Of Family Privacy: The Special Case Of Pediatric Sibling Transplants, Doriane Lambelet Coleman

Faculty Scholarship

A six-year-old girl suffers third-degree burns over eighty percent of her body. Her chance of survival with minimal scarring is said to depend on her identical twin sister’s availability as an organ source. There are other transplant options—including the parents—but because the twins’ skin is “equivalent,” a “sibling transplant” is likely to result in a better medical and aesthetic outcome for the burned twin. Her doctor thus proposes to harvest her healthy sister’s skin on “her backside from her bra line down to the bottom of her buttocks or possibly her thighs.” This procedure would be repeated up to three …

You've Got [International] Mail! A Comment On Bakala V. Bakala, Renee Ballew

South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business

No abstract provided.

A Colorado Child's Best Interests: Examining The Gabriesheski Decision And Future Policy Implications, David Meschke

University of Colorado Law Review

Children in dependency and neglect proceedings are one of the most vulnerable groups in our legal system. Nationally, their legal representation comes in many forms. In Colorado, juvenile courts assign guardians ad litem (GALs) to children in these proceedings. GALs are lawyers who represent the children's best interests. For many years, GALs faced an ethical dilemma: should confidentiality, as proscribed by the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct, apply to the GAL-child relationship. In People v. Gabriesheski, the Colorado Supreme Court held that GALs are not their children's lawyers and, thus, confidentiality does not exist between GALs and children. While this …

Dreams Of My Father, Prison For My Mother: The H-4 Nonimmigrant Visa Dilemma And The Need For An "Immigration-Status Spousal Support", Stewart Chang

Scholarly Works

In this article, Professor Stewart Chang uses the situation of H-4 visa derivatives in the Asian Indian immigrant community as a case study to expose and critique larger incongruities within current American immigration policy, which on the one hand has historically extolled individuality, equality, and workforce participation as avenues to the American Dream, while enforcing gender hierarchy and dependency through requirements that prioritize family unity on the other. These incongruities remain largely unnoticed because the culture of dependency is often attributed to traditional ethnic culture, which then becomes the site of scrutiny and blame. The H-4 visa dilemma in the …

Family Courts Are Here To Stay, So Let's Improve Them, Barbara A. Babb

Articles

The article presents a commentary in response to the White Paper of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System's Honoring Families Initiative on the court and separating and divorcing families. Topics include the mission, function and structure of family courts, therapeutic jurisprudence, and the design of a unified family court. It also discusses the ecology of human development.