Family Law Commons^™

Judicial Leadership In Family Court: A Cautionary Tale, Jane M. Spinak

Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Fatherhood, Family Law, And The Crisis Of Boys And Men, June Carbone, Clare Huntington

Faculty Scholarship

Boys and men in all racial and ethnic groups and across most socioeconomic groups are struggling on many fronts, including education, employment, physical and mental health, and social integration. In these areas and more, boys and men are much worse off than they were only a few decades ago. The crisis — which is concentrated among men without college degrees — is rooted in large-scale structural changes to the economy that have decimated jobs for this group and policy choices that emphasize incarceration while doing little to address economic inequality.

The decline in male well-being is not just a problem …

Kindly Remove My Child From The Bubble Wrap - Analyzing Childress V. Madison County And Why Tennessee Courts Should Enforce Parental Pre-Injury Liability Concerns, Joshua D. Arters, Ben M. Rose

Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy

“I overstepped my parental boundaries at the Aiguille Rock Climbing Center . . . . I signed a waiver absolving it of blame if my daughter pulled a Humpty Dumpty from the top of a wall. The Florida Supreme Court recently ruled I didn't have that right. I can make all kinds of decisions for my girl, including life-and-death calls on medical care. But I can’t judge the risk she will take scaling a 20-foot wall and decide it is so miniscule that I’m willing to sign a waiver so she can do it—not even if I’m holding the safety …

In Re: Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 40a No. M2009-01926-Sc-Rl2-Rl, The Supreme Court Of Tennessee

Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

No Champion For Children: Tennessee's Rule 40a And The Appointment Of Guardians Ad Litem In Custody Proceedings, Austin Elizabeth Kupke

Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Is Parenting Authority A Usurpation Of Judicial Authority? Harmonizing Authority For, Benefits Of, And Limitations On This Legal-Psychological Hybrid, Joi T. Montiel

Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy

A “Parenting Coordinator” assists high-conflict parents in resolving disputes that arise in the parents’ efforts to jointly parent their children after a divorce. The Parenting Coordinator simultaneously educates the parents so as to minimize the degree and frequency of future conflict. While Parenting Coordination is not mediation or arbitration, it is also not counseling. Instead, Parenting Coordination is a “legal-psychological hybrid.” A trial court’s delegation to one in this hybrid role the power to determine a fit parent’s access to her child is arguably an improper delegation of judicial authority. While thirteen states have comprehensive schemes setting out their Parenting …

Panel Discussion 4: Best Practices In Representing Children In Court, Timothy Irwin, Carlton Lewis, Dwight Stokes

Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Florida’S Privacy Paradox, Emily Grady

University of Miami Law Review

For almost half a century, Floridians have enjoyed a right to privacy specially guaranteed to them by the Florida constitution. This broad right to privacy, pre-Dobbs, guaranteed several specific rights like the right to have an abortion, the right to be left alone in one’s own home, and the right to be able to direct the upbringing of one’s children, amongst other rights. Despite the fact that these specific rights were nestled in the same broad right to privacy, their treatment has been far from similar in recent years in Florida.

This Note examines the evolution of Florida’s …

In Re Misty Lee H.: Application Of The Best Interests Standard In Parental Rights Terminations, William L. Dawson Jr.

Maine Law Review

The family unit is perhaps America's most deeply rooted social institution. The integrity of the family unit has been repeatedly recognized by the United States Supreme Court as warranting constitutional protection. As a means of protecting family autonomy, natural parents possess a fourteenth amendment liberty interest in the care and custody of their children. The parental liberty interest encompasses a wide range of rights. Although substantial, these parental rights are not absolute. By virtue of the parens patriae power, the state may interfere with parental rights in order to preserve and promote the welfare of the child. The most extreme …

Legal Standards Governing Modification Of Child Custody Orders, Christian T. Chandler

Maine Law Review

Child custody is an area of the law where the courts have tread cautiously. Bitter disputes between separating parents often erupt into court struggles over which parent will gain custody of the minor children. As a result of this discord, and the terrible toll it can take on both the parents and the children, the courts are wary of modifying the original custody decree and moving a child from one parent to another. Courts must vigilantly deter custody suits brought purely for vengeance or harassment. The court acts as the child's legal protector when a change of custody issue is …

Habeas Corpus—A Better Remedy In Visitation Denial Cases, James A. Albert, Gregory A. Brodek

Maine Law Review

Most family law statistics are sobering. For example, in 1986, there were 2,400,000 marriages in the United States and 1,159,000 divorces. In 1985, there were 2,425,000 marriages and 1,187,000 divorces. Millions of children are affected by these divorces each year as courts decide which parent should be awarded their custody. In 1986, there were approximately 63,000,000 American children and 6,139,000 of these children came from broken homes. According to official census statistics, twenty-one percent of America's children live only with their mother while less than three percent live only with their father. In most divorce cases, Mom gets custody and …

Legal Standards Governing Modification Of Child Custody Orders, Christian T. Chandler

Maine Law Review

Child custody is an area of the law where the courts have tread cautiously. Bitter disputes between separating parents often erupt into court struggles over which parent will gain custody of the minor children. As a result of this discord, and the terrible toll it can take on both the parents and the children, the courts are wary of modifying the original custody decree and moving a child from one parent to another. Courts must vigilantly deter custody suits brought purely for vengeance or harassment. The court acts as the child's legal protector when a change of custody issue is …

Intimate Partner Violence: Access To Protection Beyond The Pandemic, Rachel J. Wechsler

Faculty Publications

Civil protection orders are the most common legal remedy victims pursue in response to intimate partner violence (IPV). They are more empowering for victims than the criminal legal system because victims themselves drive the process, instead of prosecutors, and they offer more flexible and tailored relief. This Article argues that victims should be able to choose how they file petitions and participate in civil protection order hearings, and that judges should be required to honor those preferences absent good cause. This conclusion is driven by two new, original sets of empirical data collected from IPV survivors who have sought civil …

Three's A Crowd: Addressing Discrimination Faced By Queer De Facto Parents In Child Custody Standing Proceedings, Shannon E. Callaghan

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

In the United States, between five percent and eight percent of adults identify as queer, and as of 2020, fifteen percent of queer couples have children in their households. While recent legal victories have expanded queer rights, family law continues to lag in affording legal recognition to “nontraditional” families. This is particularly problematic for unmarried, queer co-parents who have virtually no legal claims to the children they have raised with their partners. Current standing requirements for custody proceedings treat these de facto parents as legal strangers to their children due to the absence of biological, marital, or adoptive ties. As …

In Loco Reipublicae And The Parental Duty To Expose Children To Ideas Outside The Home, Catherine Smith

Scholarly Articles

In Loco Reipublicaie boldly centers children’s rights and adeptly fills an existing jurisprudential gap by infusing parental rights with important duties to respect and facilitate children’s exercise of their own citizenship rights. It is a children’s-rights-forward shot across a heavily prioritized parents’ rights bow. It’s about time.

Welcome To Texas: Home Of The Most Extreme Abortion Ban In The United States, Generating Vast Child Welfare Disparities, Bailey Harvey

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

This comment uncovers the harsh trickling effects of overturning Roe v. Wade through focusing on the statistical nexus between the Texas’ foster care system, the victims of system cycling, and the criminal justice system. We are witnesses to watching the Court in 1973 from first balancing State’s interest and women’s fundamental rights to having the subject be a topic of the political battlefield.

Examining precedent and the reasoning behind the United States Supreme Court’s decision is a science, and the statistics continue to prove Texas’ child welfare systems are failing the children of America. Juvenile delinquency directly correlates with low …

Prescribed Child Abuse? Using The Americans With Disabilities Act To Deconstruct Discrimination Against Medication For Opioid Use Disorder In Child Abuse & Neglect Proceedings, Makenzie Stuard

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

The opioid crisis has disrupted parent-child relationships across the United States. While states actively seek to remove children from households with current drug use in order to protect the children, state entities often fail to protect the parent-child relationship itself by imposing counterproductive policies and stereotypes on parents who are in treatment for their drug use, which makes maintaining "recovery" and parental rights an uphill battle. This note argues that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provides a novel path to root out discrimination in child abuse and neglect proceedings against parents who either take prescribed buprenorphine or are interested …

A Better Path Forward: The Need For Restorative Justice In The Child Welfare System, Abigail Montalbo

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

The child welfare system in the United States often prioritizes punishment

over healing, failing both the children harmed by maltreatment

and the responsible parties. This Comment explores how incorporating

restorative justice within state child welfare systems

can shift the focus to repairing relationships, building trust, and

promoting healing of the parties harmed, the parties responsible for

the harm, and the community as a whole. Aimed at an audience

who is interested in, but not deeply familiar with restorative justice,

this Comment suggests for the mandatory inclusion of restorative

justice practices to create a more comprehensive and healing-centered

approach within the …

The Insufficiency Of Battered Women’S Syndrome Evidence And The Need For Resentencing Legislation For Criminalized Survivors Of Domestic Violence, Alice Samberg

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

From Margins To Center: Elevating The Voices Of Disadvantaged Families In Child Welfare, Jerron R. Wheeler

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

This essay sheds light on the systemic challenges faced by indigent,

minority families within the child welfare system, using personal experiences

from my time as a student at the University of Florida

Levin College of Law as a lens. This essay aims to highlight the intersection

of poverty, race, and the child welfare system, showing

how these factors can hinder parents' ability to reunite with their

children despite their best efforts. The essay seeks to underscore the

urgent need for a more nuanced, multidisciplinary approach to child

welfare advocacy that includes legal professionals, social workers,

and health professionals working collaboratively …

University Of The District Of Columbia Law Review, University Of The District Of Columbia Law Review

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Akibat Hukum Harta Bersama Yang Masih Menjadi Objek Jaminan Dalam Perjanjian Kredit Terhadap Pembagian Harta Bersama Setelah Perceraian, Sonia Regita Irawan, Lauditta Humaira, Surini Ahlan Sjarif

Lex Patrimonium

Perkawinan menimbulkan suatu akibat hukum terhadap hadirnya harta bersama, baik yang berupa aktiva maupun pasiva atau utang bersama. Tidak jarang apabila terdapat suatu objek berupa harta bersama yang dijadikan sebagai jaminan untuk suatu utang bersama berupa perjanjian kredit yang dilakukan dengan pihak bank. Suatu permasalahan akan timbul ketika perkawinan harus berakhir karena adanya perceraian. Perceraian pun akan menimbulkan suatu akibat hukum terhadap harta dan utang bersama. Setelah perceraian, harta dan utang bersama seharusnya dibagi dengan besaran yang sama untuk suami dan istri. Akan tetapi, dalam praktiknya bisa saja terdapat salah satu pihak yang hanya menginginkan harta bersama tanpa mengingat bahwa …

Peleburan Terhadap Hukum Waris Perdata Barat Dalam Penyelesaian Sengketa Kewarisan Menurut Hukum Waris Adat Batak Berkaitan Dengan Kedudukan Dan Hak Ahli Waris Perempuan (Studi Kasus Putusan), Laurensia Lefina Mulauli, Lauditta Humaira

Lex Patrimonium

This paper is prepared with doctrinal research methods and focuses on the applicability of Batak customary inheritance law by analyzing how to resolve inheritance disputes that occur in Batak families today, whether the Judges still applies the provisions of Batak customary inheritance law in full, which only gives inheritance shares to sons, or also heeds the shift in the value of patrilineal customary inheritance that gives inheritance shares to daughters based on rules Supreme Court Jurisprudence Law No. 179 K/SIP/1961 which equates the position and rights of women and men in the patrilineal customary inheritance system. The consideration of the …

All Stalk And No Action: A Proposal For Arkansas Gps Stalking Legislation, Erin Wadley

Arkansas Law Notes

The expanding availability of GPS and internet of things (IoT) devices has equipped abusers with more tools to intensify and broaden the scope of domestic abuse tactics, “threatening the progress advocates have made in the past thirty years and creating novel dangers for survivors.” These devices “allow abusers to overcome geographic and spatial boundaries that would have otherwise prevented them from monitoring, controlling, harassing, and threatening survivors.” Thus, this Comment strongly urges the Arkansas State Legislature to enact a law to protect victims, provide justice, and preventatively deter the tracking of private citizens through GPS tracking while being broad enough …

He Got The Car, She Got The . . . Future Kids? The Necessity Of Contemporaneous Consent In Certain Embryo Custody Disputes, Taryn Bewley

Arkansas Law Notes

New reproductive technology has created new questions that lawmakers must answer. Do surrogates have a right to the babies they deliver? Is it right to genetically select your future children? Should people be allowed to continually make embryos until they make an embryo of a girl—as Paris Hilton has done through seven rounds of IVF? Will legal analysis be changed by the possibility of making an embryo with genetic material from two members of the same sex? Yet, perhaps the most basic question has yet to truly be answered: if an embryo’s creators cannot come to an agreement, who gets …

Ks Pop Celebrating Three Years Of Tech-Driven Justice For All, Ayyoub Ajmi

Faculty Works

This article explores the development and impact of the Kansas Protection Order Portal (KS POP), highlighting the vital role of law librarians in the portal's design and implementation. The article showcases how KS POP has streamlined the legal process for domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking victims in Kansas, marking a significant advancement in accessible legal support and serving as a model for future innovations in the justice system.

Understanding 303 Creative Llc In A Polycentric Constitutional World, Meg Penrose

Faculty Scholarship

The evolution of rights following Obergefell is not over. Creative 303 LLC marked a new phase in the ongoing legal challenges over the rights and ceremonies attending same-sex marriage. This Essay addresses the anticipated limits of 303 Creative LLC.

The Essay proceeds in three parts. First, how does 303 Creative LLC impact government employees? What rights, if any, should government employees be able to raise in light of 303 Creative LLC? Second, what does 303 Creative LLC mean for private marketplace vendors engaging in expressive commerce? Vendors, particularly wedding vendors, often create unique items for weddings. Will the law focus …

Fund Kinship Caregivers To Help Keep Families Together, Not Separate Them, Joshua Gupta-Kagan

Faculty Scholarship

Money impacts relationships. And when the money involved is a foster care subsidy to kinship caregivers, it can drive a wedge in relationships between parents and kinship caregivers that should be strengthened, not strained. Unfortunately, foster care funding incentivizes the “relational disruption”1 endemic to foster care, when it should instead support family members coming together to support each other and their children.

In contrast, Medicaid funding has increasingly supported family members taking care of each other and can provide child welfare with a model for funding family caregiving without disrupting relationships and without even requiring a family court or foster …

Enforcing Intentional Motherhood: The Harrowing Consequences Arising From The Inconsistency Of Statutes Regarding Surrogacy, And How The Enforcement Of Surrogacy Contracts Is The Answer, Meena Hatab

Global Business Law Review

This Note discusses how the practice of commercial surrogacy is treated across the United States. Most notably, how the courts treat surrogacy contracts from state to state. A summary of how Canada views the practice of surrogacy will provide a general view into how the view of the practice is different across borders. It will be discovered that, while there is a federal law governing surrogacy in Canada, there is no federal law in either country that enforce surrogacy contracts or treat surrogacy contracts as valid contract between two adult parties. This is due to the preconceived notions of what …

Plunging Children Into An Unconstitutional Purgatory: Why Texas Should Raise Its Standard Of Proof For Placing Children In Foster Care, Meagan Corser

Texas A&M Law Review

Texas currently allows Child Protective Services to remove children and place them in foster care for up to two years based only on probable cause of abuse or neglect. Removal itself is traumatic for children and foster care puts children at an unconstitutional risk of harm. Allowing courts to put children through the trauma of removal and foster care for years based only on probable cause departs substantially from the national norm for standards of proof, enables Texas to terminate parental rights at a high rate, and subjects children to a risk of harm for which the child welfare system …