Family Law Commons^™

Love Among The Ruins: The Ethics Of Counseling Happily Married Couples, Teresa Stanton Collett

Seattle University Law Review

This Article explores the professional tension experienced by lawyers when clients embrace an ideal of marriage as "the two shall become as one," in a legal system that has repudiated this understanding in favor of the "reality" of marriage as an association dedicated to the individual fulfillment of the man and woman involved. Part II describes the three purposes of estate planning that define the parameters of any proposed representation. Estate planning lawyers assist clients in minimizing taxes, directing gifts to particular beneficiaries, and insuring the continuing care of loved ones. The decision to accept or reject proposed representation often …

1998 Amendments To The Oklahoma Adoption Code: The Third Round Of Adoption Reform, Marianne Blair

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

A Content Analysis Of Judicial Decision-Making: How Judges Use The Primary Caretaker Standard To Make A Custody Determination, Kathryn Mercer

Faculty Publications

This article expands upon Professor Mercer's previous discussion of the efficacy of the primary caretaker standard in West Virginia.

Crime Or Punishment: The Parental Corporal Punishment Defense - Reasonable And Necessary, Or Excused Abuse, Kandice Johnson

Faculty Publications

The parental right to use physical force to discipline and restrain children is a privilege firmly rooted in the American system of jurisprudence. This privilege is often asserted as a defense when parents are charged with a crime of aggression against their child. While the privilege to use disciplinary force is universally recognized as a defense in criminal actions, it is equally acknowledged that child abuse is a pervasive reality of American life. This article postulates that current laws, addressing assertion of the parental privilege defense in criminal actions, fail either to provide adequate guidance to parents or to sufficiently …

Family Matters: Nonwaivable Conflicts Of Interest In Family Law, Steven H. Hobbs

Seattle University Law Review

The hypotheticals prepared for this special symposium issue ask if a lawyer can provide legal services to a family when one family member yields major decision-making authority to another family member. At stake is the disposition of significant individual and family assets. The traditional model of legal representation would require each family member to have an advocate protecting and promoting his or her individual interests while negotiating a reasonable accommodation of the other family members' interests. The challenge presented by the hypotheticals is whether an attorney can simultaneously represent apparent multiple interests without violating ethical provisions.

American Family Law: History -- Whostory, Ana M. Novoa

Faculty Articles

Family law should be rooted in preserving and protecting intimate relationships; instead, it is rooted in preserving those domestic systems that created or expanded the economic empire of the "Founding Fathers," the white males of the colonial northeast. This northeastern colonial perspective continues to underpin most of the basic assumptions in family law. Concurrently, with the increased privatization of the cooperative virtues, Americans have developed an excessive preoccupation with self and a cult of consumerism.

Consumerism has driven American society toward increased individualism and narcissism. A by-product of the increased individual-consumer culture is the mistaken belief that our personal values …

Prosecutorial Use Of Expert Testimony In Domestic Violence Cases: From Recantation To Refusal To Testify, Audrey Rogers

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article discusses the use of expert testimony in prosecuting those charged with domestic abuse. Part I provides a background on the need and nature of expert testimony in domestic violence cases and the requirements for the admission of such expert testimony. It traces the development of the role of expert testimony in domestic violence cases from its initial exclusive use as a defense tool to support self-defense claims to its present use by prosecutors to explain a complainant's recantation or other puzzling behavior. Part II discusses the appellate cases that have addressed the admissibility and scope of expert testimony …

Law, Life, And Literature: A Critical Reflection Of Life And Literature To Illuminate How Laws Of Domestic Violence, Race, And Class Bind Black Women Based On Alice Walker's Book The Third Life Of Grange Copeland, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

Consider Law, Life and Literature. Which of the three is the most real, honest, and inclusive? Many would answer the law because it takes into consideration all of the facts and circumstances to formulate a clear and consistent rule, and literature is the most unreal, the most fictional of the three. However, that is not accurate. Of the three, literature is actually the most real, honest, and inclusive. It is real because, with brutal honesty, it deals with all of our realities. It is more honest than life, for often in our outer (and even inner) lives we are afraid …

Domestic Violence In Black And White: Racialized Gender Stereotypes In Gender Violence, Zanita E. Fenton

Articles

No abstract provided.

Grandparent Visitation Rights In Ohio After Grandchild Adoption: Is It Time To Move In A New Direction , Genevieve Louise Adamo

Cleveland State Law Review

This note will explain why the Ohio legislature should change the current law regarding grandparent visitation following the adoption of their grandchildren. This note will first explore the way that Ohio looked at the issue of grandparent visitation following the adoption of their grandchildren prior to the Ohio Supreme Court decisions in Ridenour and Martin. Then this note will examine the decisions in Ridenour and Martin. Next this note will discuss other states' laws which allow grandparent visitation following a stepparent adoption. Finally, this note will examine some of the studies and commentaries which suggest that grandparent visitation following stepparent …

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 …

Marriage As Relational Contract, Elizabeth S. Scott, Robert E. Scott

Faculty Scholarship

The evolution of marriage from a relationship based on status to one that is regulated by contractual norms achieved a milestone of sorts recently with the enactment of the Louisiana Covenant Marriage Act. Under this statute, couples entering marriage can choose to have the termination of their relationship regulated under conventional no-fault divorce rules, or they can voluntarily undertake a greater commitment to their marriage. For couples who select covenant marriage, either party can terminate the relationship on fault grounds, but unilateral termination of the marriage is available only after a substantial waiting period. The principal impact of the statute …

Kentucky Law Survey: Family Law, Louise Everett Graham

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Are Kentucky's Children "At Risk" As A Result Of J.H. V. Commonwealth?, Duane F. Osborne

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Morally And Legally: A Parent's Duty To Prevent The Abuse Of A Child As Defined By Lane V. Commonwealth, Rachel S. Zahniser

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Bringing Consistency To The Financial Arrangements At Divorce, Allen M. Parkman

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Susanna And The Elders: A Note On The Regulation Of Families, Carol Weisbrod

Faculty Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

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 …

Spanking And Other Corporal Punishment Of Children By Parents: Undervaluing Children, Overvaluing Pain, David Orentlicher

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Comparativist Ruminations From The Bayou On Child Custody Jurisdiction: The Uccja, The Pkpa, And The Hague Convention On Child Abduction, Christopher L. Blakesley

Scholarly Works

Interstate and international jurisdictional problems are often vexing. They are worse in matters of child custody. In the past, jurisdiction to obtain custody or to modify a custody decree required only presence or domicile. The United States population is transient and custody decisions are subject to modification. The volatility of child custody disputes and the tendency of parents to move to different and separate jurisdictions traditionally caused and continue to cause difficult problems for children, parents, and the legal system. Before the promulgation of the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (UCCJA) and the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act (PKPA), it was …

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.

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Reform Of Adult Guardianship Law, John E. Donaldson

University of Richmond Law Review

The past two years have been especially significant for those subject to or involved in Virginia's system for providing court-appointed fiduciaries for incapacitated adults. Major legislation enacted in the 1997 Session of the Virginia General Assembly substantially reformed, clarified and restated the statutory system. Generally, the 1997 legislation became effective January 1, 1998. Further changes and refinements were made in the 1998 Session. The new system is more rational, coherent, unified and sensitive to the needs and rights of incapacitated adults than the system it replaces.

Dependency And Delegation: The Ethics Of Marital Representation, Naomi Cahn, Robert Tuttle

Seattle University Law Review

The two hypotheticals for this symposium concern a lawyer who is asked to represent a married couple in which one spouse would like to cede decision-making authority to the other. As we have examined the lawyer's ethical responsibilities, we have identified two distinct, but conceptually related, issues of legal ethics. The first, a threshold question, deals with the nature of marital representation: May a lawyer simultaneously represent both husband and wife? And if so, how should the representation be structured? The second adds an additional layer of complexity: If a lawyer represents both husband and wife, may the lawyer accept …

A Kansas Approach To Custodial Parent Move-Away Cases, Steve Leben, Megan Moriarty

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Rules Of Engagement, Rebecca Tushnet

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Why does the law treat engagement rings differently from other gifts? The answer is rooted in a history in which courts generally entertained litigation over broken engagements. As legislatures slowly abolished actions for breach of promise to marry in the early and middle decades of this century, on the grounds that such actions were inconsistent with modem understandings of love and marriage, one potential fact pattern for successful plaintiffs emerged: the case in which a man sues a woman for the return of his engagement gifts.

The history and logic of this body of law-the rules of engagement invite examination.

Due Process, Court Of Appeals: Chaya S. V. Frederick L.

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Self-Incrimination, Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department: In Re Gladys H.

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

"To Be Or Not To Be A Parent?" The Search For A Solution To Custody Disputes Over Frozen Embryos, Esther M. Schonfeld

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ireland's Divorce Bill: Traditional Irish And International Norms Of Equality And Bodily Integrity At Issue In A Domestic Abuse Context, Anthony T. Barnes

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

On November 24, 1995, the Irish population voted to ease Ireland's constitutional ban on divorce by means of a constitutional amendment. The new amendment and the bill that effectuates it give Irish citizens a limited legal right to end their marriages for the first time in Ireland's history. The limits surrounding Irish divorce consist of a significant waiting period, a living-apart requirement, and a slant toward mediation.

This Note explores the predicaments of abused spouses and the unique risks that Ireland's divorce limitations pose to spousal abuse victims seeking to end their marriages. This Note argues that the limitations of …

Family (Proper)Ty, Richard H. Chused

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.