Family Law Commons^™

Preliminary Comments On Dark Numbers: Research On Domestic Violence In Central And Eastern Europe, Isabel Marcus

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

University Of Richmond Law Review

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Domestic Relations, Lynne Marie Kohm

University of Richmond Law Review

Within the past year, there have been changes of formidable importance in many major areas of domestic relations, both nationally and in Virginia. This article will review the major judicial and legislative developments in family law in Virginia in the context of national domestic relations law, with an eye toward trends in Virginia.

Sex And The Social Order: The Selective Enforcement Of Colonial American Adultery Laws In The English Context, Carolyn B. Ramsey

Publications

No abstract provided.

Family Values And The Bankruptcy Code: A Proposal To Eliminate Bankruptcy Benefits Awarded On The Basis Of Marital Status, A. Mechele Dickerson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Cases

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Guardian Ad Litem In Child Custody Cases: The Contours Of Our Judicial System Stretched Beyond Recognition, Raven Lidman, Betsy Hollingsworth

Faculty Articles

This article discusses the role of the guardian ad litem, as Part I dissects each of the five potential guardian ad litem roles: Lawyer, Expert Witness, investigator/Lay Witness, Mediator/Facilitator, and Party. For each role, this section explores: how the well-known role is typically performed within the court system as a whole; how that role might be performed in a custody case, consistent with its occurrence elsewhere in the judicial system; and how that role, when held by a guardian ad litem, actually is performed in a custody context. Part II endeavors to explain how the guardian ad litem figure has …

Reconceiving The Family: Challenging The Paradigm Of The Exclusive Family, Alison Harvinson Young

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Lesbian Divorce: A Commentary On The Legal Issues, David L. Chambers

Articles

Lesbian couples who break up will find themselves in an awkward position under the law for two separable but related reasons. The first is that, because they were unmarried, they are subjected by the law to much the same uneven and ambivalent treatment to which unmarried heterosexual couples are subjected. The second, of course, is that they are gay or lesbian and thus regarded with special disfavor even in some states that have become more tolerant of unmarried heterosexual relationships. As a law teacher who is gay and who writes about family law issues relating to gay men and lesbians, …

Parental Conflict Prevention Programs And The Unified Family Court: A Public Health Perspective, Andrew Schepard

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

The thesis of this article is that every unified family court should develop a prevention plan to help parents reduce conflict arising out of divorce and separation. A coherent prevention strategy should become a fundamental criteria for distinguishing high-quality family courts from those that do not serve their publics as well. Models of useful pro-grams already exist and can be incorporated into a court's prevention plan. Judges, legislators, lawyers, mental health professionals, and child advocates should insist that they are.

Section Two of this article describes the problems facing courts, parents, and children resulting from divorce and separation in terms …

Legal Images Of Motherhood: Conflicting Definitions From Welfare "Reform," Family And Criminal Law, Jane C. Murphy

All Faculty Scholarship

Part I of this Article explores the traditional idealized view of motherhood that child placement statutes and court decisions reflect. These laws include statutes and case law in custody disputes between parents and in child protection proceedings under civil and criminal laws where the dispute is between the parent and the state. Part II contrasts the legal construct of motherhood that child placement laws embody with the legal image of mothers in child support and welfare law.

Part III examines the impact of these conflicting images of motherhood on a particular group of mothers -- battered women. Battered women illuminate …

Reform Of Adult Guardianship Law, John E. Donaldson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Joint Custody: Bonding And Monitoring Theories, Margaret F. Brinig, F. H. Buckley

Journal Articles

Symposium: Law and the New American Family Held at Indiana University School of Law - Bloomington Apr. 4, 1997

No-Fault Laws And At-Fault People, Margaret F. Brinig, F. H. Buckley

Journal Articles

Absent transaction costs, the Coase Theorem suggests that divorce reform would work no change in the frequency of divorce but perhaps would alter the distribution of marital wealth. However, divorce does involve substantial process costs, which no-fault lowered. This paper explores the question of what happened to state divorce rates because of the legal changes wrought by the family law revolution that began in the 1970s, isolating the effect of the legal variable from other demographic and social factors that might also explain the variation in divorce rates across states and across time.

The Supreme Court's Impact On Marriage, 1967-90, Margaret F. Brinig

Journal Articles

In the twenty years following Loving, the Supreme Court decided a number of cases dealing with the family. Although the Court reasoned that it was protecting marriage and extending such protection to other forms of families, the perverse effect of these decisions was to weaken the most traditional family type of all, the nuclear family. Adults, and particularly pregnant women and unwed fathers, triumphed in this move towards autonomy and rights. The vanquished included those who depended upon the family for love and sustenance: minor children, elderly adults, and longtime homemakers.

This paper discusses these cases from a family law …

Buying Time For Survivors Of Domestic Violence: A Proposal For Implementing An Exception To Welfare Time Limits, Jennifer Mason Mcaward

Journal Articles

With the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (Personal Responsibility Act), states have unprecedented discretion in fashioning their social welfare programs.

This Note examines the Personal Responsibility Act, focusing specifically on the statutory language and history of the sixty-month time limit on receipt of benefits and the two optional exceptions states may enact. This examination reveals that the Act contemplates that states have both the power and the support of Congress and the Department of Health and Human Services to implement exceptions for the benefit of survivors of domestic violence.

Given that states may …

Chilling Child Abuse Reporting: Rethinking The Capta Amendments, Caroline T. Trost

Vanderbilt Law Review

On a December night in 1993, Gregory Bryant-Bruce, age six months, was rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center Emergency Room for treatment of severe anemia, shock, and abnormally low hematocrit.' A CT scan revealed brain hemorrhaging, and a physical examination showed retinal hemorrhages of varying ages. Retinal bleeding in a young child is almost always caused by traumatic injury, and is considered to be a classic sign of "Shaken Impact Syndrome" ("SIS"), a life-threatening and relatively common form of child abuse. Thus, on the basis of Gregory's symptoms and the in- adequacy of his parents' explanation of his injuries, Gregory's …

Domestic Relations, Barry B. Mcgough

Mercer Law Review

The survey year produced a wide array of appellate opinions with no discernible area of focus. Of particular interest were decisions holding that the relocation of a custodial parent is not alone grounds to change custody and that notice of trial by publication alone contravenes the due process rights of a pro se litigant in a divorce action in which custody of minor children is at issue. A resident can sue for divorce and an award of Georgia property even though the nonresident spouse has never been in the state. However, a resident cannot enforce a foreign divorce decree when …

Tearing Down The House: Weakening The Foundation Of Divorce Mediation Brick By Brick, Colleen N. Kotyk

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Mediation is an attractive alternative to traditional litigation. In the last decade the use of mediation in family law has increased substantially. Mediation is particularly suited to family disputes when the parties voluntarily choose to use the process because it can help the parties resolve disputes and foster long-term relationships. Not all parties, however, are given a choice between mediation and more traditional adversarial justice. Currently, state legislation ranges from permitting mediation to mandating mediation. Mandatory mediation raises the issue of due process violations, especially in situations involving spousal abuse.

This Note analyzes the use of mediation in domestic relations …

Guardianships And Conservatorships, Oregon Law Institute, S. Jane Patterson, Mark M. Williams, Maggie Biondi, Carol J. Kyle, Jennifer L. Wright, Elizabeth Welch

Oregon Law Institute, 1997

Course Materials from the October 10, 1997 Program in Portland

And Never The Twain Shall Meet: The Best Interests Of Children And The Adversary System, Janet Weinstein

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.

Protecting The Rights Of Hard To Place Children In Adoptions, Troy D. Farmer

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Court-Created Boundaries Between A Visible Lesbian Mother And Her Children, Susan J. Becker

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This essay identifies some of the boundaries and obstacles imposed by the courts on a "visible" lesbian mother striving to maintain a healthy relationship with her children. The term "visible" is used to describe a mother whose lesbian sexuality has been revealed to a court empowered with defining her future contact with her children. The primary focus here is on children who were conceived through a heterosexual relationship, and where a heterosexual parent, grandparent, or other person is challenging the lesbian mother's right to custody of, or visitation with, her own children. Court created boundaries are identified and discussed in …

The Globalization Of Female Child Prostitution: A Call For Reintegration And Recovery Measures Via Article 39 Of The United Nations Convention On The Rights Of The Child, Laurie Robinson

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

No abstract provided.

We Know Better Than We Do: A Policy Framework For Child Welfare Reform, Donald N. Duquette, Sandra K. Danzinger, Joan M. Abbey, Kristin S. Seefeldt

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The need for comprehensive reform of child welfare policies and systems has long been evident. This Article reports observations from the WK Kellogg Foundation-sponsored Families for Kids Initiative that seeks to expand services and support to families and reduce the time children spend in temporary care. The authors first provide an overview of the need for reforms such as those proposed by this initiative, suggesting that many child welfare studies, critiques, and proposed reforms have had similar objectives. The authors highlight lessons learned from how these reform goals are being developed, implemented, and practiced in ongoing programs across the nation …

Family Group Conferences As A Form Of Court Approved Alternative Dispute Resolution In Child Abuse And Neglect Cases, Jolene M. Lowry

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The problems associated with long-term foster care of children have escalated over the past decade as more abused and neglected children enter the already overworked and underfunded state child protective system& The recent Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 mandates giving preference to placement within the extended family for children who cannot be returned to their parents. Compliance with this law requires substantial changes in the policies and procedures of human services agencies in most states. This Article discusses "family group conferencing,' a new model for working with families within the system. Family Group Conferencing originated in …

Developing A Child Advocacy Law Clinic: A Law School Clinical Legal Education Opportunity, Donald N. Duquette

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Clinical legal education has become an accepted and integral complement to traditional law school curricula. Professor Duquette argues that clinical education is uniquely able to integrate the teaching of practical skills and legal doctrine, elevating students' understanding of both. Duquette maintains that a child advocacy law clinic can teach a broad range of practical skill benefit the hosting law school by providing an opportunity for interdisciplinary education as well as a public relations benefit, while simultaneously serving an important need in most communities for quality representation of all parties in child abuse and neglect cases. Most importantly, participation in a …

Speaking To Tribal Judges On The Matter Of Improving Children's Court Practice In Child Abuse And Neglect Cases In Our Country: A Proposal For A Uniform Children's Code, Julian D. Pinkham

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Since the 1970 the responsibilities of the tribal children's courts have increased dramatically. In child welfare case tribal courts no longer simply determine whether a child has been abused or neglected. They now also oversee the placement of the child in a shelter, foster care, or a permanent home, as well as determine the parent's treatment or visitation rights The complexity of the cases causes unacceptable delays in placing Indian children in need of care and hinders the placement of Indian children within the tribal community.

Judge Pinkham introduces a proposed solution to the problems of current tribal child welfare …

Child Care, Welfare Reform, And Taxes, Mary L. Heen

Law Faculty Publications

The welfare reform legislation passed by Congress last year makes significant changes in the social welfare system, followed this year by contrasting shifts in the. federal tax system's treatment of families with children. This article discusses how the. welfare and tax law changes affect overall child care policy and funding levels for work-related child care, and evaluates the newly enacted child tax credit and the existing child care tax credit in light of their combined effects on low income working families.

Divorce And Domicile: Time To Sever The Knot, Rhonda Wasserman

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.