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Champions For Justice 2018, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Hb 359 - Power Of Attorney, Roma A. Amin, Catherine V. Schutz

Georgia State University Law Review

The bill would have repealed and replaced Georgia’s Power of Attorney for the Care of a Minor Child Act. The category of people who could be given power of attorney for the care of a minor child would have expanded from only grandparents and great-grandparents to a broad category of the child’s relatives, and anyone associated with a non-profit organization focused on child or family services or a licensed child-placing agency.

After Sex, Courtney Megan Cahill

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

State Action That Penalizes Children As Evidence Of A Desire To Harm Politically Unpopular Parents, Catherine E. Smith

Scholarly Articles

This Article is the first to advance the position that when the government takes the extreme step of denying children basic rights and benefits because of their parents, such state action should be recognized not just as evidence of animus against the children, but also as evidence of "a bare desire to harm" their "politically unpopular" parents. Identifying this type of government motivation and calling it what it is--animus toward parents--is just as important as condemning animus against the children themselves. Anti-parent animus that motivates harmful government behavior towards children should be prohibited as an impermissible means to accomplish an …

Deliberative Public Engagement With Science: An Empirical Investigation, Lisa M. Pytlikzillig, Myiah J. Hutchens, Peter Muhlberger, Frank J. Gonzalez, Alan Tomkins

Lisa PytlikZillig Publications

The purpose of this book is to share some results and the data from four studies in which we used experimental procedures to manipulate key features of deliberative public engagement to study the impacts in the context of deliberations about nanotechnology. In this chapter, we discuss the purpose of this book, which is to advance science of public engagement, and the overarching question motivating our research: What public engagement methods work for what purposes and why? We also briefly review existing prior work related to our overarching goal and question and introduce the contents of the rest of the book. …

Married Couple, Single Recipient: Understanding The Exclusion Of Gifts And Inheritances From Default Matrimonial Regimes, Laura Cárdenas

Canadian Journal of Family Law

In most Canadian jurisdictions, default family property law regimes exclude gifts and inheritances from the property that will be divided between divorcing couples. In Quebec, this exclusion is not only present in the default regime (the partnership of acquests) but rendered mandatory by the public order nature of the “family patrimony”—a construct determining the property that will be shared equally between spouses upon their divorce. This article examines default regimes of family property in Ontario and Quebec and analyzes the justifications provided by the provincial legislators for excluding gifts and inheritances from the mass of assets that will be divided …

Moral Evils V Health And Safety Evils: The Case Of An Ovum “Obtained” From A “Donor” And Used By The “Donor” In Her Own Surrogate Pregnancy, Pamela M. White

Canadian Journal of Family Law

This paper critically examines the amendment made in 2012 to section 10(2)(c) of the Assisted Human Reproduction Act, 2004 mandating the screening and testing of “obtained” ovum “donated” by a “donor” and used in her own surrogate pregnancy. The amendment at section 10(1) of the Act cites the federal government’s obligation to reduce harm to human health and safety arising from use of sperm or ova for human reproduction, including the risk of disease transmission. This paper argues that the amendment mandating the screening and testing of surrogate ova when used by the surrogate in her own surrogate pregnancy creates …

Remembering Professor Judith Mosoff, Isabel Grant, Susan B. Boyd

Canadian Journal of Family Law

No abstract provided.

The Vanishing Body Of Disability Law: Power And The Making Of The Impaired Subject, Jonas-Sébastien Beaudry

Canadian Journal of Family Law

The influence of disability studies on legal scholarship is most visible in the social model, which claims that people are not disabled because of their bodily impairments, but by society in its refusal to accommodate their impairments.

However, a modest but growing discourse within disability studies argues that the notion of impairment, in addition to disability, is socially constructed. This article aims to bring this problematized conception of impairment, informed by Michel Foucault’s conception of power, into contact with legal scholarship. Judith Mosoff’s sensibility about the role of impairments in the legal treatment of disabled people illustrates this critical outlook, …

Crazy Women And Hysterical Mothers: The Gendered Use Of Mental-Health Labels In Custody Disputes, Suzanne Zaccour

Canadian Journal of Family Law

This research studies the use of gendered mental-health labels, such as “crazy,” “hysterical,” “insane,” and “emotionally unstable,” in Canadian custody cases decided between 2000 and 2016. Building on Judith Mosoff’s work on gender and mental health stigma in custody proceedings, it maps how these “pop-psychology” labels impact custody litigation. This investigation reveals that mental-health labels serve to discredit the mother, attack her parenting abilities, and distract from her allegations of violence by the father. The article also explores fathers’, mental health experts’, and judges’ roles in framing the mother’s credibility and parental capacity with regard to her alleged mental instability. …

Are You My Mother? Parentage In A Nonconjugal Family, Natasha Bakht, Lynda M. Collins

Canadian Journal of Family Law

No abstract provided.

Young People As Humans In Family Court Processes: A Child Rights Approach To Legal Representation, Donna J. Martinson, Caterina E. Tempesta

Canadian Journal of Family Law

The authors, a retired British Columbia Supreme Court judge and a senior member of Ontario’s Office of the Children’s Lawyer, address the important issue of legal representation for children. They are co-chairs of the Steering Committee which guided the development of the Canadian Bar Association’s new and comprehensive Child Rights Toolkit. As such, they are well-placed to discuss how a child rights approach, as required by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to which Canada is a ratifying party, supports legal representation for children who find themselves caught in contentious family law proceedings before the courts.

Quebec's Filiation Regime, The Roy Report'S Recommendations, And The 'Interest Of The Child', Régine Tremblay

Canadian Journal of Family Law

This article describes Quebec’s filiation regime and explains some of the Roy Report’s recommendations to reform parent-child relationships in Quebec. While this report is unlikely to lead to legislative change, it represents an important insight into issues animating family law in Quebec today. The Roy Report anchors filiation and family law to the ‘interest of the child’, a notion likely different from the best interests of the child in common law. The article offers some critical and comparative analysis of current and proposed rules. It makes this lesser known area of Quebec civil law accessible in English and to common …

Prestation Compensatoire Et Union De Fait En Droit Québécois : Étude Critique Du Discours Judiciaire, Laurence Saint-Pierre Harvey

Canadian Journal of Family Law

This paper analyzes a policy recommendation suggesting the compensatory allowance, a mechanism in Quebec matrimonial law, to be the solution of the cohabitation “problem.” The study draws on queer theory to analyze the discourse found in the compensatory allowance case law. The judicial discourse is polarized into two binary categories: spouse taking advantage / spouse being taken advantage of, normal contributions / abnormal contributions. This analysis sheds light on two defining traits of the compensatory allowance. First, as elaborated by judgments, it expresses gendered, heteronormative, and traditional ideas of spousal identity and roles. Second, it is difficult to conceive of …

(Some) Mothers Know Best: A Case Comment On Mm V Tb And The Plight Of Indigenous Mothers In Child Welfare And Adoption Proceedings, Catherine Wang

Canadian Journal of Family Law

Over time, courts have come to acknowledge the significance of Indigenous identity when deciding custody disputes, but they continue to struggle with how much consideration should be given to the broader history involved, which can leave Indigenous mothers particularly disadvantaged in family law proceedings. Not only do Indigenous mothers have to contend with the law’s general assumptions and expectations about mothers, they also have to endure the courts’ often limited ability to situate mothers’ individual actions in the wider context of structural barriers erected by government and societal forces. A close examination of the recent British Columbia Court of Appeal …

The "Family"—And "Families" In Law: A Review Of Archana Parashar And Franscesca Dominello, The Family In Law, Mary Jane Mossman

Canadian Journal of Family Law

No abstract provided.

Undocumented Citizens Of The United States: The Repercussions Of Denying Birth Certificates, Anna L. Lichtenberger

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

Alternative Spring Break 2018 Report, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Prompting Deliberation About Nanotechnology: Information, Instruction, And Discussion Effects On Individual Engagement And Knowledge, Lisa M. Pytlikzillig, Myiah J. Hutchens, Peter Muhlberger, Alan Tomkins

Lisa PytlikZillig Publications

Deliberative (and educational) theories typically predict knowledge gains will be enhanced by information structure and discussion. In two studies, we experimentally manipulated key features of deliberative public engagement (information, instructions, and discussion) and measured impacts on cognitive-affective engagement and knowledge about nanotechnology. We also examined the direct and moderating impacts of individual differences in need for cognition and gender. Findings indicated little impact of information (organized by topic or by pro-con relevance). Instructions (prompts to think critically) decreased engagement in Study 1, and increased it in Study 2, but did not impact postknowledge. Group discussion had strong positive benefits for …

There Are No Ordinary People: Christian Humanism And Christian Legal Thought, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

This short essay is a contribution to a volume celebrating a new casebook, "Christian Legal Thought: Materials and Cases", edited by Profs. Patrick McKinley Brennan and William S. Brewbaker.

Gender And Nation-Building: Family Law As Legal Architecture, Tracy E. Higgins, Rachel P. Fink

Maine Law Review

In considering the legal architecture of nation-building, we might most readily think of public law as our subject insofar as it governs the relationship between the individual and the state, and establishes the institutions of governance and the sources and limits of their power. The essays in this volume, in large part, track this instinct in that they concern themselves with fields such as constitutional law, criminal law, and public international law. Closer to the margin of public and private law are essays dealing with various dimensions of the modern regulatory state, including banking and commercial transactions. In each of …

Turner In The Trenches: A Study Of How Turner V. Rogers Affected Child Support Contempt Proceedings, Elizabeth Patterson

Faculty Publications

In its 2011 ruling in Turner v. Rogers, the Supreme Court held that a nonpaying child support obligor may not be incarcerated in a civil contempt proceeding if he did not have the ability to pay the ordered support or the purge necessary to regain his freedom. The Turner case arose in South Carolina, a state in which civil contempt proceedings are a routine part of the child support enforcement process. The author observed child support contempt proceedings in South Carolina both before and after the Turner decision to assess the extent to which indigent obligors were being held in …

The Pro Bono Collaborative Project Spotlight 09-06-2017, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Pro Bono Collaborative Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

You Are Now Entering The School Zone, Proceed With Caution: Educators, Arbitration, & Children’S Rights, Raquel Muniz

Arbitration Law Review (2009 - Present)

No abstract provided.

Report Of The Law Reform Committee On The 1996 Hague Convention On The Protection Of Children, Valerie Thean, Debbie Ong, Audrey Lim, Thian Yee Sze, Yvonne Tan, Tiong Min Yeo

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Modern litigation between spouses regarding their children is ofteninternational. Such cross-border disputes are especially common inSingapore, as an international commercial centre with a diverse andcosmopolitan society. More importantly, Singaporeans are becoming anincreasingly mobile labour force, working in international businesses.Orders made by Singapore courts involving local parties and local childrenwill increasingly require recognition and enforcement overseas.

Obergefell’S Ambiguous Impact On Legal Parentage, Leslie Joan Harris

Chicago-Kent Law Review

For more than thirty years, the central questions of the law of parentage have been when and to what extent determinations of legal parenthood should be based on biological relationship, marriage to a child’s biological parent, or functioning as or intending to be a parent. In Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court endorsed the claim that children whose parents are married are better off socially and legally than nonmarital children; its language could easily be taken to support legal rules that encourage or prefer childrearing within marriage. On the other hand, the Court’s argument assumes that the same-sex couple—both members—are …

Quacking Like A Duck? Functional Parenthood Doctrine And Same-Sex Parents, Katharine K. Baker

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This Article unpacks the relationship between the functional parenthood doctrine, constitutionally protected parental autonomy rights and intent-to-parent tests as they are applied in same-sex parenting relationships. It argues that, with the advent of same-sex marriage and second parent adoption, the functional parent doctrine is unnecessary and ultimately counterproductive to anyone interested in expanding legal recognition of non-traditional family forms. The functional parent doctrine asks courts to employ traditional understandings of parenthood (“Who acted like a parent?”) in assigning parental status.

These traditional understandings are usually, if not inevitably, dyadic, heteronormative, genetic, and gendered. In practice, the functional parent doctrine undermines …

Romantic Discrimination And Children, Solangel Maldonado

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In recent years, social scientists have used online dating sites to study the role of race in the dating and marriage market. This research has revealed a racialized and gendered hierarchy that disproportionately excludes African-Americans and Asian-American men. For decades, other researchers have studied the risks and outcomes for children who are raised in single-parent homes as compared to children raised by married parents.

Drawing on these studies, this Essay explores how racial preferences in the dating and marriage market potentially disadvantage the children of middle-class African-American women who lack or reject opportunities to intermarry relative to children of married …

Assisted Reproduction Inequality And Marriage Equality, Seema Mohapatra J.D., Mph

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In Obergefell v. Hodges, Justice Kennedy declared that “marriage is fundamental under the Constitution and [should] apply with equal force to same-sex couples.” This Article examines how the advent of marriage equality may impact the rights of same-sex couples to have biological children via assisted reproduction and surrogacy. Specifically, this Article points out the ways that the Obergefell decision affects the law of infertility. By the law of infertility, I mean the laws that require insurance coverage of infertility treatments and other assisted reproductive technologies (“ART”). Because same-sex couples are not able to have biological children with each other …

Parents, Babies, And More Parents, June Carbone, Naomi Cahn

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This Article makes two basic points. First, the three-parent family is here. Once states accept that parenthood does not depend on either biology or marriage, then three parents are inevitable unless the states go out of their way to rule that adults who otherwise meet their definitions of parenthood will not be recognized. Second, as three-parent family recognition increases, there are difficult questions on how to manage the status of each parent. This difficulty arises because the two major trends in the family law—the recognition of a multiplicity of family forms and the insistence on parental equality—are on a collision …