Law and Society Commons^™

Dangers In De Facto Parenthood, Jeffrey A. Parness

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Defaults And Choices In The Marriage Contract: How To Increase Autonomy, Encourage Discussion, And Circumvent Constitutional Constraints, Andrew Blair-Stanek

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Comity Of Errors: Foreign Same-Sex Marriages In New York, Gennaro Savastano

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

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

Florida State University Law Review

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 as legal …

When Women Kill Newborns: The Rhetoric Of Vulnerability, Susan Ayres

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter explores feminist jurisprudence regarding women who commit acts of violence, focusing specifically on questions of agency in neonaticide (killing a newborn). A case study approach illustrates the debate in feminist theory between same-treatment and different-treatment of women as compared to men. While some feminist criminologists urge that women who kill must be viewed the same as men (as having agency and responsibility), other feminists question this approach and point out that women who commit crimes that intersect with family law receive disproportionately harsh treatment and should be treated differently than men.

This chapter contends that the paradox raised …

Facilitating Forgiveness And Reconciliation In “Good Enough” Marriages, Solangel Maldonado

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

The article offers information on the long-term effects of divorce on children and parents under the analysis of the social science literatures. It informs that the U.S. Courts should encourage reconciliation between low-discord parents which in turn would help to save their marriage and protect their children from negative psychological effects of their divorce.

Children As Proto-Citizens: Equal Protection, Citizenship, And Lessons From The Child-Centered Cases, Catherine E. Smith, Susannah W. Pollvogt

Scholarly Articles

The rights of children have recently taken a prominent role in the popular and judicial consciousness. This is largely due to litigation over marriage equality. In authoring the majority opinion in United States v. Windsor, 133 S. Ct. 2675 (2013), Justice Kennedy cited tangible and psychic harm to the children of same-sex couples as a basis for invalidating the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Post-Windsor, myriad state and federal courts similarly have recognized the manner in which state-level marriage bans inflict harm on the children of same-sex couples. Yet, while courts have recognized the significance of harm to children …

Deadbeat Dads & Welfare Queens: How Metaphor Shapes Poverty Law, Ann Cammett

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Who Are The Mothers Who Need Safe Haven Laws? An Empirical Investigation Of Mothers Who Kill, Abandon, Or Safely Surrender Their Newborns, 29 Wis. J.L. Gender & Soc'y 213 (2014), Diane S. Kaplan

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

Who are the Mothers who kill their infants at birth? Why do they kill? How do they kill? Once the infant is disposed of, what becomes of the Mother? Neonaticide is the killing of a newborn within the first twenty-four hours of birth. In response to the discovery of thirteen abandoned newborns, Texas passed the first Safe Haven law in 1999. Within nine years, all states enacted similar laws. The purpose of Safe Haven Laws is to deter neonaticidal behaviors by allowing Mothers who are bearing unwanted pregnancies to legally surrender their newborns with anonymity and immunity from prosecution. The …

Assisted Conception And Equality Of Familial Status In Parentage Law, Wanda Wiegers

Canadian Journal of Family Law

This article provides an in-depth analysis of outcomes in parentage disputes involving assisted conception across Canada. Throughout this article, I draw on equality of status, familial security and equity in terms of gender and sexual orientation as norms or values that should underlie and guide the legal regulation of parenthood in the context of reproductive technologies. Throughout, I also compare and contrast the sources of and the implications for children and parents of resistance in law towards the abolition of illegitimacy and the regulation of assisted conception.

A Voice For “The Small”: Judicial “Meetings” In Custody And Access Disputes, Carolyn Savoury

Canadian Journal of Family Law

No abstract provided.

A V B And Attorney General Of Quebec (Eric V Lola)—The Implications For Cohabiting Couples Outside Quebec, Natasha Bakht

Canadian Journal of Family Law

No abstract provided.

Consent, Coercion, And Shared Parenting: Ruffudeen-Coutts V Coutts, Susan B. Boyd

Canadian Journal of Family Law

No abstract provided.

Suppressing Damages In Involuntary Parenthood Actions: Contorting Tort Law, Denying Reproductive Freedom, And Discriminating Against Mothers, Bruce Feldthusen

Canadian Journal of Family Law

"Involuntary parenthood" actions are negligence actions, usually medical malpractice cases involving a failed sterilization, inadequate warning about the risks of pregnancy, or a failed abortion. In Canada, they will soon also involve product liability claims against negligent birth control manufacturers, providers and regulators. This article considers whether the parents' damages ought to include the cost of raising the child. No Canadian appellate court has ever ruled on this point, although it has been adjudicated extensively by the highest courts elsewhere in the common law world. At least 7 different rules limiting such recovery have been endorsed in the Canadian lower …

Establishing Canada's First Integrated Domestic Violence Court: Exploring Process, Outcomes, And Lessons Learned, Rachel Birnbaum, Nicholas Bala, Peter Jaffe

Canadian Journal of Family Law

The establishment of domestic violence courts has resulted in significant improvements in responses to family violence, but these courts have generally dealt only with criminal cases and do not address the risks that the victim and children may face in family proceedings. In some locations in the USA, courts have been established to deal with both criminal and family proceedings that arise from a domestic violence situation. This paper describes and analyzes the establishment of the first court in Canada that hears both criminal and family cases concerning families where there are domestic violence issues. The authors report on a …

Rethinking Canadian Legal Approaches To Frozen Embryo Disputes, Stefanie Carsley

Canadian Journal of Family Law

This article examines and critiques Canadian legal responses to disputes over frozen in vitro embryos. It argues that current laws that provide spouses or partners with joint control over the use and disposition of embryos created from their genetic materials and that mandate the creation of agreements setting out these parties' intentions in the event of a disagreement or divorce overlook the experiences of women who undergo in vitro fertilization treatment. It also maintains that these laws do not accord with how Canadian law and public policy has responded to similar conflicts between spouses, or to agreements that seek to …

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 …

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 Ninth Circuit’S Treatment Of Sexual Orientation: Defining “Rational Basis Review With Bite”, Ian C. Bartrum

Scholarly Works

When the Ninth Circuit handed down Witt v. Department of the Air Force, President Obama and then-Solicitor General Kagan declined to take an appeal to the Supreme Court. At the time, it seemed that most advocates of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” believed that the administration made that decision because it was afraid the Supreme Court would reverse the Ninth Circuit. If that fear was perhaps well-founded in 2009, it is certainly less so now. In the wake of SmithKline Beecham Corp. v. Abbott Laboratories, as well as recent District Court decisions, opponents of federal constitutional protection for gay people …

Bridging The Justice Gap: Exploring Approaches For Improving Indigent Access To Civil Counsel, Kelsey Atkinson

Pomona Senior Theses

The United States is among one of the only democratic industrialized nations in the world that does not provide guaranteed access to civil representation in cases involving basic human need. This leaves indigent litigants who are at risk of losing their homes or their children left to seek counsel through insufficient pro-bono programs or limited scope legal self-help centers. This thesis provides a history of the struggle for the right to civil counsel, known as Civil Gideon, and explores a variety of proposed solutions to bridge the justice gap for indigent litigants. Despite considerable support for Civil Gideon among scholars …

All That Heaven Will Allow: A Statistical Analysis Of The Co-Existence Of Same Sex Marriage And Gay Matrimonial Bans, Deirdre Bowen

Faculty Articles

This article offers the first analysis to date of national data evaluating whether defense of marriage acts (mini or super-DOMAs) preserve and stabilize the family. After finding that they do not—just as same sex marriage does not appear to destabilize families—the article analyzes what variables are, in fact, associated with family stability. Specifically, those variables are: families below the poverty line; men and women married three or more times; religiosity; percent conservative versus liberal in a state; disposable income; percent with bachelor’s degree; and median age of first marriage. Next, the article applies the sociological concepts of moral entrepreneurism and …

Immigration's Family Values, Kerry Abrams, R. Kent Piacenti

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Gender Politics And Child Custody: The Puzzling Persistence Of The Best-Interest Standard Child Custody Decisionmaking, Elizabeth S. Scott, Robert E. Emery

Faculty Scholarship

The best-interests-of-the-child standard has been the prevailing legal rule for resolving child-custody disputes between parents for nearly forty years. Almost from the beginning, it has been the target of academic criticism. As Robert Mnookin famously argued in a 1976 article, "best interests" are vastly indeterminate – more a statement of an aspiration than a legal rule to guide custody decisionmaking. The vagueness and indeterminacy of the standard make outcomes uncertain and gives judges broad discretion to consider almost any factor thought to be relevant to the custody decision. This encourages litigation in which parents are motivated to produce hurtful evidence …

The Battle Over The Embryo: How West Virginia Should Legally Define The Embryo And Regulate Embryo Adoption, Alyssa Lechmanik

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Varieties Of Individual Engagement (Vie) Scales: Confirmatory Factor Analyses Across Two Samples And Contexts, Lisa M. Pytlikzillig, Myiah J. Hutchens, Peter Muhlberger, Shiyuan Wang, Rebecca Harris, Jayme Neiman, Alan Tomkins

Lisa PytlikZillig Publications

The field of public engagement, participation and deliberation is fraught with conflicting results that are difficult to interpret due to the very different methods and measures used. Theory advancement and consistent operationalization and assessment of key public deliberation and engagement variables will benefit considerably from standardized measures of constructs and the ability to compare across studies. In this article, drawing from social and educational psychology, we describe the theoretical bases for scales assessing eight varieties of participant engagement that may be experienced during participation activities: Active learning, conscientious, uninterested, creative, open-minded, closed-minded, angry, and social engagement. We describe our development …

Maneuvering Modernity: Family Law As A Battle Field In Colonial Taiwan (1895-1945), Yun-Ru Chen

2013 New England Association for Asian Studies Conference

Twenty five years after launching its own legal modernization in response to Western imperialism, Japan imposed a modern legal system upon its first colony, Taiwan. In accordance with the “respecting old custom” colonial policy, the Japanese created a system called Taiwanese customary law, a mixture of imperial Chinese laws, local customs and European legal concepts, and gradually implemented its newly adopted European-style Meiji Civil Code (1898). However, even since the late 1910s when the colonial policy changed into “full-flag assimilation,” family law remained an exception to the transplantation of Japanese laws. That did not, however, mean that family law was …

North Carolina's Bold Model For Eugenics Compensation, Peter Hardin, Paul Lombardo

Faculty Publications By Year

No abstract provided.

So You Want To Have A Second Child? Second Child Bias And The Justification-Suppression Model Of Prejudice In Family Responsibilities Discrimination, Kyle C. Velte

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Seen But Not Heard: Advocating For Children In New York State, Sarah L. Marx

Touro Law Review

On November 1, 2008, the New York State Bar Association House of Delegates approved a resolution affirming their commitment towards establishing a civil right to counsel in New York State. One of the issues identified is a child's right to representation not only in criminal, but also civil proceedings. Unlike other litigant groups, children have a statutorily established right to council in civil proceedings. However, as the white paper, adopted by the New State Bar Association, details, there are gaps in children 's advocacy throughout New York State. While significant steps towards improvement have recently taken place, there is still …