Family Law Commons^™

A Child-Centered Response To The Elkins Family Law Task Force, Amy M. Pellman, Robert N. Jacobs, Dara K. Reiner

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In Elkins v. Superior Court, 163 P.3d 160 (Cal. 2007), California’s Supreme Court asked the Judicial Council to form a task force to make recommendations to increase “access to justice” in family court, because it was concerned about rules, policies, and procedures that put self-represented litigants at an unfair disadvantage in parentageand dissolution cases.

Neither the task force’s report in 2010 nor the legislation that the report inspired the same year addresses children’s due process rights, even though children ordinarily have no access to justice. This Article shows that due process sometimes requires the trial court to appoint counsel for …

Representing Children On Appeal: Changed Circumstances, Changed Minds, Judith Waksberg

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

Saving Seaborn: Ownership Not Marriage As The Basis Of Family Taxation, Dennis J. Ventry Jr

Indiana Law Journal

One of the most famous Supreme Court tax cases celebrated its eightieth birthday last year. In Poe v. Seaborn, the Court reified two principles of the federal income tax: ownership determines tax liability and state law determines ownership. This Article affirms that family taxation continues to follow ownership, not marriage, despite the federal government’s position that the “ownership equals taxability” rule applies almost exclusively to heterosexual spouses. Verifying the vitality of this principle carries significant implications for all families, particularly nontraditional families. Under the aegis of Seaborn, the principle authorizes certain members of state-recognized relationships—marriages, domestic partnerships, civil unions—to file …

Reviled Mothers: Custody Modification Cases Involving Domestic Violence, Megan Shipley

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Enforcing A Parent/Child Relationship At All Cost?: Supervised Access Orders In The Canadian Courts, Fiona Kelly

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Supervised access has become a key component of Canadian custody and access decision making in recent years, in large part due to a shift in attitudes towards post-separation contact between non-custodial parents, typically fathers, and their children. While the sole criterion upon which an access decision can be made is the “best interests of the child,” the increased emphasis on ensuring that children have “maximum contact” with each of their parents post-separation, and the particular focus on maintaining paternal contact, has meant that orders for “no access” have almost disappeared. In an effort to unpack the themes underlying supervised access …

Family Law Education Reform: Progress And Innovation, Barbara Glesner Fines

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

The New Super-Charged Pat (Power Of Appointment Trust), Wendy G. Gerzog

All Faculty Scholarship

This article proposes to repeal the QTIP provisions in order to collect revenue now for transfers that are essentially transfers to third parties and not to the decedent's spouse. Because there are advantages of increased flexibility attendant to a QTIP as opposed to a PAT, this article proposes to take those repealed QTIP benefits and attach them to the PAT, which would greatly enhance that marital deduction trust form. A super-charged PAT would thereby be able to preserve the decedent's GST tax exemption (like a reverse QTIP), create a decedent's by-pass trust by allowing a PAT (or a partial PAT) …

The Removability Of Non-Citizen Parents And The Best Interests Of Citizen Children: How To Balance Competing Imperatives In The Context Of Removal Proceedings?, Patrick J. Glen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The massive influx of illegal immigrants over the preceding decades has combined with the United States’ jus soli citizenship regime to produce a growing class of removable aliens: non-citizen parents of United States citizen children. The removability of parents obviously places the citizen children in the unfortunate position of having to leave their country of citizenship behind to accompany the parents, or arrange for living situations within the United States, perhaps with a relative, but be separated from their parents. The compelling interests raised by the removability of parents in such circumstances have given rise to distinct forms of relief …

Law On The Books Vs. Law In Action: Under-Enforcement Of Morocco's Reformed 2004 Family Law, The Moudawana, Ann Marie Eisenberg

Cornell Law Library Cantwell Prize for Exemplary Student Research Papers

This Note focuses on women’s family law rights in Morocco, a country located in northwestern Africa, and often regarded as the western boundary of the Muslim-Arab world. Significantly, despite Morocco’s shared roots with nations such as Saudi Arabia in culture, religion, and language, the Moroccan government has interpreted similar traditions to yield a starkly different stance: gender equality is desirable. Morocco’s new Moudawana, the 2004 legislation on family law with provisions largely derived from Islamic sources, confers unprecedented rights on Moroccan women.

Part I of this Note evaluates the Moudawana in light of its break with traditional Shari’a, alongside its …

Amici Curiae Brief Of The Children And Youth Advocacy Clinic In Support Of Appellant. In Re The Dependency Of M.S.R. And T.S.R. V. Luak, No. 85729-6 (Wash. Sept. 16, 2011), Lisa Kelly

Court Briefs

Attorneys in Washington have the resources and established standards to effectively represent children and youth in termination of parental rights ("TPR") proceedings. Children who face TPR proceedings need the type of advice and advocacy that only trained lawyers can provide. While parents, social workers, foster parents, therapists, and guardians ad litem may provide substantial support to dependent children, only lawyers can protect their legal rights in complex adversarial proceedings, especially when all of the other parties are represented by counsel. In the context of a confidential relationship with a lawyer, a dependent child can provide critical information and meaningfully participate …

In Re: Adoption Of A Minor Child Circuit Court Of The 15th Judicial Circuit Palm Beach County, Florida, Jennafer Neufeld, Dalia Georgi

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

What Sex-Ed Didn't Teach You: Addressing The Inadequacies Of West Virginia Code Section 42-1-8 And The Future Of Posthumously Conceived Children, Andrew S. Felts

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Let's Call The Whole Thing Off: Divorce And Trusts In Singapore, Hang Wu Tang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article examines how the Family Court in Singapore might approach assets settled on trusts by one of the spouses in the context of a division of matrimonial property upon divorce.

Summary Of Rennels V. Rennels, 127 Nev. Adv. Op. No. 49, Erin Elliot

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Appeal from a court order granting Respondent’s motion to terminate grandparent visitation with Respondent’s minor child.

Holding Schools Accountable For Their Sex-Ed Curricula, Rena M. Lindevaldsen

Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article examines the legal and policy implications that arise when a school district decides to instruct students on issues concerning same-sex attractions. As more states afford legal recognition to same-sex relationships and adopt non-discrimination codes that include sexual orientation, schools are faced with the decision of what, when, and how to teach children about same-sex attractions. Providing instruction on this divisive issue is fraught with conflict as views and beliefs on the topic are deeply-held, diverse, and often politically charged. In disputes concerning other sensitive topics, courts long have afforded schools broad discretion to implement curriculum without interference from …

How House Bill 2063 And The Expansion Of Access To Protective Orders Could Have Saved Yeardley Love's Life, Amy Weiss

Law Student Publications

This paper will examine Virginia protective order law before the enactment of House Bill 2063, how Yeardley Love’s death was a catalyst for reform of the law, how the law will change under House Bill 2063, and possible future developments in legislative reform that could further help victims of intimate partner violence.

To Lynch A Child: Bullying And Gender Nonconformity In Our Nation's Schools, Michael J. Higdon

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Modernizing Marriage, Adam Candeub, Mae Kuykendall

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article proposes to modernize the archaic procedures states use to authorize marriages so as to provide legal flexibility, promote efficiency, and enhance individual choice. Almost universally, states require couples' presence within their borders, however briefly, for a ceremony. After considering the historical and policy rationales for this requirement and finding them either obsolete or incoherent, we propose that states offer marriages to those outside their borders. Such distance marriages could occur via video-conference, using the internet or even telephone, with readily available safeguards to prevent fraud. This simple reform would allow certain couples who cannot marry under local law …

Can You Really Be A Good Role Model To Your Child If You Can't Braid Her Hair? The Unconstitutionality Of Factoring Gender And Sexuality Into Custody Determinations, Christina M. Tenuta

City University of New York Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Short History Of Sex And Citizenship: The Historians' Amicus Brief In Flores-Villar V. United States, Kristin Collins

Faculty Scholarship

The historians’ amicus brief that accompanies this essay was submitted to the Supreme Court in Flores-Villar v. United States, an equal protection challenge to federal statutes that regulate the citizenship status of foreign-born children of American parents. When the parents of such children are unmarried, federal law encumbers the ability of American fathers to secure citizenship for their children, while providing American mothers with a nearly unfettered ability to do the same. The general question before the Court in Flores-Villar – and a question that the Court has addressed in sum and substance on two other occasions during the last …