Family Law Commons^™

A Co-Parent Win In Nebraska, Arthur S. Leonard

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Converging Queer And Feminist Legal Theories: Family Feuds And Family Ties, Elaine Craig

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The notion that queer theory and feminism are inevitably in tension with one another has been well developed both by queer and feminist theorists. Queer theorists have critiqued feminist theories for being anti-sex, overly moralistic, essentialist, and statist. Feminist theorists have rejected queer theory as being un-critically pro-sex and dangerously protective of the private sphere. Unfortunately these reductionist accounts of what constitutes a plethora of diverse, eclectic and overlapping theoretical approaches to issues of sex, gender, and sexuality, often fail to account for the circumstances where these methodological approaches converge on legal projects aimed at advancing the complex justice interests …

Converging Queer And Feminist Legal Theories: Family Feuds And Family Ties, Elaine Craig

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The notion that queer theory and feminism are inevitably in tension with one another has been well developed both by queer and feminist theorists. Queer theorists have critiqued feminist theories for being anti-sex, overly moralistic, essentialist, and statist. Feminist theorists have rejected queer theory as being un-critically pro-sex and dangerously protective of the private sphere. Unfortunately these reductionist accounts of what constitutes a plethora of diverse, eclectic and overlapping theoretical approaches to issues of sex, gender, and sexuality, often fail to account for the circumstances where these methodological approaches converge on legal projects aimed at advancing the complex justice interests …

“Wife Beating” And “Uninvited Kisses” In The Supreme Court And Society In The Early Twentieth Century, Elizabeth Katz

Studio for Law and Culture

This paper challenges the conventional narrative that domestic violence victims were ignored by both law and society in the early 1900s. It begins by questioning the dominant position a single Supreme Court tort case, Thompson v. Thompson, holds in the domestic violence discourse. Far from being a strong or unified statement in favor of family privacy or against battered women’s legal rights, the case was decided by a four-Justice majority that pointed victims toward two very public alternative remedies: divorces with alimony and criminal prosecutions. The paper then proceeds to evaluate whether these proffered remedies were available and sufficient. …

Electronic Evidence Annotated Bibliography, Nancy Levit

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

The Price Of Pleasure, Shari Motro

Law Faculty Publications

This Article argues that unless sexual partners explicitly agree otherwise, pregnancy should create a unique type of legal relationship. This relational default would come with certain obligations: in limited circumstances, a woman would be expected to communicate the fact of a pregnancy to the man with whom she conceived, and a man would be required to help support her during pregnancy and recovery. Child support obligations should kick in only once a child is born; until and unless this happens, a man's economic responsibility should be conceptualized as a responsibility towards the woman herself.

The goal of this Article is …

The Argument For Same-Sex Marriage, Nelson Tebbe, Deborah A. Widiss, Shannon Gilreath

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Professors Tebbe and Widiss revisit the arguments they made in "Equal Access and the Right to Marry" and emphasize their belief that distinguishing between different-sex marriage and same-sex marriage is inappropriate. They lament the sustained emphasis on the equal-protection and substantive-due-process challenges in the Perry litigation and suggest that an equal-access approach is more likely to be successful on appeal.

Professor Shannon Gilreath questions some of the fundamental premises for same-sex marriage. He challenges proponents to truly reflect on "what there is to commend marriage to Gay people," and points to his own reversal on the question as evidence. Though …

The New Family: Challenges To American Family Law, Cynthia Grant Bowman

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The vast demographic and social changes of the twentieth century have produced a variety of new family forms – cohabiting couples, same-sex couples, an increased number of single-parent families, and extended families resulting from divorce, for example. The legal system in the United States has yet adequately to address the legal problems that these new family forms create. This article discusses a number of major issues that arise from this failure, including: (1) the sometimes negative impact of gender-neutral rules in divorce upon women and children; (2) the ambiguity and inadequacy of property and support obligations between cohabitants; (3) the …

Filling The Due Process Donut Hole: Abuse And Neglect Cases Between Disposition And Permanency, Josh Gupta-Kagan

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Ain't I A Parent?: Exclusion Of Kinship Caregivers From The Debate Over Expansions Of Parenthood., Sacha M. Coupet

Faculty Publications & Other Works

Kinship caregivers-a group disproportionately populated by persons of color, particularly black grandmothers -have historically assumed parental roles, often together with a legal parent. Yet even as kin have increasingly assumed substantial parental responsibilities over the past few decades, they continue to have limited opportunities to carry the title of legal parent. At the same time, in claims involving stepfamilies and same sex partners of parents, and cases involving assisted reproductive technology (ART), family courts have expanded their definition of parenthood to recognize the rights of other caregivers, including those whose parental claims extend beyond the so-called "rule of two."2 The …

Natural Law And The Rights Of The Family, Robert J. Araujo S.J.

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Pregnant Man?: A Conversation, Darren Rosenblum, Noa Ben-Asher, Mary Anne Case, Elizabeth Emens, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol, Vivian M. Gutierrez, Lisa C. Ikemoto, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Jacob Willig-Onwuachi, Kimberly Mutcherson, Peter Siegelman, Beth Jones

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

I'm a law professor who works on gender, sexuality, and culture in the international and comparative context. That's my head working. In "real" life, my partner, Howard, and I have been engaged in having a baby together for several years, a project that came to fruition with the birth of our daughter Melina. Of course, such a project evokes intensely complex feelings and thoughts. Beyond a simple transposition of the personal onto the political, I feel so fortunate to have engaged in myriad conversations with a variety of friends and colleagues who think much more carefully about the family …

Beyond The Polemics: Realistic Options To Help Divorcing Families Manage Domestic Violence, Elayne E. Greenberg

Faculty Publications

Children, adult survivors, and their batterers who remain engaged in violence, even after they live apart, are living legacies of the historical perniciousness of domestic violence, a legacy that must change. True, over the past thirty years the politicization of domestic violence has raised public awareness, spurred legislative reforms, and propelled court innovations. However, the children, survivors, and batterers who still live domestic violence after divorce know all too well that all of our political advancements, legal victories, court innovations, and social awareness have not stopped the violence they live within their day-to-day lives. For many of these families, an …

That Guy's A Batterer!: A Scarlet Letter Approach To Domestic Violence In The Information Age, Elaine M. Chiu

Faculty Publications

Despite the remarkable reliance on the Internet as a source of information, we have yet to fully take advantage of it in our movement against domestic violence. Information is used as a weapon in the battle against domestic violence in several limited ways. Yet there is still more we can do with information and, specifically, the Internet, in combating domestic violence. The Scarlet Letter proposal seeks to empower potential victims of domestic violence with information so that they themselves can make choices that will avoid years of suffering and abuse. The idea is to allow public access to the data …

Empowerment, Innovation, And Service: Law School Programs Provide Access To Justice And Instill A Commitment To Serve, Dale Margolin Cecka

Law Faculty Publications

Law schools around the country seek to fill the legal needs of their communities in ways that are both innovative and mutually beneficial to clients and students. This article describes five pro bono and clinical programs, at the University of Richmond School of Law. The Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University. Catholic University Columbus School of Law, the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and Vermont Law School, where law students, under the supervision of law professors or community professionals, provide assistance or legal representation to underserved and often marginalized populations needing help with family law problems, including parents …

Medical Rights For Same-Sex Couples And Rainbow Families, Anisa Mohanty

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

The present state of the law regarding medical rights for same-sex couples and their families is highly inconsistent. A handful of states permit same-sex marriage. Another handful of states recognize samesex marriages from other states, allow civil unions with state-level spousal rights for same-sex couples, or extend some or nearly all statelevel spousal rights to unmarried couples in domestic partnerships. With these widely disparate levels of recognition, it becomes difficult for same-sex couples to navigate their options and rights when a loved one-a partner or child-has a medical emergency or is in the hospital. In Part II, this Comment will …

Comments: In Light Of Crawford V. Washington And The Difficult Nature Of Domestic Violence Prosecutions, Maryland Should Adopt Legislation Making Admissible Prior Acts Of Domestic Violence In Domestic Violence Prosecutions, Jay A. Abarbanel

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Filling The Due Process Donut Hole: Abuse And Neglect Cases Between Disposition And Permanency, Joshua Gupta-Kagan

Faculty Scholarship

Abuse and neglect cases involve constantly changing facts. They “are unlike civil cases, which typically involve only facts gone by ... The ultimate parties in interest are the [children] themselves. And for them, their lives are ... ongoing event[s].” A child’s need to return to his parent may ebb or flow. His parent’s fitness may improve, regress, or remain the same. Federal law, followed in all states that wish to receive federal funds to support foster care, requires regular permanency hearings so family courts can make decisions based on evolving factual situations. These decisions, and the lack of greater procedural …

Familial Norms And Normality, Clare Huntington

Faculty Scholarship

Social norms exert a powerful influence on families. They shape major life decisions, such as whether to marry and how many children to have, as well as everyday decisions, such as how to discipline children and divide household labor. Emotion is a defining feature of these familial social norms, giving force and content to norms in contexts as varied as reproductive choice, parenting, and same-sex relationships. These emotion-laden norms do not stand apart from the law. Falling along a continuum of involvement that ranges from direct regulation to choice architecture, state sway over social norms through their emotional valence is …

A Hidden Crisis: The Need To Strengthen Representation Of Parents In Child Protective Proceedings, Vivek Sankaran

Articles

A national consensus is emerging that zealous legal representation of parents is crucial in ensuring that the child welfare system produces just outcomes for children. National groups, inclucing the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law, and the National Association of Counsel for Children, have been outspoken on the need to strengthen legal advocacy on behalf of parents, and a number of states-including Colorado, Connecticut,' and Washington7 have initiated efforts to comprehensively reform their systems of appointing lawyers for indigent parents to better serve families. A national movement is afoot …