Family Law Commons^™

Equalizing Parental Leave, Deborah A. Widiss

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The United States is the only developed country that fails to guarantee paid time off work to new parents. As a result, many new parents, particularly low-wage workers, are forced to go back to work within days or weeks of a birth or adoption. In recent years, a growing number of states have passed laws to address this gap in American labor policy, and in December 2019, Congress enacted legislation providing paid parental leave for most federal workers. This Article offers the first detailed analysis of these new laws, and it exposes how their structure—probably unintentionally—disadvantages sole-parent families.

In America, …

Using A Civil Designation As A Sword And A Shield In Domestic Violence Order Of Protection Hearings: Eviscerating The Constitutional Rights Of Criminal Defendants Charged With Domestic Battery In The State Of Illinois, 53 Uic J. Marshall L. Rev. 705 (2021), Elliott Borchardt

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Compulsory Conjugality, Erez Aloni

Connecticut Law Review

What happens when the state changes the default rules that govern financial obligations between unmarried partners from opt in to opt out? Most states have an opt-in rule: unmarried partners do not take on financial obligations of one another unless they agree to do so with a contract. Nevertheless, advocates argue that an opt-out system puts the burden in the right place: unmarried couples who want to avoid default obligations should bear the burden of making contracts. A scholarly debate over the opt-in/opt-out model has raged for twenty years, but the issue is now coming to a head. Yet no …

Fraud Law And Misinfodemics, Wes Henricksen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Coercive Interventions In Pregnancy: Law And Ethics, Debra Debruin, Mary Faith Marshall

Journal of Health Care Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

“Trapped” In A Public Health Emergency: How Abortion Restrictions During The Covid-19 Pandemic Mirror Earlier Attacks On The Abortion Right And How Judicial Review Failed To Protect It, Nancy L. Dordal

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

After Marriage Equality: Dual Fatherhood For Married Male Same-Sex Couples, Jessica Feinberg

Faculty Publications

In most states, married male same-sex couples who conceive children via gestational surrogacy using sperm from one member of the couple and donor ova must pursue adoption in order to establish legal parentage for the member of the couple who is not genetically related to the child. This is because only a minority of jurisdictions have surrogacy laws that recognize the non-biological intended parent as a legal parent in this situation, and across the United States cisgender male same-sex couples are excluded from the longstanding non-adoptive marriage-based avenues of establishing parentage currently available to both different-sex couples and female same-sex …

Duress In Immigration Law, Elizabeth A. Keyes

Seattle University Law Review

The doctrine of duress is common to other bodies of law, but the application of the duress doctrine is both unclear and highly unstable in immigration law. Outside of immigration law, a person who commits a criminal act out of well-placed fear of terrible consequences is different than a person who willingly commits a crime, but American immigration law does not recognize this difference. The lack of clarity leads to certain absurd results and demands reimagining, redefinition, and an unequivocal statement of the significance of duress in ascertaining culpability. While there are inevitably some difficult lines to be drawn in …

Kinship Care In Pennsylvania: Creating An Equitable System For Families, Heidi Redlich Epstein, Lucy Johnston-Walsh, Jennifer Pokempner, Kathleen Creamer, Karissa Phelps

Faculty Scholarly Works

Family connection provides one of the most important contributions to the development and identity of children. A child’s family connections help them grow and thrive, provide them identity and security, and are a critical link to culture and traditions.

When experiencing difficult times, family members can support each other in ways no one else can, with the shared goal of keeping the family intact and connected.

When a child’s life is disrupted, calling on the support of family is custom in most communities and can be a great source of comfort for both children and the family. This is especially …

Properties Of Intimacy, Emily J. Stolzenberg

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

“Born Under My Heart”: Adoptive Parents’ Use Of Metaphors To Make Sense Of Their Past, Present, And Future, Lucas Hackenburg, Toni Morgan, Eve Brank

Center on Children, Families, and the Law: Faculty Publications

Metaphors provide the opportunity to make sense of our experiences and share them with others. The current research qualitatively examined interviews with adoptive parents who had adopted through intercountry or private adoptions. Throughout their interviews, each participant used at least one metaphor in describing their experiences of adopting and raising their child. Overarchingly, the metaphor of “Adoption is a journey” encapsulated parents’ experiences. To demonstrate the journey, parents used metaphors to describe the past, present, and future. Metaphors of the past focused on their child’s trauma and the origin of how the child came to join their family. Metaphors used …

The Small-Er Screen: Youtube Vlogging And The Unequipped Child Entertainment Labor Laws, Amanda G. Riggio

Seattle University Law Review

Family vloggers are among the millions of content creators on YouTube. In general, vloggers frequently upload recorded videos of their daily lives. Family vloggers are unique because they focus their content around their familial relationships and the lives of their children. One set of family vloggers, the Ace Family, has recorded their children’s lives from the day they were born and continue to upload videos of each milestone, including “Elle Cries on Her First Rollercoaster Ride” and “Elle and Alaïa Get Caught Doing What!! **Hidden Camera**.” Another vlogging couple, Cole and Savannah LaBrant, post similar content, including videos titled “Baby …

Do It Yourself Legal Services? Domestic Violence Victims May Depend On It, Sabrina Marquez

Seattle University Law Review

This Note will address how encouraging nonlawyer Internet programs to engage in limited areas frequently considered the “practice of law” will increase the ability of vulnerable groups, especially victims of domestic violence, to receive crucial—and potentially lifesaving—legal assistance.

Part I will outline the rise of Internet legal service providers (ILSPs), who have innovated software programs that help clients fill out and file a wide assortment of legal documents, as well as the negative response these services have received from state bar associations and the wider legal community. Part II will discuss why a different method of providing legal assistance is …

Psychological Abuse Claims In Family Law Courts In Bc: Legal Applications And Gaps, Haya Sakakini

Canadian Journal of Family Law

This research paper investigates a particular form of family violence (“FV”) under the British Columbia Family Law Act (FLA): psychological abuse. The paper defines the scope and assessment of psychological abuse claims in family law courts (“courts”) in British Columbia since 2013. It identifies the shortcomings in addressing such claims and analyzes the multifaceted reasons behind the limitations and gaps which victims of psychological abuse face when bringing forward such claims.

The paper provides a brief background on FV and psychological abuse before moving on to identifying the various forms of psychological abuse accepted by courts in BC, …

The Children Parliament Left Behind: Examining The Inequity Of Funding In An Act Respecting First Nations, Inuit And Métis Children, Youth And Families, Rachel Garrett

Canadian Journal of Family Law

An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families (the Act) came into force in January of 2020, containing many innovative provisions aimed at affirming the jurisdiction of Indigenous peoples and providing services for Indigenous families. Ground- breaking provisions within the Act create a positive obligation on the government to provide services to Indigenous children who otherwise would have been apprehended due to their socioeconomic status. However, the Act lacks a concrete funding provision. This legislative comment conducts an exercise in statutory interpretation to conclude that the current omission of a funding provision within the legislation …

Children’S Place And Voice In Quebec’S Child Protection Proceedings, Mona Paré, Émilie De Bellefeuille

Canadian Journal of Family Law

This article explores children’s participation and their right to be heard in Quebec’s child protection proceedings. While children’s participation rights are well protected in international and domestic legal instruments, they have received little attention in relation to child protection. This article aims to fill a gap in the legal literature by reporting on the results of an empirical research project examining children’s participation in judicial child protection procedures in Quebec. The participation of judges, social workers, and children in this research sheds light on practice that is clearly inspired by the Quebec’s rights- advancing Youth Protection Act (YPA) …

Front Matter

Canadian Journal of Family Law

No abstract provided.

La Fragilisation Du Lien De Confiance Au Sein De L’Intervention Sociale En Protection De La Jeunesse : Peut-On Blâmer Le Droit ?, Marilyn Coupienne

Canadian Journal of Family Law

Dans le contexte de la protection de la jeunesse, la Loi sur la protection de la jeunesse (LPJ) édicte les pouvoirs et responsabilités des intervenantes sociales œuvrant à la Direction de la protection de la jeunesse (DPJ) et encadre la relation entre celles-ci et les familles. Cette loi octroie aux intervenantes un double mandat, qui implique à la fois celui de l’aide et celui du contrôle et de la surveillance. Selon la littérature relative aux pratiques sociales dans ce domaine, les familles suivies par la DPJ peuvent se sentir observées, traquées, dénuées d’intimité et considèrent difficile de laisser …

Strengthened Bonds: Abolishing The Child Welfare System And Re-Envisioning Child Well-Being, Nancy D. Polikoff, Jane M. Spinak

Faculty Scholarship

The 2001 book, Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare, by Dorothy Roberts, called out the racism of the child welfare system and the harms that system perpetrates on families and communities. Twenty years later, despite numerous reform efforts, the racism and profound harms endure. It is time for transformative change. In this foreword to the symposium Strengthened Bonds: Abolishing the Child Welfare System and Re-Envisioning Child Well-Being, honoring the 20th anniversary of Shattered Bonds, we highlight Professor Roberts’ articulation of her development as a family policing abolitionist and summarize the articles and comments contributed from scholars …

The 100-Year Life And The New Family Law, Elizabeth S. Scott, Naomi Cahn

Faculty Scholarship

This draft book chapter, prepared as part of a symposium on The 100-Year Life by Linda Gratton and Andrew Scott, reflects on the future of family law in an era of longer lives. Our analysis leads us to conclude that the 100-year life is indeed likely to have an impact on the nature, scope, and definition of family law, but that families will continue to function as the primary setting for intimacy and for caregiving and caretaking, whatever form those families take. Further, the importance to both individual and social welfare of family support throughout life points to a need …