Family Law Commons^™

In Pursuit Of Economic Justice: The Political Economy Of Domestic Violence Laws And Policies, Deborah M. Weissman

Utah Law Review

Violence experienced within the family — perhaps the most intimate of all social arrangements — causes devastating consequences. Recent phenomena, including accounts of perpetrators of mass shootings with a history of domestic violence and the #MeToo movement, have called new attention to the costs and consequences of violence against women. Intimate violence wreaks havoc extending beyond the private spaces of the household, thereupon to lay bare the structural shortcomings of public institutions.

The act of domestic violence enters the public imagination principally as an offense of physical abuse. It is more complicated. In fact, intimate partner violence (IPV) is often …

Before Loving: The Lost Origins Of The Right To Marry, Michael Boucai

Utah Law Review

For almost two centuries of this nation’s history, the basic contours of the fundamental right to marry were fairly clear as a matter of natural, not constitutional, law. The right encompassed marriage’s essential characteristics: conjugality and contract, portability and permanence. This Article defines those four dimensions of the natural right to marry and describes their reflections and contradictions in positive law prior to Loving v. Virginia (1967). In that landmark case, the Supreme Court enforced a constitutional “freedom to marry” just when marriage’s definitive attributes were on the brink of legal collapse. Not only did wedlock proceed in Loving’s wake …

Queering Reproductive Justice, Marie-Amélie George

University of Richmond Law Review

Queer reproductive justice applies the reproductive justice movement’s principles to queer needs and interests. The reproductive justice movement differs from the reproductive rights struggle by emphasizing that reproductive rights are about much more than whether and how to terminate a pregnancy.3 Founded in the mid- 1990s by feminists of color, this movement adopted a holistic approach to reproductive rights. As advocates argued, people’s ability to exercise personal bodily autonomy, decide to have or not have children, and raise any children they had were also reproductive rights concerns. Reproductive justice work thus encompasses a range of topics, including accessing sex education …

Evaluating The Facilitating Attuned Interactions (Fan) Approach: Vicarious Trauma, Professional Burnout, And Reflective Practice, Katherine Hazen, Matthew W. Carlson, Holly Hatton-Bowers, Melanie Fessinger, Jennie Cole-Mossman, Jamie Bahm, Kelli Hauptman J.D., Eve Brank, Linda Gilkerson

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

Background: This evaluation examined the use of the Facilitated Attuned Interaction (FAN) approach to reflective practice among child welfare and early childhood professionals working with vulnerable children and families.

Objective: The aims of the current evaluation were to test (a) the role of vicarious trauma in predicting professional burnout, (b) the effect of reflective practice quality in decreasing professional burnout, and (c) the ability of reflective practice quality to lessen the relationship between vicarious trauma and professional burnout.

Participants and Setting: The sample included sixty-three professionals across diverse professions including child welfare social workers, early childhood educators, and child welfare …

Riding The Storm Out After The Stonewall Riots: Subsequent Waves Of Lgbt Rights In Family Formation And Reproduction, Colleen Marea Quinn

University of Richmond Law Review

This Article will explore how LGBT family formation has evolved since the Stonewall Riots. The primary means for LGBT families to build their families, other than traditional intercourse between a man and a woman, were and continue to be through adoption and Assisted Reproductive Technologies (“ART”). In the world of assisted reproduction, typically a lesbian couple or a single woman use donor sperm, either known or unknown, coupled with artificial insemination. Gay men traditionally utilize a traditional or true surrogate (who is genetically related to the child) along with artificial insemination using the sperm of an intended father. As medical …

Building Queer Families And The Ethics Of Gestational Surrogacy, Kimberly Mutcherson

University of Richmond Law Review

Throughout American history, government has used the law to deny some citizens the right to create or sustain families with children to show contempt for those citizens. As LGBT people fought for dignity, equality, and justice from Stonewall to the present, one of the greatest success stories of that fight is the change in how the law defines and protects families. Into the 1990s, people in samesex relationships had cause to fear that their sexual orientation could be used to deprive them of custody of their children. Now, many states, through statute or case law, routinely recognize two parents of …

Free Battered Texas Women: Survivor-Advocates Organizing At The Crossroads Of Gendered Violence, Disability, And Incarceration, Cathy Marston Phd

Verbum Incarnatum: An Academic Journal of Social Justice

This article recaps my symposium presentation, where I argue that feminist organizing strategies are central to healing our society and creating restorative justice from my perspective as a survivor of occupational injury, battering, and criminalization for self-defense. This includes the creation of Free Battered Texas Women. We prefer to think of ourselves as survivor-advocates who use a variety of tactics to empower ourselves, incarcerated battered women, and citizens. These strategies include pedagogy; poetry and other written forms; art; and legislative advocacy. I blend this grassroots activism with feminist disability theory, radical feminist theory, feminist ethnography, and feminist criminology.

The New Ice Age: Addressing The Deficiencies In Arkansas's Posthumously Conceived Children Statute, Patrick Grecu

Arkansas Law Review

The ability to conceive a child using the preserved genetic material, or gametes, of a deceased person presents a number of legal issues for inheritance, estate planning, Social Security, and parental rights. New medical advancements in assisted reproductive technology (ART) enable individuals to conceive children after their death, complicating the conventional methods of determining heirship of the decedent under state intestacy laws. The purpose of intestacy law is to determine the succession of a decedent that dies without a will, or intestate, with the goal of carrying out the donative intent of the decedent. Intestacy law has failed to keep …

Let She Who Has The Womb Speak: Regulating The Use Of Human Oocyte Cryopreservation To The Detriment Of Older Women, Browne C. Lewis

Arkansas Law Review

“Inequality starts in the womb.” When it comes to childbearing, advances in assisted reproductive technology (ART) may negate the veracity of this quote. In her autobiography Becoming, former First Lady Michelle Obama discusses her struggles with infertility. Mrs. Obama’s difficulty getting pregnant may have stemmed from the fact that she postponed motherhood to focus on her career as a high-powered attorney. At that time, for Mrs. Obama and women of her generation, the focus was on pregnancy prevention instead of procreation preservation. Women feared being placed on the “mommy track,” so they waited to have children until after they had …

Evaluation Of Unm's Parental Leave Policy, Julia Fulghum, Karlyn A. Edwards, Charlie Christian, Steven Verney, Lisa A. Marchiondo, Teagan Mullins

ADVANCE Reports

Experiences with UNM’s parental leave policy C215 have been evaluated using the ADVANCE 2018 Main Campus Faculty Climate Survey, a series of junior faculty interviews, and concerns brought to the ADVANCE leadership. Key findings are:

• Women and STEM faculty are more hesitant to use family-leave policies, and perceive greater disadvantage in using them than men and non-STEM faculty
• Sharing of information about, and implementation of, parental leave varies significantly between units
• The attitude of the department chair and senior faculty strongly influence the experience of faculty who use parental leave
• Appropriately implemented, the parental leave policy contributes to faculty recruitment …

Standing In The Way Of Parental Rights--The Texas Supreme Court Resolves Courts Of Appeals Split In Favor Of Nonparents, Madison Bertrand

SMU Law Review Forum

No abstract provided.

Developmental Justice And The Voting Age, Katharine B. Silbaugh

Faculty Scholarship

Several municipalities have lowered the voting age to 16, with similar bills pending in state legislatures and one considered by Congress. Meanwhile, advocates for youth are trying to raise the ages of majority across an array of areas of law, including ages for diverting criminal conduct into the juvenile justice system (18 to 21); buying tobacco (18 to 21); driving (16 to 18); and obtaining support from the foster care system (18 to 21). Child welfare advocates are fighting the harms of Adultification, meaning the projection of adult capacities, responsibilities, and consequences onto minors. In legal and social history, seeing …

California's Child Abuse Dependency Hearsay Exception In In Re I.C., Rachel Monas

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

No abstract provided.

Where Is Home? The Challenge Of Finding Safe Housing Via Early Lease Termination For Victims Of Domestic Violence, Charlotte Gerchick

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

This Note addresses the legal recourse of domestic violence victims who are attempting to terminate a lease early for the purpose of escaping domestic violence at home. In March 2013, President Barack Obama signed the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). This version of the Act includes Title VI, which protects victims of domestic violence and stalking. Title VI applies to federally subsidized housing. It allows domestic violence victims to terminate a lease early for the purpose of removing themselves from an abusive household. Title VI also makes it illegal to deny or terminate housing assistance based on …

Time To Rethink Surrogacy: An Overhaul Of New York's Outdated Surrogacy Contract Laws Is Long Overdue, Charles Gili

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Part I of this Note discusses the influential effect of the much publicized Baby M case as well as the societal perceptions of the time that led to the enactment of New York’s current “antisurrogacy” laws, DRL §§ 121–124. Part II explores changes in the legal, scientific, and societal atmospheres that have rendered those laws archaic and unconstitutional. Part III argues that needed change should come in the form of new legislation meant to foster, rather than burden, the formation of family.

Not Everyone Is Safer At Home: The Harsh Reality That Many Domestic Violence Victims Face In Light Of Covid-19 “Stay At Home” Orders, Megan Divine

Center for Health Law Policy and Bioethics

Domestic violence victims are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Home is not a safe place for everyone. Abuse thrives in silence and isolation. Isolation exacerbates the types of violence and abuse that victims experience. The coronavirus pandemic presents a perfect opportunity for abusers to exercise increased levels of coercive control. This includes not only physical abuse, but also emotional, financial, and psychological abuse. Survivors too, are impacted by many of these concerns. Limited finances and decreased access to housing, support, and affordable childcare increases the potential for survivors to return to their abusers. Many have considered the coronavirus crisis …

Sex As Constructive Notice-North Carolina's Need For A Putative Father Registry, Lisa Alumbaugh Kamarchick

North Carolina Central Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Many Harms Of Forced Marriage: Insights For Law From Ethnography In Northern Uganda, Myriam S. Denov, Mark A. Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

Harnessing an interdisciplinary framework that merges elements of law and social science, this article aims to recast the crime of forced marriage, and thereby enhance accountability, in light of knowledge acquired through ethnographic fieldwork in northern Uganda. More specifically, we draw upon the perspectives and experiences of 20 men who were "bush husbands" in the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). These men were abducted by the LRA between the ages of 10 and 38 and spent between 6 and 24 years in captivity. During their time in the LRA, these men became ‘bush husbands’ with each man fathering between 1 and …

Family In The Balance: Barton V. Barr And The Systematic Violation Of The Right To Family Life In U.S. Immigration Enforcement, David Baluarte

Scholarly Articles

The United States systematically violates the international human right to family life in its system of removal of noncitizens. Cancellation of removal provides a means for noncitizens to challenge their removal based on family ties in the United States, but Congress has placed draconian limits on the discretion of immigration courts to cancel removal where noncitizens have committed certain crimes. The recently issued U.S. Supreme Court decision in Barton v. Barr illustrates the troubling trend of affording less discretion for immigration courts to balance family life in removal decisions that involve underlying criminal conduct. At issue was the “stop-time rule” …

Emancipation Unlocke'd: Partus Sequitur Ventrem, Self-Ownership, And No "Middle State"In Maria Vs. Surbaugh, Diane J. Klein

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.