Family Law Commons^™

Child Advocacy Studies (Cast): A National Movement To Improve The Undergraduate And Graduate Training Of Child Protection Professionals, Victor I. Vieth, Betsy Goulet, Michele Knox, Jennifer Parker, Lisa B. Johnson, Karla Steckler Tye, Theodore P. Cross

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Wounded Souls: The Need For Child Protection Professionals And Faith Leaders To Recognize And Respond To The Spiritual Impact Of Child Abuse, Victor I. Vieth, Pete Singer

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legal Representation For Abused And Neglected Youth, Anne Tyler Gueinzius, Eikoku Ikeno

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pennsylvania’S Need For Permanency: An Argument In Support Of Workable Standards For Representing Children In Involuntary Termination Of Parental Rights Proceedings, Anne M. Bingaman

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

In cases of child abuse and neglect, Pennsylvania’s dependency laws both empower courts to act to protect the child and offer opportunities to bolster the parent-child relationship. However, when courts determine that maintenance of the parent-child relationship is not in the child’s best interest, termination of parental rights proceedings play an essential role in freeing the child for adoption.

Pennsylvania’s General Assembly has recognized that termination proceedings are both a necessary mechanism for permanency and a significant intrusion in the life of a child. As a result, the General Assembly enacted 23 PA. CONST. STAT. § 2313(a), a provision in …

Multi-Partner Fertility In A Disadvantaged Population: Results And Policy Implications Of An Empirical Investigation Of Paternity Actions In St. Joseph County, Indiana, Margaret F. Brinig, Marsha Garrison

Journal Articles

In this paper, we report data on multi-partner fertility (MPF) in a population of children and parents for whom paternity actions were brought, in 2008 or 2010, in St. Joseph County, Indiana. The computerized, court-based record system we utilized enabled us to collect information on parental characteristics and child outcomes that other MPF researchers have been unable to access. Our research thus offers a unique, data-rich window into an important, and growing, aspect of contemporary family life. It also points the way to needed shifts in family policy and law.

Blending Surnames At Marriage, Hannah Haksgaard

Faculty Publications

In most states, marrying couples are severely limited in their surname choices at the time of marriage. While recent scholarship has focused on men’s limited surname choices, other important problems with the marital surname process exist. For example, the increasingly popular decision to blend surnames—taking parts of both current surnames to create an entirely new surname—is generally not allowed. Four states explicitly allow for surname blending on the marriage license, and three more allow for any surname to be adopted. This article argues the remaining states should follow suit by allowing surname blending and other surname options. In addition to …

Childcare, Vulnerability, And Resilience, Meredith Johnson Harbach

Law Faculty Publications

The question of how to provide care for America’s youngest children, and the quality of that care, is among the most vexed for family law. Despite seismic demographic shifts in work and family, childcare law and policy in the United States still operates on the assumption that childcare is the private responsibility of parents and families rather than a state concern. But this private childcare model, based on unrealistic assumptions in liberal theory and buttressed by an ascendant neoliberalism, is inadequate to today’s childcare challenges. This project confronts the inadequacies of the private childcare model. Using Martha Albertson Fineman’s Vulnerability …

Protecting All Women: Tribal Protection Orders And Required Enforcement Under Vawa, Brenna P. Riley

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Life Worth Living: Fighting Filicide Against Children With Disabilities

Florida A & M University Law Review

This article aims to explore filicide as it relates to children with disabilities. Filicide is a specific type of killing where a parent murders his or her own child. Part II gives a historical perspective on filicide. Part II also explains the various reasons behind filicide and why those reasons specifically apply to the killings of children with disabilities. Further, Part III explores the relationship between sentencing disparities in cases where society sympathizes with the parents of children with disabilities and condemns parents of nondisabled children. Part III also argues that children with disabilities face additional barriers in the fight …

International Survey Of Family Law, 2019 Ed., Margaret Brinig

Books

Margaret Brinig, editor The International Society of Family Law is an independent, international, and non-political scholarly association dedicated to the study, research and discussion of family law and related disciplines. The Society’s membership currently includes professors, lecturers, scholars, teachers, and researchers from more than 50 different countries, offering a unique opportunity for networking within a truly international family law community.

The International Survey of Family Law is the annual review of the International Society of Family Law. It brings together reliable and clearly structured insights into the latest and most notable developments in family law from all around the globe.

Towards A Parent-Inclusive Attorney-Client Privilege, Sande L. Buhai

Georgia Law Review

Few state or federal courts recognize a parent-child
testimonial or communication privilege. Yet, courts
recognize privileges between spouses, clergy-penitent,
and therapist-patient. Supported by the Wigmore test
that legitimized these privileges, this paper argues that
the attorney-client privilege should still exist even if (1)
a client’s parent is included in an attorney-client
meeting in an advisory capacity; (2) the child discloses
contents of the attorney-client communications to the
child’s parent; or (3) the child discusses the contents of
the attorney-client communications with the child’s
parent.

The Case For American Muslim Arbitration, Rabea Benhalim

Publications

This Article advocates for the creation of Muslim arbitral tribunals in the United States. These tribunals would better meet the needs of American Muslims, who currently bring their religious disputes to informal forums that lack transparency. Particularly problematic, these existing forums often apply legal precedent developed in majority-Muslim nations, without taking into consideration the changed circumstances of Muslim living as minorities in the United States. These interpretations of Islamic law can have especially negative impacts on women. American Muslim arbitration tribunals offer the potential to correct these inadequacies. Furthermore, a new arbitral system could better meet the needs of sophisticated …

Zoned Out: How Zoning Law Undermines Family Law’S Functional Turn, Kate Redburn

Faculty Scholarship

A fatal conflict in the legal definition of family lurks at the intersection of family law and zoning law. Family law doctrines have increasingly embraced the claims of “functional families” — those whose bonds can be traced to cohabitation and shared domestic life. At the same time, zoning laws have narrowed to recognize only formal families, effectively restricting residency to individuals related by blood, marriage, or adoption. As a result, family law’s “functional turn” remains vulnerable in at least thirty-one states. Using original legal analysis and historical research, this Note illuminates that contradiction, explains how it arose, and argues that …

Schnedler V. Lee: Some (Re)Assembly Required, Victoria Johnson

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Cure Worse Than The Disease? The Impact Of Removal On Children And Their Families, Vivek Sankaran, Christopher Church, Monique Mitchell

Marquette Law Review

Removing children from their parents is child welfare’s most drastic

intervention. Research clearly establishes the profound and irreparable

damage family separation can inflict on children and their parents. To ensure

that this intervention is only used when necessary, a complex web of state and

federal constitutional principles, statutes, administrative regulations, judicial

decisions, and agency policies govern the removal decision. Central to these

authorities is the presumption that a healthy and robust child welfare system

keeps families together, protects children from harm, and centers on the needs

of children and their parents.

Yet, research and practice—supported by administrative data—paint a

different …

Vaccination Law 101: A Guide For Children’S Lawyers, Christal Cammock, Jennifer Baum

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Today, U.S. children are typically vaccinated against 11 deadly, and formerly common, diseases: diphtheria, Hib disease, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, pertussis (whooping cough), polio, rubella, pneumococcal disease, tetanus, and varicella (chicken pox). But it wasn’t always so. Vaccines are a relatively recent development in medical history. The world’s first vaccine, for smallpox, was discovered in the late 1700s. A hundred years later, Louis Pasteur discovered the second vaccine, for rabies. By the mid-1900s, technological and medical advances drove more rapid vaccine development, and in 1963, the first measles vaccine was approved.

Before the measles vaccine became available, up to …

Discounting Women: Doubting Domestic Violence Survivors’ Credibility And Dismissing Their Experiences, Deborah Epstein, Lisa A. Goodman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In recent months, we’ve seen an unprecedented wave of testimonials about the serious harms women all too frequently endure. The #MeToo moment, the #WhyIStayed campaign, and the Larry Nassar sentencing hearings have raised public awareness not only about workplace harassment, domestic violence, and sexual abuse, but also about how routinely women survivors face a Gaslight-style gauntlet of doubt, disbelief, and outright dismissal of their stories. This pattern is particularly disturbing in the justice system, where women face a legal twilight zone: laws meant to protect them and deter further abuse often fail to achieve their purpose, because women telling stories …

Are Premarital Agreements Really Unfair?: An Empirical Study, Elizabeth Carter

Journal Articles

The article focuses on unfair treatment of premarital agreements and data of the people who entered into premarital agreements including age at marriage, race, and political affiliation. It mentions substance of the premarital agreements including how the agreements divide property and whether the agreements waive spousal support. It also mentions premarital agreements involve the waiver of property rights.

Regulating Corruption In Intercountry Adoption, Jordan Bunn

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The current regulatory system for intercountry adoption has failed parents, children, and governments. Impoverished parents and children have been exploited by crooked adoption agencies, orphanage directors, and bureaucrats looking to profit from well-meaning prospective parents who will pay significant fees in order to adopt. While the 1993 Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption lays a good foundation for catching and eliminating this corruption, it has not been fully implemented in many developing countries that lack the necessary resources and infrastructure. Some critics want to give up on or significantly modify the Hague …

How People Make Sense Of Drones Used For Atmospheric Science (And Other Purposes): Hopes, Concerns, And Recommendations, Janell C. Walther, Lisa M. Pytlikzillig, Carrick Detweiler, Adam L. Houston

Lisa PytlikZillig Publications

Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) can advance understanding of the atmosphere and improve weather prediction, but public perceptions of drone technologies need to be assessed to ensure successful societal integration. Our qualitative study examines public perceptions of UAS technology, and the associated risks and benefits, for such civilian purposes. We examine how people form perceptions, and discuss the implications of these perceptions for UAS design and regulation. Our study finds the public to be favorable toward UAS used for “noble” purposes. Participant views are informed by popular media, personal experiences, comparisons between technologies, and consideration of the trustworthiness of the users, …