Family Law Commons^™

Corporate Childrearing, Katharine B. Silbaugh

Faculty Scholarship

With children influencing a trillion dollars in spending annually, corporations actively seek to shape children's identities in support of consumer culture and profit. Yet there are no scholarly treatments or theories of the legal relationship between children and corporations. Instead, scholars address individual industries such as food, social media, cosmetics, tobacco, or fashion, missing the structural role corporations play in children's identity formation. Family law evaluates child wellbeing interventions using a triangle to map the legal dynamics among child, parent, and state. This article adds corporations as fourth actors, reconceptualizing that triangle as a square. This square provides the first …

Let’S Modify Safety Valve To Value Family Ties, Laura Ginsberg Abelson

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Federal sentencing law has long struggled to balance the breadth of drug conspiracy liability with the prin­ciple of proportional punishment. The statutory “safety valve” provision, codified at 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) and mirrored in the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, was designed to provide relief from mandatory minimum sentences for low- level, nonviolent offenders. Yet its requirement that defendants disclose all information concerning the offense sometimes places family-member codefendants in an untenable position: they may avoid harsh penalties only by incriminating loved ones. The requirement also conflicts with other provisions of the Guide­lines that provide guidelines reductions, but not relief from mandatory …

Beyond Marriage: Challenging Marital Prerequisites In State Adoption Laws Through A Constitutional And Child-Centered Lens, Alisha Glass

American University Law Review

Many state adoption laws restrict joint adoptions to married couples, thus excluding unmarried partners who share loving and committed relationships with the children they seek to adopt. These marital prerequisites reflect society’s outdated preference for the nuclear family while conflicting with adoption law’s commitment to the best interests of the child. Nonmarital families experience unequal legal protections based on marital status and geographic location. Building on the Kentucky Supreme Court’s decision in G.G. v. Cabinet for Health & Family Services, this Comment examines the limits of resolving these disparities through statutory interpretation and identifies the constitutional questions that remain …

Let’S Talk About The Biological Reality Of Sex, Baby, John Parsi

FIU Law Review

Sex is at the very core of individual identity. It affects the conception of the self and the way others view the individual. Every day, one’s sex may open and close doors, access to communities, and opportunities. Laws that define sex may affirm scientific knowledge and protect people, or threaten to unravel the facts and the reality of sex. A deep unmooring of sex is underway, and this Article aims to halt it. On day one of the current presidential term, January 20, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order on “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological …

Reproductive Wrongful Convictions: The Making Of "Unfit" Mothers, Valena Beety

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Article draws a straight line from wrongful convictions of women in the past to criminal charges based on pregnancy and parenting behaviors today. Faulty forensic evidence and biased evidence based on sex-stereotypes have, in combination, been used to convict innocent women, particularly in situations where an accident or health event was misconstrued to be a criminal act. Seventy-four percent of known exonerated women were wrongly convicted where no crime occurred. Similarly, in criminalizing pregnancy behaviors, police, medical personnel, or prosecutors erroneously label a non-criminal event, such as a miscarriage or stillbirth, as criminal. Criminal charges are being brought against …

Private Prosecution And The State, Anna Arons

Faculty Publications

The modern family regulation system is paradigmatically public. In the common account, the state plays a monopolistic role. It decides which families to investigate and which to prosecute, which families to surveil and which to separate, and which services and benefits to provision for families entangled in the system. Yet, this public family regulation paradigm obscures the role of private prosecution. Nearly half of states permit private individuals to initiate dependency prosecutions. In these cases, private prosecutors allege that parents have neglected or abused their children and seek state intervention on the fundamental right to family integrity.

This Article surfaces …

The Indonesian Guardianship And Indonesian Private International Law, Tiurma Mangihut Pitta Allagan, Dinda R. Himmah, Amirah Hisana

Indonesia Law Review

The increasing of number of cross-border legal relationships, especially family legal relationships, is inevitable. For instance, it is also commonly accepted for a foreign national to have a legal-bond with children from another country, which is also known as intercountry adoption, guardianship and fostership. This paper aims to analyze and classify guardianship involving international dimension within the jurisdiction of Indonesia. The examination of this legal question would be on the basis of Indonesian Private International Law (PIL). The choice of law and the choice of jurisdiction are the basic analysis, further, as to whether the guardianships are in line with …

In The Matter Of The Guardianship Of A.L.R.-Q., A.R.W., And A.M.W., Minor Protected Persons, 141 Nev. Adv. Op. 66 (Dec. 23, 2025), Karin Tidgewell

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

In the Matter of the Guardianship of A.L.R.-Q., A.R.W., and A.M.W., Minor Protected Persons, the Court of Appeals held protected minors’ guardians have procedural due process rights of notice and a meaningful opportunity to be heard before removal or termination of guardianship.

A Modest Proposal: Is Covenant Marriage A Reasonable Accommodation For Religious Faith Or State-Sponsored Theology?, Breck Radulovic

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Zealous Advocate, A Robust Cross: Cross-Examination Of Non-Adverse Witnesses By The Guardian Ad Litem, Scott Swain

BYU Law Review

“When the lives and fundamental rights of children are at stake, there must be no silent witnesses.”1 — Carol Bellamy

Systemic pressures in child welfare litigation regularly lead guardian ad litem attorneys to default to the positions and recommendations of state social services. In such cases, witnesses called by the state in trials and evidentiary hearings are non-adverse to the guardian ad litem. This dynamic undermines the purposes of cross-examination rules, threatening the procedural interests of the parties involved. This paper will use a procedural due process balancing test to guide its analysis as it proposes three potential solutions: a …

Understanding Florida's Hb 1105: What Parents Need To Know About The End Of Special Education Certificates Of Completion, Noelle Mercer, Valerie Sheehe, Joshua Wilkenson

Gator Team Child Juvenile Law Clinic

The goal of this white paper is to explain the implications of HB 1105 for students with disabilities and their families. It outlines the background of Florida’s previous graduation framework, describes the new diploma options now available, and explores both the potential benefits and challenges of this transition. Finally, it provides practical guidance for parents, including steps to take within Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meetings, questions to ask school administrators, and community resources that can assist families navigating this change.

Pronatalism In The United States: How Political Ideals Surrounding Family And Reproductive Health Care Contribute To Neglect In The Foster Care System, Carson Sebree

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Within the past decade, conservative reproductive politics in the United States have experienced an ideological shift from pro-life toward pronatalism. This has been intensified through the rollback of reproductive rights and the rise of Christian nationalism. However, there has been no commensurate additional funding for the foster care system. This project asks the interrelated questions of: “how is pronatalism linked to neglect within the foster care system?; and, how do theories of democratic care highlight the necessity to rethink support for the foster care system and create policies that will address its shortcomings, given the rise of pronatalist aw and …

How “Cooling Off” Periods Endanger The Vulnerable: A 50-State Study Of Mandatory Separation Periods In No-Fault Divorce, Melody Mostow

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Mandatory separation periods in no-fault divorce neither advance their stated policy goals nor comport with contemporary understandings of marital dynamics, domestic abuse, or child welfare. Although mandatory separation periods are held out as tools to promote reconciliation and deter impulsive divorces, such rationales lack empirical support. Because family law in the United States is determined at the state level, this Article examines state laws that require couples to live apart in varying restrictive capacities before obtaining a no-fault divorce. To that end, this Article presents the first comprehensive 50-state study of such requirements. Research demonstrates that these laws do not …

Bridging The Rural Justice Gap: A Scalable Solution Rooted In Clinical Legal Education, Michelle Paxton

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

The rural justice gap significantly impacts child welfare legal representation, exacerbating the challenges families face when navigating juvenile courts in rural America. Attorneys in these communities frequently encounter geographic isolation, limited access to specialized training, professional burnout, and inadequate resources, all of which hinder effective advocacy for vulnerable children and families.

This article argues that clinical legal education, when paired with structured post-graduate training and multidisciplinary consultation, offers a replicable model for addressing the rural attorney shortages in juvenile court advocacy. The Nebraska Children’s Justice and Legal Advocacy Center (NCJC) illustrates how this model can be designed and scaled to …

Law School News: Coming Full Circle: A Career With The Hague 12-3-2025, Andrew Clark

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Before Meyer And Pierce, Joshua Gupta-Kagan

Faculty Scholarship

In the standard story taught in typical Parents, Children, and the State or Children & the Law courses, analysis of parental rights has a clear beginning. In 1923, at the height of the Lochner era, in Meyer v. Nebraska, a case of first impression, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that “[w]ithout doubt” the Due Process Clause protected the right “to marry [and] establish a home and bring up children.” Two years later, in Pierce v. Society of Sisters, the Court recognized “the liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control.” …

Self-Determination Through Children's Rights: Resisting The Paradoxical Pretext Of Parents' Rights Legislation, Jeremiah Chin

Washington Law Review

Washington state law balances the interests of parents and the state in education, healthcare, and the general wellbeing of children. Despite the fact that children are at the center of emerging controversies, children’s rights are rarely discussed in state legislation debating the obligations and relationships between the state of Washington and parents. In education, for example, RCW 28A.605.005 finds “[p]arents are the primary stakeholders in their children’s upbringing.” While this may be true relative to the state, it overlooks the fact that children are the primary actors, agents, and rights bearers in their own personhood. This Article therefore considers ongoing …

Incomplete Protection: How Sijs Perpetuates Family Separation And Restricts Rights Of Immigrant Youth, Lillian Schmoker

Journal of Law and Policy

In 1990, Congress enacted the Immigration Act, amending the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide qualifying young immigrants with a pathway to residency and citizenship. Through the new Act, Congress created Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (“SIJS”) to protect immigrant children in a similar way as the domestic foster care system protected U.S. citizen children. An immigrant child may qualify for SIJS if they are under the age of twenty-one, unmarried, and cannot be reunified with one or both of their parents due to abuse, neglect, or abandonment. Many SIJS cases involve a claim of harm against only one parent, with …

Should The Army Be Involved In Divorce? Re-Examining The Pre-Divorce Defaults For Spousal Support, Artem M. Joukov, Thomas Godfrey

MC Law Review

Army Regulation 608-99 assigns a large portion of a Soldier’s paycheck to the spouse upon marital separation. The assignment occurs without a hearing, discovery, or consideration of critical evidence which might moderate the amount of support. The obligation rests on the Soldier to obtain a court order or spousal agreement to reduce the financial burden. The adversarial nature of modern divorces renders these requirements unrealistic. Amending the regulation would ease the burden of the Soldier, which is desirable in light of the ongoing recruitment crisis and the need to attract recruits and retain those already in the service.

Oshiro V. Oshiro [State Of Nevada], 141 Nev. Adv. Op. 59 (Nov. 26, 2025), Richard Reid

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

No abstract provided.