Category Archives: Family Law
Erez Aloni, ‘Compulsory Conjugality’
ABSTRACT 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 […]
Alan Brown, ‘Trans Parenthood and the Meaning of “Mother”, “Father” and “Parent” – R (McConnell and YY) v Registrar General for England and Wales [2020] EWCA Civ 559′
ABSTRACT In R (McConnell and YY) v Registrar General for England and Wales [2020] EWCA Civ 559, the Court of Appeal held the Registrar General was correct to register a trans man, who had given birth after the issuing of his gender recognition certificate, as ‘mother’ on his son’s birth certificate. In their judgement, the […]
‘A Proposal to Protect Transgender Beneficiaries’
Carla Spivack, ‘The Dilemma of the Transgender Heir’, 33 Quinnipiac Probate Law Journal 147 (2020), available at HeinOnline. A goal of professors is, or should be, to think about legal issues that have not yet arisen but that are likely to arise in the future. By thinking of the issues before they arise, we can […]
‘Discourtesy about curtesy: land squabbles in Victorian “Brecknockshire”’
“Another set of documents on the list for the next National Archives trip involves a raid into the nineteenth century, to tie up some loose ends relating to tenancy by the curtesy (widower’s right to hold land after wife’s death, which, at common law, depended on the birth of a living child to the parents). […]
‘The modern family – the interpretation of children, spouses and civil partners in older trust deeds’
“It has become cliché to say that modern familial arrangements are vastly different now to how they were 50 years ago, but that does not make it any less true. In 2019, almost half of all births were outside of a marriage or civil-partnership, and 3,440 children were adopted from local authority care. With the […]
Maxine Eichner, ‘The Free-Market Family and Children’s Caretaking’
ABSTRACT How can market societies like our own best ensure that children get the circumstances they need to flourish? It turns out that there are two different reining visions of the role government should play when it comes to public policies that support families, each of which dominates the public policies in different countries. This […]
Scott and Cahn, ‘The 100-Year Life and the New Family Law’
ABSTRACT 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, […]
Michael Higdon, ‘If You Grant It, They Will Come: The Enduring Legal Legacy of Migratory Divorce’
ABSTRACT Fifty years ago, California became the first state to enact no-fault divorce, making it easier than ever before for individuals to dissolve unsuccessful marriages. Soon every state would follow suit, and over the years much has been written about this national shift in the law of divorce. What has thus far escaped scrutiny, however, […]
Nicole Friedlander, ‘Escape From Plurality: Why the Best Interest of the Child is at Risk’
ABSTRACT This note provides a comparative analysis between the United States’ and Canada’s laws regarding the non-traditional marital practice of polygamy. The note concludes by suggesting that the United States should adopt a law more similar to that of Canada, which provides greater protections to those leaving a polygamous relationship. In its current form, the […]
Jennifer Hendricks, ‘Disputed Conceptions of Motherhood’
ABSTRACT This chapter, which will appear in the Oxford Handbook of Feminism and Law in the US (Deborah Brake, Martha Chamallas and Verna Williams, eds), examines feminist efforts to disentangle womanhood, biological motherhood, and social motherhood in order to promote equality in the law. It argues that this approach has produced important feminist influence and […]