Category Archives: Family Law
‘When is a wedding not a marriage? Exploring non-legally binding ceremonies’
“Why might couples in England and Wales today opt for a non-legally binding wedding ceremony in addition to their legally binding one? One reason might be that they attend a place of worship that has not been registered for marriages. Such additional wedding ceremonies have a long history, as is demonstrated by the case of […]
Laura Kessler, ‘Family Law by the Numbers: The Story That Casebooks Tell’
ABSTRACT This Article presents the findings of a content analysis of 86 family law casebooks published in the United States from 1960 to 2019. Its purpose is to critically assess the discipline of family law with the aim of informing our understandings of family law’s history and exposing its ideological foundations and consequences. Although legal […]
‘Loss of entitlement’
“Continuing to research the weird and wonderful world of ‘adulterine bastardy’, including some interesting claims for very long pregnancies, and some questionable treatment of women, as witnesses and as possible ‘adulteresses’, I have been reminded of the recent run-out of this area of law, in relation to the holding of peerages …” (more) [Bracton’s Sister, […]
Horsey and Powell, ‘A Step Too Far? Whittington Hospital NHS Trust v XX [2020] UKSC 14′
ABSTRACT This comment piece explores the decision in Whittington Hospital NHS Trust v XX [2020] UKSC 14. It argues that despite notable shifts in public policy in respect of the acceptability of surrogacy as a means of family formation in the past twenty years, the Supreme Court has taken a step too far in deciding […]
‘Not entirely “perswasive”?’
“In between teaching and admin, at the moment, I am working on something touching on decisions relating to the presence of life and legitimacy. Today, I am pursuing bits and pieces on the legitimacy/‘bastardy’ side of it, and looking at the splendidly titled Lex Spuriorum by a very early 18th C lawyer. Usually, in this […]
Katherine Wade, ‘Reconceptualising the Interest in Knowing One’s Origins: A Case for Mandatory Disclosure’
ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to make a case for mandatory disclosure in assisted reproduction. This refers to a system whereby those who are born through gamete donation and/or surrogacy would be notified about the manner of their birth and the availability of information about their genetic and/or gestational origins. The article argues […]
‘Mary Vezey, Sarah Chapone, and the Hardships of the English Laws in Relation to Wives (1732-35)’
“‘A good Husband would not desire the Power of Horse-whipping, confining, Half-starving his Wife, or squandering her Estate; a bad Husband should not be allowed it.’ So wrote Sarah Chapone in her Hardships of the English Laws in Relations to Wives, published in 1735. A remarkable but long unremarked work, Chapone’s text has started to […]
Jessica Brewer, ‘Radcliffe v Burger: Change of Matrimonial Regime as a Means of Debt Evasion
INTRODUCTION Is it fair that a husband with a multi-million-dollar judgment debt claim uses a matrimonial regime change to avoid payment? As the number of Americans pursuing the age-old tradition of marriage continues to decline, it is important to take note of how modern laws, such as Louisiana’s restrictions on post-matrimonial agreements, may negatively affect […]
Katharine Baker, ‘What is Nonmarriage?’
ABSTRACT As rates of cohabitation rise, and marriage becomes a status reserved almost exclusively for socio-economic elites, the scholarly calls for family law to recognize more nonmarital families grow stronger by the day. This Article unpacks contemporary proposals to recognize more nonmarital families and juxtaposes those proposals with family law’s contemporary marital regime. Family law’s […]
Embryonic Injuries and Nascent Remedies in the age of CRISPR-Cas and Advanced IVF: Chicago-Kent College of Law, 18-19 November 2020
Join us on Zoom for this virtual symposium, chaired by Professor Barbara Pfeffer Billauer … (more) First posted 2020-09-25 12:19:34