Category Archives: Family Law
‘On the Way To and From Marriage’
Adam J Hirsch, Inheritance on the Fringes of Marriage, 2018 University of Illinoi Law Review 235. Imagine that you are engaged to be married but die shortly before the wedding. You do not have a will. Should your fiancé be entitled to a share of your estate? Imagine instead that shortly after your engagement, you […]
Dov Fox, ‘Making Things Right When Reproductive Medicine Goes Wrong: Reply to Robert Rabin, Carol Sanger, and Gregory Keating’
Abstract Why does US law turn a blind eye when OB/GYN docs foist unwanted procreation? Or when fertility clinics deny parenthood to those desperate to form a family? Or when sperm banks disrupt plans for offspring with particular genetic traits? This is a reply to three critiques of my essay on ‘Reproductive Negligence’, 117 Columbia […]
Dailey and Rosenbury, ‘The New Law of the Child’
Abstract This Article sets forth a new paradigm for describing, understanding, and shaping children’s relationship to law. The existing legal regime, which we term the ‘authorities framework’, focuses too narrowly on state and parental control over children, reducing children’s interests to those of dependency or the attainment of autonomy. In place of this limited focus, […]
Purshouse and Bracegirdle, ‘The Problem of Unenforceable Surrogacy Contracts: Can Unjust Enrichment Provide a Solution?’
Abstract The fact that surrogacy contracts are unenforceable can cause problems if a surrogate decides that she wishes to keep the child. When this happens, the intended parents cannot bring a claim in contract compelling her to give the baby up to them or even for the return of money paid to the surrogate. Intuitively, […]
Shircore, Douglas and Morwood, ‘Domestic and Family Violence and Police Negligence’
Abstract Domestic and family violence in Australia has received unprecedented attention over the past few years. A number of recent reports and reviews have identified that improved policing is key to enhancing the safety of women and children. In response to these reports, and in recognition that police are often the first to respond to […]
Adam Hirsch, ‘Inheritance on the Fringes of Marriage’
Abstract This Article explores the inheritance rights of individuals situated at the fringes of marital relationships – fiancés, spouses who are in the process of divorcing, and permanently separated spouses. The Article examines whether these categories of individuals ought to enjoy rights to forced shares of an estate comparable to those that ordinary spouses can […]
Carlyn McCaffrey, ‘The property rights of unmarried cohabitants in the USA’
Abstract The rights of unmarried cohabitants in the USA are determined by the courts of each state. Until the early 1970s, most states gave unmarried cohabitants virtually no rights in the property of their partners. Since then the law has developed rapidly and inconsistently from state to state. This article discusses the principal approaches used […]
Patrick Parkinson, ‘Why are Decisions on Family Property So Inconsistent?’
Abstract The argument of this article is that the law on family property in Australia is plagued with uncertainty at its very core, and that the Full Court of the Family Court, as the primary appeal court in this jurisdiction, is structurally incapable of providing doctrinal coherence. Decisions of the Full Court, which ought to […]
Brown and Gardiner, ‘The rights of unmarried cohabitants in Canada’
Abstract The number of unmarried, cohabitating couples in Canada has increased steadily over the past 50 years. The rights and remedies that flow from these relationships vary widely across Canada’s provinces and territories. The authors survey the laws of four provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec) as illustrative in three distinct areas: property rights, […]
‘The award of damages to enable surrogacy’
“Given the nebulous nature of surrogacy law in the UK and the decision in Briody v St Helen’s and Knowsley Area Health Authority [2001] EWCA Civ 1010, [2001] 2 FLR 1094, with its confusing obiter dicta, it is somewhat surprising that the funding of surrogacy for an infertile young woman was included in the heads […]