When a child is conceived from sexual intercourse between a married, heterosexual couple, the child has a legal father and mother. Whatever may happen thereafter, the child's parents are legally bound to provide for their child, and if they don't, they're held accountable by law. But what about children created by artificial insemination? When it comes to paternity, the law is full of gray areas, resulting in many cases where children have no legal fathers. In Papa's Baby, Browne C. Lewis argues that the courts should take steps to insure that all children have at least two legal parents. Additionally, state legislatures should recognize that more than one class of fathers may exist and allocate paternal responsibility based, again, upon the best interest of the child. Lewis supplements her argument with concrete methods for dealing with different types of cases, including anonymous and non-anonymous sperm donors, married and unmarried women, and lesbian couples. In so doing, she first establishes different types of paternity, and then draws on these to create an expanded definition of paternity.

A call for better child care policies, exploring the reasons why there has been so little headway on a problem that touches so many families. Working mothers are common in the United States. In over half of all two-parent families, both parents work, and women's paychecks on average make up 35 percent of their families' incomes. Most of these families yearn for available and affordable child care-but although most developed countries offer state-funded child care, it remains scarce in the United States. And even in prosperous times, child care is rarely a priority for U.S. policy makers. In In Our Hands: The Struggle for U.S. Child Care Policy, Elizabeth Palley and Corey S. Shdaimah explore the reasons behind the relative paucity of U.S. child care and child care support. They examine the history of child care advocacy and legislation in the United States, from the Child Care Development Act of the 1970s that was vetoed by Nixon through the Obama administration's Child Care Development Block Grant. The book includes data from interviews with 23 prominent child care and early education advocates and researchers who have spent their careers seeking expansion of child care policy and funding and an examination of the legislative debates around key child care bills of the last half-century. Palley and Shdaimah analyze the special interest and niche groups that have formed around existing policy, arguing that such groups limit the possibility for debate around U.S. child care policy.

Taking a multi-disciplinary perspective, and one grounded in human rights, Unaccompanied young migrants explores in-depth the journeys migrant youths take through the UK legal and care systems. Arriving with little agency, what becomes of these children as they grow and assume new roles and identities, only to risk losing legal protection as they reach eighteen? Through international studies and crucially the voices of the young migrants themselves, the book examines the narratives they present and the frameworks of culture and legislation into which they are placed. It challenges existing policy and questions, from a social justice perspective, what the treatment of this group tells us about our systems and the cultural presuppositions on which they depend.

Marriage law in England and Wales is a historical relic which reflects a bygone age. Successive governments have made a series of progressive but ad hoc reforms, most notably the introduction of civil partnerships and same-sex marriage. However, this has resulted in a legal framework which is complex and controversial, especially in relation to religion. This book provides the first accessible guide to how contemporary marriage law interacts with religion and identifies pressure points in relation to non-religious organisations and unregistered religious marriages. It reveals the need for the consolidation, modernisation and reform of marriage law and sets out proposals for how the transformation of these laws can be achieved.

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. Chapters are prepared by an international team of selected experts in the field, usually covering 20 or more jurisdictions in each edition. The International Society of Family Law (ISFL) 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.

Beginning with a story most familiar to us in the opera "Madame Butterfly, Carol Weisbrod uses a variety of stories to illuminate important issues in how society, through law, defines important relationships in the family. The book addresses such important issues as marriage, divorce, parent-child relations and abuses, and nonmarital intimate contacts. Each chapter works with fictional literature or narratives inspired by biography or myth, ranging from the Book of Esther to Kafka to memoirs of family life. The book is joined by a running commentary on "Madame Butterfly and variations on that story. These commentaries on variations on the Butterfly story that begin each chapter wonderfully exhibit the author's argument that fictional material better expresses the complexity of intimate lives than the crude simplicities of the law. The author looks at law from the outside, using narratives to provide a perspective on the issues of law and social structure--and individual responses to law. This book explores the relationships between the inner life and the public through an examination of what is ordinarily classified as the sphere of "private life," the world of family relationships.
This book will be of interest to scholars and practitioners concerned with families and the laws relating to marriage, divorce, and child abuse as well as to scholars interested in law and literature and the use of narratives to understand law.
Carol Weisbrod is Ellen Ash Peters Professor of Law, University of Connecticut School of Law. She is a scholar of family law and the author of a recent text on family law as well as of numerous articles on family law and law and literature.

This topical and timely book considers children's participation rights in the context of family law proceedings, and how their operation can be improved for the benefit of children and family justice systems globally. In doing so, it provides the pedagogical reasoning for child participation, as well as a thorough analysis of the relevant human rights instruments in this area, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This comprehensive book examines the way in which private international law instruments deal with child participation in separation/divorce, parental responsibility and child abduction proceedings. In addition, the book includes individual contributions from renowned family law experts from 17 countries who describe and analyse the local laws and exercise of child participation rights in their own jurisdictions. These insightful texts include the authors' views on the improvements needed to ensure that child participation rights are fully respected and implemented in the countries under review. A detailed comparative analysis follows which helpfully pinpoints both the key commonalities and differences in these global processes. Finally, the concluding chapter draws together the different perspectives revealed across the handbook, and identifies several key issues requiring further reflection from scholars, policy makers and family justice professionals. The International Handbook on Child Participation in Family Law is a rich source of information and essential reading for all those working in this important and evolving field.

Providing a panoramic and interdisciplinary perspective, this book explores the interrelations between globalization, borders, families and the law. It considers the role of international, multi-national and religious laws in shaping the lives of the millions of families that are affected by the opportunities and challenges created by globalization, and the ongoing resilience of national borders and cultural boundaries. Examining familial life-span stages - establishing spousal relations, raising children and being cared for in old age - Hacker demonstrates the fruitfulness in studying families beyond the borders of national family law, and highlights the relevance of immigration and citizenship law, public and private international law and other branches of law. This book provides a rich empirical description of families in our era. It is relevant not only to legal scholars and practitioners but also to scholars and students within the sociology of the family, globalization studies, border studies, immigration studies and gender studies.

This book provides a comparative account of the abolition of concubinage in East Asia, offering a new perspective and revised analysis of the factors leading to - and the debates surrounding - the introduction of a new Marriage Reform Ordinance in Hong Kong in 1971. It uses this law as a platform to examine how the existence of concubinage - long preserved in the name of protecting Chinese traditions and customs - crucially influenced family law reforms, which were in response to a perceived need to create a 'modern' marriage system within Hong Kong's Chinese community after the Second World War. This was, by and large, the result of continued pressure from within Hong Kong and from Britain to bring Hong Kong's marriage system in line with international marriage treaties. It represented one of the last significant intrusions of colonial law into the private sphere of Hong Kong social life, eliminating Chinese customs which had been previously recognised by the colonial legal system's family law. This book contextualizes the Hong Kong situation by examining judicial cases interpreting Chinese customs and the Great Qing Code, offering a comprehensive understanding of the Hong Kong situation in relation to the status of concubines in Republican China and other East Asian jurisdictions. It will be of particular interest to teachers and students of law, as well as researchers in gender studies, post-colonialism, sociology and cultural studies.

As gang violence continues to rise across the country and the world, police departments, prosecutors, and community members are seeking new methods to reduce the spread of gang-related criminal activity. Civil gang injunctions have become a growing feature of crime control programs in several states across the nation. Gang Injunctions and Abatement: Using Civil Remedies to Curb Gang-Related Crimes examines the effectiveness of this strategy and explores the accompanying constitutional controversies related to freedom of speech, assembly, and other rights. Questions raised by this thought-provoking volume include: What are the costs of gang violence to society? Do civil remedies curb violence in the communities where they are implemented? What factors make a given injunction or abatement more or less effective? What legal and policy issues stand in the way of gang injunctions and abatement? Providing step-by-step instructions on how to establish a successful injunction and abatement program, the book presents comprehensive research on the theoretical basis for the strategy. It includes a legal and chronological progression of actual cases and their outcomes, describing weaknesses and successes in various programs. Supplying succinct guidelines from lessons learned, the book enables prosecutors, police agencies, and the public to take steps toward eradicating gang activities in their communities.

Jill Elaine Hasday's Intimate Lies and the Law won the Scribes Book Award from the American Society of Legal Writers "for the best work of legal scholarship published during the previous year" and the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award for Family and Relationships. Intimacy and deception are often entangled. People deceive to lure someone into a relationship or to keep her there, to drain an intimate's bank account or to use her to acquire government benefits, to control an intimate or to resist domination, or to capture myriad other advantages. No subject is immune from deception in dating, sex, marriage, and family life. Intimates can lie or otherwise intentionally mislead each other about anything and everything. Suppose you discover that an intimate has deceived you and inflicted severe-even life-altering-financial, physical, or emotional harm. After the initial shock and sadness, you might wonder whether the law will help you secure redress. But the legal system refuses to help most people deceived within an intimate relationship. Courts and legislatures have shielded this persistent and pervasive source of injury, routinely denying deceived intimates access to the remedies that are available for deceit in other contexts. Intimate Lies and the Law is the first book that systematically examines deception in intimate relationships and uncovers the hidden body of law governing this duplicity. Hasday argues that the law has placed too much emphasis on protecting intimate deceivers and too little importance on helping the people they deceive. The law can and should do more to recognize, prevent, and redress the injuries that intimate deception can inflict.

Children make up half of the world's refugees and over 40 per cent of the world's asylum seekers. However, children are largely invisible in historical and contemporary refugee law. Furthermore, there has been very limited interaction between the burgeoning children's rights framework, in particular the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (Refugee Convention). This book explores the possibility of a children's rights approach to the interpretation of the Refugee Convention and within that what such an approach might look like. In order to construct a children's rights approach, the conceptualisations of children outside the legal discipline, within international children's rights law and then within refugee law and refugee discourse are analysed. The approach taken is socio-legal and comparative in nature and the suitability of the Refugee Convention as a framework for the interpretation of child claims is examined. The book analyses to what extent the Refugee Convention is capable of dealing with claims from children based on the modern conceptualisation of children, which is underscored by two competing ideologies: the child as a vulnerable object in law to be protected and the child as subject with rights and the capacity to exercise their agency. The influence each regime has had on the other is also analysed. The work discusses how a children's rights approach might improve outcomes for child applicants. The book makes an original contribution to child refugee discourse and as such will be an invaluable resource for academics, researchers and policymakers working in the areas of migration and asylum law, children's rights and international human rights law.

Argues for legal reforms to protect couples who live apart but perform many of the functions of a family Living Apart Together is an in-depth look at a new way of being a couple and "doing family"-living apart together (LAT)-in which committed couples maintain separate residences and finances. In Bowman's own 2016 national survey, 9% of respondents reported maintaining committed relationships while living apart, typically spending the weekend together, socializing together, taking vacations together, and looking after one another in illness, but maintaining financial independence. The term LAT stems from Europe, where this manner of coupledom has been extensively studied; however, it has gone virtually unnoticed in the United States. Living Apart Together aims to remedy this oversight by presenting original research derived from both randomized surveys and qualitative interviews. Beginning with the large body of social science literature from outside the US, Cynthia Bowman examines the prevalence of this lifestyle, the demographics of people who live apart, their reasons for doing so, and how these individuals manage finances, care during illness, and many other aspects of family life. She focuses in particular detail on three key demographics-women, gay men, and the elderly-and how individuals from these groups engage in LAT behavior. She finds that while these living arrangements are more common than previously believed, there are virtually no legal protections for the people involved. Bowman concludes by proposing a number of legal reforms to support the caregiving functions LAT partners perform for each other. Living Apart Together makes an important case for formal recognition of this growing but largely overlooked family structure.

Societies and states are at a crossroad in how children are treated and how their rights are respected and protected. Childrens new position and their strong rights create tensions and challenge the traditional relationships between family and the state. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted unanimously by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1989 and came into force in 1990. Article 2 places states under an obligation to accord primacy to the best interests of the child in all actions concerning children and to ensure and regulate child protection. This book offers a comparative and critical analysis of the implementation of Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. In order to examine how Article 2 is being implemented, it is essential to have a sound understanding of the obligations it emposes. The opening chapters will explore the precise content of these obligations in terms of the legislative history of the text, its underlying philosophy, its amplification by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, and subsequent authoritative interpretations of it by courts around the world. The book will then drill down into the conceptual and theoretical challenges posed by the very nature of the obligations and will offer in-depth exploration of the long-running 'rights v welfare' debate that has always presented something of a challenge in giving effect to children's rights. Contributors are leading academics in the children's rights field drawn from a wide range of countries and jurisdictions worldwide, including those with common law, civilian and mixed traditions. Disciplines represented in the book include law, psychology, political science, childhood studies, social work and anthropology. By drawing together the various facets of Article 2 and analysing it from a range of perspectives, the volume provides a coherent and comprehensive inter-disciplinary analysis on discrimination and the rights of the child.

When relationships break down, disputes commonly arise over the parenting arrangements for children, whose living arrangements have to be reorganized at a time of great conflict and turmoil. Most such disputes are resolved without a judicial determination through private agreement, negotiation between lawyers, mediation, or a combination of these methods. This book examines whether and how children should be involved in the process of resolving family law disputes. Although there is widespread acceptance in the Western world that the views of children should be taken into account, and that the weight given to those views should depend on children's age and maturity, there is much less agreement about how children's voices should be heard.
There are many benefits to giving children a voice in decisions that affect their lives, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child identifies this as a right for children. However there are difficulties and dangers in seeking to hear from children, not least because they may be subject to pressure from each parent to express views that support his or her case. Courts dealing with family law issues are constantly faced with a dilemma. Is it better to keep children out of the conflict, or to give them a say so that the arrangements are as workable for them as possible?
This book integrates examinations of these issues with empirical data from interviews which explore the views and experiences of children, parents, counselors, mediators, lawyers and judges involved in such disputes in Australia. Drawing on this research, the authors suggest ways that children can better be heard without placing them at the center of their parents' conflicts. They argue that the focus should not just be on how children are heard in legal proceedings, but on how they can be better heard in those families who resolve their conflicts without going to court.

In recent decades, there have been many changes to adoption law and practice, such as a sharp decline in the voluntary relinquishment of children, an increase in the number consigned to public care, and an abrupt decrease in those made available on an intercountry basis. Additionally, human rights are becoming more prominent, particularly in relation to issues such as: non-consensual adoption; the ethics of intercountry adoption; the eligibility of LGBT adopters; the impact of commercial surrogacy; and the sometimes conflicting rights of birth parents and adoptees when accessing agency birth records. In this book, O'Halloran presents a comparative analysis of the interaction between adoption law and human rights in common law (England and the US), civil law (France and Germany), and Asiatic traditions (Japan and China), while also developing a matrix of legal functions to assist in identifying and analysing areas of tension between human rights and adoption. This book is intended for a lawyer readership, whether professional, student or academic: researchers and postgraduate students in subjects such as social work, social policy and politics may also find it helpful.

Written from an ethnographic perspective, this book investigates the socio-legal aspects of Islamic jurisprudence in Gaza-Palestine. It examines the way judges, lawyers and litigants operate with respect to the law and with each other, particularly given their different positions in the power structure within the court and within society at large. The book aims at elucidating ambivalences in the codified statutes that allow the actors to find practical solutions to their (often) legally unresolved problems and to manipulate the law. The book demonstrates that present-day judges are not only confronted with novel questions they have to find an answer to, but, perhaps more importantly, they are confronted with contradictions between the letter of codified law and their own notions of justice. The author reminds us that these notions of justice should not be set a priori; they are socially constructed in particular time and space. Making a substantial contribution to a number of theoretical debates on family law and gender, the book will appeal to both academic and non-academic readers alike.

In Egypt's modern history, reform of personal status laws has often formed an integral part of political, cultural, and religious contestations among different factions of society. From the beginning of the twenty-first century, two significant reforms were introduced in Egyptian personal status laws: women's right to petition for no-fault judicial divorce law (khul') and the new mediation-based family courts.Legal Reform and Gender Justice examines the interplay between legal reform and gender norms and practices. It examines the processes of advocating for, and contesting the khul' and new family courts laws, shedding light on the agendas and strategies of the various actors involved. It also examines the ways in which women and men have made use of these legal reforms; how judges and other court personnel have interpreted and implemented them; and how the reforms may have impacted women and men's understandings, expectations, and strategies when navigating marriage and spousal roles.Drawing on an extensive four-year field study, Al-Sharmani highlights the complexities and mixed impacts of legal reform, not only as a mechanism of claiming gender rights but also as a system of meanings that shape, destabilize, or transform gender norms and practices.

Legal Issues in Special Education provides teachers and school administrators with a clearly written, well-organized, and understandable guide from the perspective of the practitioner without formal legal training. Even though over 50 percent of students with disabilities are now educated in general education classes, most teachers are not required to complete coursework in special education law and can unwittingly expose themselves and their schools to liability for violating the rights of students with disabilities. This practitioner's guide explicitly addresses the major issues and legal complexities educators inevitably face when dealing with special education legal and policy issues. Using case-based learning to synthesize important legal concepts and principles from leading special education legal cases, this text guides educators, administrators, and parents alike toward a thorough understanding of, and the ability to navigate, many of the current and pressing legal concerns in special education.

'With a red-hot hero and emotional, unforgettable storyline, Crownover delivers the goods' Lori Wilde, New York Times bestselling author From the New York Times bestselling author of the Marked Men series comes Jay Crownover's latest steamy Texan romance. Will Case and Aspen find their happy ending or are some grudges too much to overcome... 'This tense, sensual romance is chock full of headstrong, admirable characters who will appeal to romance and suspense fans alike' Publishers Weekly The last thing Case Lawton wants to do is help the woman who cost him everything, but maybe Aspen isn't the heartless lawyer he thought he knew... Case Lawton comes from a family of criminals. So as the sheriff of Loveless, Texas, he's determined to do everything by the book - until he's called to Aspen Barlow's office after a so-called break-in. Although he's uninterested in helping the lawyer who caused him to lose custody of his son, Case is surprised by the Aspen he finds there, and starts to question his long-held grudge... Aspen is scared for her life, and Case is her last hope for protection. But she knows that to get him on her side, she'll have to reveal the painful truth from all those years ago. Now, as they work together to track down a dangerous criminal, Case and Aspen have to learn to trust each other. And as the threats escalate, it becomes clear there's a thin line between love and hate... and soon there's nothing Case wouldn't do to keep her safe... Includes It's All About That Cowboy, a bonus novella by Carly Bloom! Readers are loving Jay Crownover's latest! 'A sultry, action-packed, wonderful addition to the Loveless, Texas series by Crownover that keeps you on your toes from start to finish, warms the heart, and definitely leaves you yearning for more' 5* reader review 'Pairing an angsty, steamy enemies-to-lovers romance with a twisty, turny suspense arc, Justified was a riveting love story....Justified is Jay Crownover at the top of her game' 5* reader review 'Justified is absolutely everything I love about Jay Crownover! Strong characters, some intrigue, some mystery, and a whole lot of sexiness make for a book I just did not want to put down!' 5* reader review Filled with heart, intrigue and cast of characters you'll fall for, don't miss out on the other titles in the Loveless, Texas series! Praise for Jay Crownover and the Loveless, Texas series: 'I'm in love with Loveless, TX!!' 5* reader review 'I always recommend any books written by Jay Crownover' 5* reader review 'I've never read a Jay Crownover book that I have not loved' 5* reader review 'Off the charts attraction, dramatic suspense, heartbreaking betrayal, deep emotion, and unforgettable romance will keep you turning the pages to the climactic end. Fans and new readers will devour this fantastic story. I couldn't put it down!' Jennifer Ryan, New York Times bestselling author 'Once again, Jay Crownover proves why her words are so addictive! Her characters bleed life so tangibly, you feel like you're drowning in the emotions: in the best way possible. Five big huge stars for Justified! Don't miss this page turner!' Harper Sloan, New York Times bestselling author

Details the rapidly growing field of dispute resolution

This nuts-and-bolts guide offers a blueprint for developing the skills you need to master the often complex and emotionally charged process of family mediation.

In a lively and entertaining style, Robert Coulson, former president of the American Arbitration Association and an internationally recognized expert in dispute resolution, presents exactly what training, marketing, and experience are needed to compete successfully in this rapidly growing field. The family mediation process is revealed, from the first step of persuading parties to mediate through the last details of nailing down a settlement.

Current information is provided on many legal issues, including:

• marriage and divorce
• child support
• alimony
• custody
• visitation

From the author of Surviving Your Deposition, a new handbook that explains the rights and responsibilities of an eighteen-year old. Ideal for teens, parents, and educators. Systematically reviews the new legal environment these teenagers face in the United States. Complete with illustrations and cautionary busted anecdotes that present relevant legal topics such as shoplifting, drug use, contracts, employment, automobiles, the Internet, and more. Read it now and avoid compromising situations.