Current Legal Issues, like its sister volume Current Legal Problems (now available in journal format), is based upon an annual colloquium held at Univesity College London. Each year leading scholars from around the world gather to discuss the relationship between law and another discipline of thought. Each colloquium examines how the external discipline is conceived in legal thought and argument, how the law is pictured in that discipline, and analyses points of controversy in the use, and abuse, of extra-legal arguments within legal theory and practice. Law and Childhood Studies, the fourteenth volume in the Current Legal Issues series, offers an insight into the state of law and childhood studies scholarship today. Focussing on the inter-connections between the two disciplines, it addresses the key issues informing current debates.

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. Why, they ask, are policy makers unable to convert widespread need into a feasible political agenda? 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. Ultimately, they conclude, we do not need to make minor changes to our existing policies. We need a revolution.

For more than a decade, American lawyers have bewailed the ethical crisis in their profession, wringing their hands about its bad image. But their response has been limited to spending money on public relations, mandating education, and endlessly revising ethical rules. In Lawyers in the Dock, Richard L. Abel argues that these measures will do little or nothing to solve the problems illustrated by the six disciplinary case studies featured in this book unless the legal monopoly enjoyed by attorneys in the U.S. is drastically contracted.
Richard Abel examines some of the most common ethical complaints made about lawyers in Lawyers in the Dock. Using detailed records of disciplinary proceedings, he describes the actions surrounding certain cases based on three of the most common complaints: neglecting the client by failing to pursue cases diligently; overcharging of clients by mystifying billing practices; and betraying adversaries and courts out of excessive loyalty to clients or causes. Richard Abel argues that these measures will do little or nothing to solve the problems exposed by his six disciplinary case studies unless structural changes are made to the legal monopoly in order to restore the public trust in lawyers. Lawyers in the Dock is essential reading for lawyers, law students, and potential clients who wish to restore trust and professional responsibility in the legal profession.

This book is written for academics, students, policymakers, practitioners, and non-governmental organisations interested in the legal recognition of LGBT+ parenting. The book presents arguments in favour of the legal recognition of gay and lesbian families that are based on consideration of the best interests of the child. In this context, 'best interests' is informed by reference to children's rights and to social science data. Applied in this manner, it is argued that the best interests of children can be used to demand that same-sex parenting arrangements are afforded legal recognition and protection. Suggestions are also presented as to the most appropriate manner of providing for this recognition in the areas of parental responsibility, adoption, donor-conception and surrogacy. These suggestions are drawn from comparative case studies, focusing on England and Wales, Ireland and South Africa, that are used to facilitate assessment of the best interests principle.

Children's rights are now enshrined in the South African constitution, and lip service is regularly paid to them, but how effectively are they implemented? From research undertaken by the Centre for Socio-Legal Research over the last twenty years, the question has increasingly arisen of how much use such rights are on paper if the systems charged with ensuring their implementation are inadequate for the task. Possibly even more important, it has become evident that it is not enough to make 'the best interests of the child' the touch-stone for legal and welfare decisions on children, if the individuals charged with those decisions have little training -- or ready access to expertise -- in child development or the realities of a fast-changing country of many cultures. Decisions that radically affect children's futures -- whether custody decisions on divorce, fostering, children's home, adoption placements, or juvenile court decisions -- have life-long consequences. But there is also little hard evidence of what is influencing such decisions in practice, nor how decision-making for South African children can be improved. This book is the result of an attempt to remedy some of these gaps. It presents the evidence from an interdisciplinary collaborative project set up to research how legal decisions on children are being made in the new South Africa, and how children's rights are faring in practice in a variety of relevant settings.

In Unmarried Couples, Law, and Public Policy, Cynthia Grant Bowman explores legal recognition of opposite-sex cohabiting couples in the United States. Unmarried cohabitation has increased at a phenomenal rate in the U.S. over the last few decades, but the law has not responded to the legal issues raised by this new family form. Although a majority of cohabiting unions dissolve within the first two years, many are longer in term and function like other families; a large number of children also reside in these households. If one partner dies, is injured, or leaves the family, the remaining family members are left in an extremely vulnerable position in almost every state without any type of survivors' benefits, compensation for loss of a wage-earning partner, or remedies similar to those available upon dissolution of a marriage.
The author argues that the many benefits attendant upon formal marriage should be extended to cohabitants who have lived together for more than two years or give birth to a child. In order to avoid these consequences, a couple would need to opt out of them by contract.
Professor Bowman reaches this conclusion after a thorough review of the history of the legal treatment of cohabitation in the United States, the inadequacy of the legal remedies available to cohabitants in most states, the now-voluminous social science literature about cohabitation, and the experience of six other countries (England, Canada, Australia, France, The Netherlands, and Sweden) that have attempted a variety of legal reforms to address the problems of cohabitants.

Although the 'Israeli case' of bioethics has been well documented, this book offers a novel understanding of Israeli bioethics that is a milestone in the comparative literature of bioethics. Bringing together a range of experts, the book's interdisciplinary structure employs a contemporary, sociopolitical-oriented approach to bioethics issues, with an emphasis on empirical analysis, that will appeal not only to scholars of bioethics, but also to students of law, medicine, humanities, and social sciences around the world. Its focus on the development of bioethics in Israel makes it especially relevant to scholars of Israeli society - both in and out of Israel - as well as medical practitioners and health policymakers in Israel.

The Casebook on South African Family Law provides a clear and concise analysis of the facts and principles enunciated by the courts on the law of family.

It contains commentary and extracts from cases referred to in South African Family Law.

This work reflects the law as at 31 July 2004. Decisions up to July 2004 have been considered for inclusion.

Immer haufiger tritt die Forderung nach einer umfassenden Reform des geltenden Abstammungsrechts auf. Die Autorin greift diese Forderung auf und untersucht ausgehend von der Mutterschaft, 1591 BGB, die diversen Herausforderungen, denen sich eine Reform des Abstammungsrechts stellen muss. Sie uberpruft, welche abstammungsrechtlichen Prinzipien gelten sollten und welchen verfassungsrechtlichen und interdisziplinaren Massstaben eine Neugestaltung gerecht werden muss. Nach einer Darstellung und Bewertung bereits vorliegender Reformvorschlage prasentiert die Autorin eigene wertvolle Reformanstoesse. Dabei pladiert sie insbesondere fur ein weniger geschlechtsbezogenes Verstandnis der Elternschaft und einen Bedeutungsgewinn der intendierten Elternschaft.

This book offers an in-depth and critical analysis of the Istanbul Convention, along with discussions on its impact and implications. The work highlights the place of the Convention in the landscape of international law and policies on violence against women and equality. The authors argue that the Convention with its emphasis on integrated and comprehensive policies has an important role in promoting equality, but they also note the debates on "genderism" that the Convention has triggered in some member states. The book analyses central concepts of the Convention, including violence, gender and due diligence. It takes up major commitments of the parties to the Convention, including support and services to victims, criminal law provisions and protection of migrant women against violence. The book thus makes a major contribution to the development of national laws, policies and practice. It provides a valuable guide for policy-makers, students and academics in international human rights law, criminal and social law, social policy, social work and gender studies.

Online Risk to Children brings together the most up-to-date theory, policy, and best practices for online child protection and abuse prevention. * Moves beyond offender assessment and treatment to discuss the impact of online abuse on children themselves, and the risks and vulnerabilities inherent in their constantly connected lives * Global in scope, setting contributions from leading researchers and practitioners in the UK in international context via chapters from Australia, the USA and Europe. * Key topics covered include cyberbullying, peer-oriented abuse, victim treatment approaches, international law enforcement strategies, policy responses, and the role of schools and industry

This collection brings together leading specialists in the areas of European Union law which are now organized under the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ). The concept of the AFSJ was introduced into the EU Treaty framework by the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997, and it incorporates migration law, family reunion law, asylum law, police cooperation, and cooperation in criminal law. Each of these areas of law is the subject of an in-depth examination in a separate chapter of this book. The early years of the AFSJ, building upon a substantial body of law already in place under the Treaty of Maastricht and various intergovernmental arrangements, have witnessed a rapid expansion in legislative and executive activity in the field of European internal security. In migration law, family reunion law, asylum law, police co-operation, and co-operation in criminal law, the scale and intensity of action at the supranational level is already such as to overturn longstanding assumptions about the priority of national law in matters of migration control and criminal justice. An introductory chapter examines the various policy strands covered by the AFSJ; investigates what, if anything, can be viewed as its distinctive legal underpinning; and discusses its possible future development in the light of current discussions over the adoption of a first documentary Constitution for the European Union. In addition to setting out the main contours of legal policy, each chapter examines the continuing tension between national sovereignty on the one hand and a growing commitment to collective, EU-wide action on the other. The volume also addresses the wider constitutional implications of a growing supranational capacity in questions of the priority of political values in the evolving EU; fundamental rights protection; the control of new forms of executive and administrative discretion; and the pressures of accommodating the ten new Enlargement states within the internal security field.

This easy to read book, gives you 101 tips starting from thinking about the divorce, through trial and ending with your post-divorce life. The book was written by a divorce lawyer that has seen countless divorce cases from mediation, to simple matters to knock down, drag out battles. As a result, the author has seen it all and condensed the most common advice he offers to his clients into 101 quick tips. These tips can save you thousands of dollars in legal fees. More importantly, they can help you remain grounded during what could be one of most stressful times of your life.

The authors look at how divorce lawyers actually work to address the question of legal professionalism in practice. Through a detailed and systematic study of legal practice at the micro level, they show how lawyers create their own controls over work through their social relationships, formal and informal norms, common knowledge, and shared values. While much of the research on legal professionalism centers on the formal standards of the bar as reflected in codes of professional responsibility, Mather et al. show how the discretionary judgments that lawyers make, and the choices they face, are actually understood in relation to norms and standards of other lawyers with whom they interact or compare themselves.

The authors look at how divorce lawyers actually work to address the question of legal professionalism in practice. Through a detailed and systematic study of legal practice at the micro level, they show how lawyers create their own controls over work through their social relationships, formal and informal norms, common knowledge, and shared values. While much of the research on legal professionalism centers on the formal standards of the bar as reflected in codes of professional responsibility, Mather et al. show how the discretionary judgments that lawyers make, and the choices they face, are actually understood in relation to norms and standards of other lawyers with whom they interact or compare themselves.

You've been sucked into the abyss of divorce and can't focus on anything. How in the world can you be expected to read a book? Your emotions are all over the place, and you don't even know where to start. Don't Burn the Underwear is the source for immediate answers to all those questions running through your head. How did I get here? Can I save my marriage? What should I do now? Will my kids be okay? If you're looking for concise, candid answers regarding divorce, look no further

This book of motions allows you to obtain any type of relief in court if a parent is in violation of a prior final judgment or court order.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Egyptian women gained the unique right to divorce their husbands unilaterally through a procedure called khul'. This has been a controversial application; notwithstanding attempts to present the law as being grounded in Islamic law, opponents claim that khul' is a privileged women's law, and a western conspiracy aimed at destroying Egyptian family life and, by extension, Egyptian society.
In Khul' Divorce in Egypt, Nadia Sonneveld explores the nature of the public debates-including the portrayal of khul' in films and cartoons-while an examination of the application of khul' in the courts and everyday life relates and compares this debate to the actual implementation of the procedure. She makes it clear that the points of controversy bear little resemblance to the lives of the lower-middle-class women who apply for khul'; they merely reflect profound changes in the institutions of marriage and family.

Developments in the law, scholarship, and research since 2006 form a substantial part of the second edition of this book which sets the governance of personal relationships in the context of the exercise of social and personal power. Its central argument is that this power is counterbalanced by the presence of individual rights. This entails an analysis of the nature and deployment of rights, including human rights, and children's rights. Against that background, the book examines the values of friendship, truth, respect, and responsibility, and how the values of individualism co-exist with those of the community in an open society. It argues that central to these values is respecting the role of intimacy in personal relationships. In doing this, a variety of issues are examined, including the legal regulation of married and unmarried relationships, same-sex marriage, state supervision over the inception and exercise of parenthood (including surrogacy and assisted reproductive technology), the role of fault and responsibility in divorce law, children's rights and welfare, religion and family rights, the rights of separated partners regarding property and of separated parents regarding their children, and how states should respond to cultural diversity.

Richard H. Chused examines more than 1300 petitions for divorce in Maryland filed during the first half of the nineteenth century. By weaving together information on the legislative handling of these petitions, the voting patterns of the state legislators, and the judicial treatment of related disputes, Chused shows the connections between politics, regional differences, and the development of American family law. His analysis also provides valuable insights into the social history of the time, a period when traditional Southern family values were at odds with the more modern values brought about by urbanization.

Catholic Greg Bourke's profoundly moving memoir about growing up gay and overcoming discrimination in the battle for same-sex marriage in the US. In this compelling and deeply affecting memoir, Greg Bourke recounts growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, and living as a gay Catholic. The book describes Bourke's early struggles for acceptance as an out gay man living in the South during the 1980s and '90s, his unplanned transformation into an outspoken gay rights activist after being dismissed as a troop leader from the Boy Scouts of America in 2012, and his historic role as one of the named plaintiffs in the landmark United States Supreme Court decision Obergefell vs. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015. After being ousted by the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), former Scoutmaster Bourke became a leader in the movement to amend antigay BSA membership policies. The Archdiocese of Louisville, because of its vigorous opposition to marriage equality, blocked Bourke's return to leadership despite his impeccable long-term record as a distinguished boy scout leader. But while making their home in Louisville, Bourke and his husband, Michael De Leon, have been active members at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church for more than three decades, and their family includes two adopted children who attended Lourdes school and were brought up in the faith. Over many years and challenges, this couple has managed to navigate the choppy waters of being openly gay while integrating into the fabric of their parish life community. Bourke is unapologetically Catholic, and his faith provides the framework for this inspiring story of how the Bourke De Leon family struggled to overcome antigay discrimination by both the BSA and the Catholic Church and fought to legalize same-sex marriage across the country. Gay, Catholic, and American is an illuminating account that anyone, no matter their ideological orientation, can read for insight. It will appeal to those interested in civil rights, Catholic social justice, and LGBTQ inclusion.