Category Archives: Family Law
Angie Vega, ‘Companion Animals: a Legislative Proposal to Redefine Their Legal Worth’
ABSTRACT Companion animals are part of today’s American family. And as family members, people spend time and resources to ensure their nonhuman family members are healthy and happy. This emotional connection is increasingly being recognized and has started to permeate some areas of the law. Yet, when a companion animal is killed or injured, they […]
Margaret Ryznar, ‘Robot Romance’
ABSTRACT Romance between a human and robot will pose many questions for the laws that apply to human-robot interaction and, in particular, family law. Such questions include whether humans and robots can marry and what a subsequent divorce might look like. This chapter considers these issues, organized to track the seasons of romantic relationships, such […]
Steven Schaus, ‘Wrongs to Us’
ABSTRACT A huge number of tort suits in the United States are captioned Plaintiff & Spouse v Defendant. Why? The answer is at once completely obvious and deeply puzzling. The plaintiff’s spouse is part of the case because, in almost every US state, she has a claim against the defendant too – not for battery […]
Rajnaara Akhtar, Review of Zainab Batul Naqvi, Polygamy, Policy and Postcolonialism in English Marriage Law; A Critical Feminist Analysis
Zainab Batul Naqvi, Polygamy, Policy and Postcolonialism in English Marriage Law; A Critical Feminist Analysis, Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2023, 239 pp, hb £85.00. Zainab Naqvi’s exploration of polygamy makes a significant contribution to an issue largely overlooked in contemporary literature on the treatment of diverse forms of marriage within English law. Drawing on new […]
Bailey Barnes, ‘Contracts for Cohabitating Romantic Partners’
ABSTRACT Marriage rates in the United States are at record lows; meanwhile, more couples are choosing to live together outside of marriage. Despite the changing landscape of romantic relationships, the law of non-marriage has not kept pace. Rather than having a coherent, majority rule approach, the individual states have employed differing methods of providing for […]
Barbara Pozzo, ‘Compensation for Domestic Work in a De Facto Union: A Comparative Law Perspective’
INTRODUCTION On 14 January 2021, the Portuguese Supremo Tribunal de Justiça (STJ from now on) rendered an unanimously decision concerning the acknowledgment of domestic work done within a 30 years de facto union. In particular, the Court decided that the domestic work performance, as well as the caring for, accompanying and educating of children, exclusively […]
Ruth Zafran, ‘Step-Parent as Fiduciary’
ABSTRACT Does a step-parent have any obligations toward the legal parent of the child? To date, the law has been silent on this point. This article is the first to argue that step-parents do have obligations toward the non-resident legal parent, and that these obligations originate from the step-parent’s role as fiduciary. More specifically, this […]
‘Is Private International Law Really Private? Gender and Colonialism in the History of Conflict of Laws’
Anne-Charlotte Martineau, ‘The Private as a Core Part of International Law: The School of Salamanca, Slavery, and Marriage (Sixteenth Century)’, 118 American Journal of International Law Unbound (2024). The colonial origins of public international law are increasingly front and center of scholarly and political discussions in the field. In her insightful essay, Anne-Charlotte Martineau suggests […]
‘Detrimental reliance and the dangers of emails: Hudson v Hathway [2022] EWCA Civ 1648′
The Court of Appeal’s decision in Hudson v Hathway [2022] EWCA Civ 1648 is arguably the most important decision on the subject of constructive trusts of the family home since the House of Lords decided Stack v Dowden [2007] UKHL 17. The decision brings clarity to an area of law that is notoriously nebulous. As […]
John Mee, ‘Intra-family wealth transfers: The presumption or the “presumption” of advancement?’
INTRODUCTION People frequently make gratuitous transfers of wealth to, or purchase property in the name of, their spouse or child. Disputes can then arise as to the beneficial ownership of the property if relations sour within the family or if the rights of creditors supervene. In the context of certain close family relationships, equity applies […]