Family Law Quarterly Summer 2018: A Selection of Various and Important Family Law Topics

    Vol. 52 No. 2   October 2019

    Family

    Postmarital Agreements: Validity and Enforceablility

    By Linda J. Ravdin

    There is now a clear trend toward general acceptance of postmarital agreements predetermining property rights at death and divorce. In most states, spouses can do by agreement after marriage the same things they can do by agreement before marriage as to property rights. But the law regarding waiver of spousal support is less developed.

    Features

    Family

    Child Support Compliance in the USA and Australia: To Persuade or Punish?

    By J. Thomas Oldham & Bruce M. Smyth

    Child support compliance continues to be a thorny policy issue, especially in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. This article examines compliance rates and key—and very different—enforcement strategies in the United States and Australia, neither of which appears to be making much headway. This cross-national comparison prompts critical reflection on the issue of compliance and on future policy directions.

    Family

    Global Trends in the Operation of the 1980 Hague Abduction Convention: The 2015 Statistics

    Nigel V. Lowe and Victoria Stephens

    A survey of 2015 statistics prepared for the 2017 Seventh Meeting of the Special Commission reviewed all applications to Central Authorities for the return of a child following wrongful removal or retention and for securing rights of access. This article discusses the survey’s major findings and draws upon the findings of the three previous studies to provide an analysis of statistical trends over a sixteen-year period.

    Family

    The Doctrine of Intentional Parenthood

    By Geri C. Sjoquist

    The headlines everywhere read “Love Won” in 2013 as Minnesota became the twelfth state to join in the recognition of same-sex unions. The State’s new statutory provision fit within the context of all of Minnesota’s other laws governing families and children, which are primarily based on biology. Practitioners have been left to solve the ensuing riddles, and related LGBTQ rights issues are cropping up with greater frequency.

    Family

    Book Review: A Dialogue about Religious Beliefs and Third-Party Harms in Family Law

    Review by Stephanie H. Barclay of The Contested Place of Religion in Family Law (Robin Fretwell Wilson, ed., Cambridge University Press, 2018)

    The Contested Place of Religion in Family Law presents a wide array of diverse and important perspectives about pressing social conflicts at the crossroads of religious belief and family life. It includes contributions from law and religion scholars and family law scholars, and it also offers the often-overlooked viewpoints of legislators, journalists, ministers, physicians, and litigators at the front lines of the debates.

    Columns