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Abstract:
The United States Supreme Court decided a series of cases at the intersection of federalism and family law during the 1940s and 1950s. In these cases, beginning with Williams v. North Carolina, the Court applied the Full Faith and Credit Clause to disputes over interstate recognition of divorce and custody decrees. This article argues that these cases shifted the normative boundaries of state power over domestic relations and made several important changes in the law of divorce.

In implementing a new approach to interstate divorce disputes, the Court embraced no-fault and mutual consent approaches to jurisdiction over divorce, helping to clear the way for the divorce reforms of later decades. By separating the test for jurisdiction to enter a divorce decree from the test for jurisdiction over its financial and custodial aspects, the Court signaled that the incidents of marriage were a more appropriate state concern than divorce prevention. Although these cases preceded the Court's turn toward a new substantive due process approach to family law in the 1960s, the opinions evidence a strong concern for the individual interests involved in marriage and divorce, and this concern is central to the Court's redefinition of state power over divorce.

Divorce Law, Family Law, Federalism

Abstract:
Despite the federalism rhetoric that still marks political debate and judicial opinions, family law in the United States today is a complex mixture of state and federal law. This paper identifies and evaluates three different forms of federalism in family law, each of which presents distinct pragmatic and constitutional questions. Congress has used its spending power to reconfigure state child support and child welfare laws on a cooperative federalism basis, and its Commerce Clause and Full Faith and Credit powers to legislate in areas that pose horizontal federalism problems. Congress has also preempted state family law with legislation in areas including civil rights, tax, pension, bankruptcy immigration, and international law. In all of these settings, Congress has been primarily responsible for defining the balance of national and state power, with the federal courts resisting national family legislation only when it seems likely to shift significant responsibility from the state courts to the federal courts.

Family policy, Federalism, Legislation, Child support, Child Welfare, Full faith and credit, Federal courts,

Abstract:
This Essay explores a type of legal pluralism found in secular societies, including the United States, in which minority groups adhere to unofficial religious law norms within a larger framework of state family law. Official and unofficial law are sometimes closely interwoven, as with the formalization of marriage, and sometimes stand directly in opposition, as with laws prohibiting the practice of polygamy. In an intermediate position, these societies have seen a complex interaction between secular and religious law in the context of marriage dissolution. The different opportunities presented by each legal system may generate significant strategic behavior by individuals, and these risks have prompted careful collaboration between religious and secular authorities in a number of jurisdictions. In this collaboration, the secular state helps religious communities to define a space and an identity, and simultaneously seeks to establish the basic guarantees of citizenship within the larger society for all group members.

legal pluralism, multiculturalism, family law, religious law, marriage, divorce

Abstract:
Ann Estin & Barbara Stark, Global Issues in Family Law (West, forthcoming 2007) introduces students to a rapidly developing area of the law where globalization quite literally hits home. It considers the basic subjects of the introductory Family Law course, including marriage, divorce, establishing parent-child relationships, parental rights and responsibilities, and domestic violence. At the same time, the book provides broad coverage of the international, comparative, and transnational legal questions that are increasingly important in the practice of Family Law. The materials cover a spectrum from private law issues to questions of immigration and asylum law. Students will encounter human rights treaties, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and conventions from the Hague Conference on Private International Law on subjects such as International Child Abduction and Intercountry Adoption. The book can be used to supplement a basic course, or to provide a framework for a specialized class or seminar. It is intended to be accessible to students with no background in family law or international law, and also to be challenging for those interested in exploring the fascinating intersection of these two fields.

Family Law, International Law

Abstract:
In light of the growing complexity and importance of international family law, this article surveys transnational marriage and family law, human rights law protecting families and defining rights within families, and aspects of nationality, immigration, and refugee law which turn on family roles and relationships. Traditional subjects of private international law have taken on an increasingly substantial public law character, with the development of new systems of intergovernmental cooperation. These are set within a larger framework of international human rights law, including measures protecting family life and the right to marry and treaty provisions directed at gender equality within the family and respect for the rights of children. The article notes the ratification by the United States of important aspects of the new international family law system, and advocates more comprehensive U.S. participation. In addition, the article argues that these changes in the international legal understanding of the family have important implications for the law of citizenship and asylum which have not yet been adequately conceptualized or addressed.

family law, international law, human rights