Modern Family Law: Cases and Materials

by D. Kelly Weisberg, Susan Frelich Appleton

When you teach Family Law, how do you convey the lively social context of this continually evolving area? Modern Family Law, Third Edition, uses cases, notes, interdisciplinary materials, and problems to address the full range of the subject, with sensitivity to issues of gender, race, and class.This dynamic casebook: reflects the social diversity of the modern family examines the social and legal impacts the women's movement, the children's rights movement, the fathers' rights movement, domestic violence, changing sexual mores, new family forms, and developments in reproductive technology integrates valuable interdisciplinary perspectives, including excerpts, notes, and questions emanating from history, psychology, sociology, social work, medicine, and philosophy covers the basics of family law as well as more expansive topics presents a variety of problem exercises, most derived from actual cases and current events easily adapts to courses of various lengths heightens student awareness of the real effect of the law on people's lives through narratives and stories about the people behind the cases Scrupulously updated with new cases, notes, problems, and excerpts, the Third Edition: provides extensive coverage of the same-sex marriage debate and its ramifications, including the Lawrence, Goodridge, and Lofton cases, civil unions and domestic partnerships, parentage determinations, custody and visitation, child support, name changes, property rights, the proposed federal marriage amendment to the Constitution, and the wider implications for gender classifications in family law presents expanded treatment of domestic violence, including Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzalez, discrimination against abuse victims in the areas of housing and employment, victims' attempts to change names and hide, and the implications for custody and support discusses custody and visitation rights of both grandparents and stepparents in the post-Troxel era supplies revised coverage of the family-work conflict, including discussion of the "glass ceiling," the "maternal wall," and the gendered household division of labor treats right-to-die issues, most notably the Terri Schiavo case and its ramifications for privacy, the family, and federalism addresses partial-birth abortion bans and teenagers' abortion rights, including the proposed federal parental notification statute (the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act) and the pending Supreme Court case of Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England includes expanded treatment of sexual orientation in terms of employment, housing, domestic violence, and the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy considers fetal protection measures at both the federal and state levels that criminalize the killing of a fetus, such as the Unborn Victims of Violence Act deals with important evidentiary issues, such as the child abuse implications of Crawford v. Washington and the interspousal wiretapping case of Glazner v. Glazner reviews paternity disestablishment for husbands who deny paternity after genetic tests disprove their biological fatherhood updates issues of contraceptive fraud, such as the "purloined sperm" cases in which women lie about taking birth control pills or "steal" their partner's sperm without his consent

1190 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1998

Reviews

[Grace Kendrick]

Too much extra info and articles without clearly communicating the actual rules of the cases. Very bland.

[Ke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess I should be happy that I paid over a hundred dollars for a book that has picture and stuff. But more seriously, I am not sure what the pictures in this casebook contributed to my understanding of say, the ALI's Principles of Dissolution. That said, the editor selected many relevant opinions and excerpted relevant mainstream reading. I found the notes and questions part relevant as well.

[Cary S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weaknesses were mainly in relegating some pivotal cases to notes while highlighting unremarkable cases, and it was a bit bland at times (but what else is new?). The topic was interesting overall, but it didn't light too much of a fire in me...

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am reading this book for my class "Family Law."