In the fourth edition, all 17 chapters are fully updated to
reflect the latest family law developments. Developments based on
Obergefell v. Hodges are treated fully throughout the new
edition.
This popular family law casebook engages students with the
significant changes to the American family and the corresponding
evolution of family law doctrine and policy. The book emphasizes
that contemporary families take a variety of forms, including
marital and nonmarital relationships, and that constitutional
considerations play an increasingly important role in family law.
The fourth edition preserves and builds on the approach of the
earlier editions: presenting core substantive family law doctrine
while also exploring ongoing and emerging policy debates and
discussing the importance of cross-disciplinary collaborations
with experts in fields such as psychology and accounting. The
book introduces the myriad issues central to family law practice
and to a lawyer’s ethical and professional responsibilities. New
cases have been substituted where appropriate, and the notes
following each lead case, statute or article have been thoroughly
updated. In addition, new Problems expand the number of
rtunities for actively engaging students.
Contemporary Family Law highlights the issues of professional and
ethical responsibility that arise in family law, not only by
using Problems that invite students to engage in role playing,
but also by devoting separate chapters to legal ethics,
alternative dispute resolution, and private ordering. While
providing a grounding in the historical and contemporary
regulation of marriage, the book also devotes chapters to
nonmarital couples and to establishing parenthood. The book also
emphasizes concrete aspects of legal practice and professional
responsibility by, for example, including material at the end of
the first chapter on shifting paradigms within family law
practice and the roles of family lawyers, by addressing
jurisdictional issues in one integrated chapter, and by
presenting problems for discussion in each chapter that enable
students to apply doctrine in real-life settings that lawyers
face.
Moreover, because child custody arrangements lead to some of the
most acrimonious family disputes, this casebook devotes two
chapters to custody: the first treats the initial custody
decision, and the second explores continuing litigation
concerning visitation, custody, and key childrearing decisions
after the initial disposition, including disputes involving third
parties such as cohabitants and grandparents. Both custody
chapters include disputes involving nonmarital children.
New and expanded material in the fourth edition includes full
of Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), the Supreme Court’s
ruling on the fundamental right of same-sex couples to marry and
to have every state recognize their marriage, and its
ramifications throughout family law. This edition has added a
separate chapter on nonmarital couples, including a section on
domestic partnerships, civil unions, and other legal statuses in
the wake of Obergefell; extensive coverage of debt and family
finances, reflecting the current economic climate, as well as new
material on how taxes affect families; substantially updated
discussion of the impact of gender in child custody decisions and
the current legal status of shared parenting; an expanded Section
on the Hague Convention; detailed discussion of new and emerging
reproductive technologies; and major revisions to the chapter on
child support (including recent data on the central role of child
support in low-income families). The chapter on private ordering
integrates the new Uniform Premarital and Marital Agreements Act.
Finally, the comprehensive 700-page teachers manual presents
explanations and pedagogical strategies, including extended
exercises, that will help new adopters design a rich course that
meets their students’