Family Law

This course offers a survey of family law, including case law, statutory law, and the constitutional limitations on regulation of the family. The course aims to introduce students to family law as a dynamic field of law concerning a basic social institution: the family. Family law is a foundational course relevant to many areas of law practice. Students will gain knowledge about how family law intersects with fields of law, such as contracts, constitutional law, conflicts of laws, criminal law, property, tax, and trusts and estates, and how family law draws on the social sciences. We will examine the role of family law in contributing to and ameliorating inequalities in society on various bases, including gender, race, class, and sexual orientation. Students will be introduced to the role of negotiation, mediation, and other forms of dispute resolution in family law practice. Topics include defining and regulating family (including marriage and parenthood); formal and informal marriage; cohabitation and alternatives to marriage (such as domestic partnerships); common law incidents of marriage and the transformation of the common law; marital agreements; intimate partner violence; traditional and "no-fault" divorce; property division; spousal support; child support; child custody; and the family regulation system. The teaching method is a combination of lecture and class discussion, along with in-class small group problem-solving exercises.