Modern Family Law

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Exploring the conflict between respect for privacy and deference to state authority in the context of family law today, each chapter in the Seventh Edition of Modern Family Law: Cases and Materials provides a lens to explore the appropriate role of the state in family decision making and helps equip students to handle current and emerging family law issues. The book features riveting well-edited cases, notes, interdisciplinary materials, and problems that highlight issues of gender, sexualities, race, and class. Integrating legal developments with perspectives from history, psychology, sociology, medicine, and philosophy, this casebook uniquely reflects the full diversity of the modern family, including key updates on marriage equality and parentage issues for LGBT-headed families, the nonmarital family, abortion, adoption, and assisted reproductive technology.

New to the Seventh Edition:

• The latest Supreme Court family law cases (Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt; Masterpiece Cakeshop; Pavan v. Smith; Sessions v. Morales-Santana), and previews of upcoming cases (June Medical Services v. Gee and Bostock v. Clayton County)
• In-depth coverage of important recent uniform and model legislation (Uniform Parentage Act (2017); Uniform Nonparent Custody and Visitation Act (2018); pending VAWA Reauthorization Act (2020), ALI Restatement of Children and the Law (2019-2020), and ABA Model Act Governing Assisted Reproduction (2019)
• Landmark recent state and federal decisions (including LGBT rights, breastfeeding discrimination/accommodations, contraceptive fraud, divorce discrimination, marital paternity presumption, marital communications privilege, abortion restrictions, minors’ abortion rights, name disputes, challenges to state polygamy laws, parentage rights in multi-parent families, spousal spying for infidelity, and much more)

Professors and students will benefit from:

• A mix of “classic” and cutting-edge materials illuminate family law’s past and its continuing development in an era of exciting change
• Materials—such as narratives, epilogues, personal communications, social science perspectives, and comparative information—bring family law to life and
• Thoughtfully organized materials clearly present basic principles and doctrines, while inviting policy-based reflections and questions about law reform
• Provocative questions and Problems based on cases and current events will spark lively class discussions