Family Law

Catalog description

This course offers a survey of family law through the use of case law, statutory law, and the constitutional limitations on the regulation of the family. Students will gain knowledge about how family law intersects with other areas of law, such as contracts, constitutional law, conflicts of law, criminal law, property, tax, torts, and trusts and estates, as well as how family law draws on the social sciences. This course will focus on marriage, nonmarital families, divorce, division of marital assets, pathways to becoming a parent, and the parent-child relationship. Topics will also include defining and regulating marriage; formal and informal marriage; cohabitation and alternatives to marriage; common law incidents of marriage; domestic violence; traditional and "no fault" divorce; property division; spousal support; child support; child custody; regulating parenthood; and issues of federal and state authority over and recognition of marriage.