Family Law

This course examines state intervention into the associations that individuals form—or have imposed on them by the government—in connection with birth, adoption, and sexual/adult intimate affiliation. Incorporating family law’s constitutional foundations and using a mix of traditional blackletter law and contemporary examples, the course covers marital and non-marital family formation, the legal responsibilities of parents and partners, the determination of parentage, and the consequences of separation and divorce. To help develop the critical thinking skills essential to good lawyering, we will also examine how family law is not monolithic, but rather takes different forms depending upon race, gender, sexual orientation, and class, and address the potential and limitations of various reform efforts.