Family Law

This lesson explores premarital agreements, also known as antenuptial or prenuptial agreements. This lesson assumes you already have a basic understanding of premarital agreements.

This lesson addresses the formal and substantive regulations imposed on the right to marry. The lesson discusses the difference between annulment and divorce and compares void and voidable marriages. The putative spouse doctrine and the marriage presumption are also covered. This lesson assumes prior coverage of this material in class and is designed to help you review theses concepts. If you want to study the constitutional aspects of substantive regulations of marriage in more depth, see the CALI Lessons, Constitutional Aspects of Family Law and Same Sex Relationships.

Cohabitants may litigate to obtain property, support, a share of an estate, or for derivative benefits such as wrongful death or survivor's benefits. This lesson reviews theories of recovery for cohabiting couples who were not formally married. The lesson explores contract, quasi-contract and equitable theories of recovery such as constructive and resulting trusts, quantum meruit, promissory estoppel and implied contract. Note that not all states allow all remedies reviewed in this lesson.

This lesson is intended as an overview of Constitutional Law principles that are important in Family Law. It can be used at the beginning of the Family Law course as a refresher of Constitutional Law. It can also be used during the course to clarify general constitutional doctrine. This lesson is related to two other lessons regarding constitutional aspects of Family Law.

This lesson is an examination of the constitutional law aspects of Family Law. It builds upon lessons which provide a review of Constitutional Law in the Family Law context, but is much more detailed. It is intended as a supplement and review of constitutional doctrine as it occurs in specific Family Law areas such as marriage, divorce, parenting, procreation, sexuality, the rights of minors, and end-of life issues.

The purpose of this lesson is to review basic doctrines and theories of individual rights covered in Constitutional Law courses. The lesson covers the Due Process Clause, the Equal Protection Clause, and the First Amendment, as they apply in the Family Law context.

This is an introduction to some of the legal aspects of the husband-wife relationship, including property and support obligations along with a number of issues involving the marital status

This lesson covers characterization of commingled property at divorce. It covers tracing, transmutation, differentiation between income and passive appreciation and other rules regarding characterization of commingled property as marital or separate.

This lesson focuses on distribution of property that has already been identified and valued. Before beginning the lesson students should have a general understanding of the differences between common law and community property systems. They should also be aware of the basic distinction between marital and separate property. This lesson may be used either as an introduction to the distribution of property at divorce or as a refresher that tests a student's understanding of this subject.

This lesson considers the special classification issues associated with pensions, professional licenses and goodwill, personal injury and workers' compensation awards, and life insurance. The student should have a general understanding of the distinction between marital and separate property before working this lesson. The lesson can be used as an introduction to or review of the materials covered. It also works well as an independent lesson.

This lesson deals with a topic more commonly known as alimony, spousal support, or maintenance. Its focus is Chapter 5 of the American Law Institute Principles of the Law of Family Dissolution. This is an introductory lesson. It assumes you have spent little or no time discussing this material in class.

This lesson reviews the general law of alimony. It focuses on the differences between alimony and property distribution; the gender implications, justifications, eligibility, amount and duration of alimony; and the forms of alimony.

This lesson can serve either as an introduction to modification or as a review that reinforces and tests your understanding of this subject. Before beginning the lesson, you should be familiar with the general law of alimony and child support. The CALI lessons on Alimony and Child Support can help.

This lesson is a review of the duty to support children and the growing federal role in determining child support.

This lesson is a review of child support enforcement at both the state and federal levels.

This lesson will review general principles of custody disputes including terminology and factors used in resolving custody disputes. Separate lessons will cover custody jurisdiction, modification, and visitation.

This lesson is a review of visitation and relocation issues. The lesson can be used to introduce or review these topics. Students should be familiar with basic principles of custody determinations.

This lesson explores the standards for modifying child custody orders and the policies underlying same. It is an introductory lesson and assumes an understanding of the issues involved in making an initial custody decree. This lesson should be worked, for review and reinforcement, after the topic has been covered in class. The lesson may also serve as a substitute for covering this topic in class, as long as the student has covered the more general topic of initial custody decision making. The lesson does not cover interstate jurisdiction or relocation (moving the child out of the jurisdiction). Those topics are covered in other lessons. 

This lesson was removed at the end of 2013. It is outdated but is currently being revised. CALI

This lesson is intended to be used as both an introduction to Child Custody Jurisdiction and as a review for students who have already studied the material.

This lesson addresses the enforcement provisions of the child custody jurisdiction statutes. It also addresses the international aspects of child custody enforcement. The lesson should be worked after completing the lesson on Child Custody Jurisdiction.

This lesson covers the basics of both spousal and child support jurisdiction. It is intended as an introduction to the materials and it can also be used for review.

This is a lesson for reviewing the emerging rights of the nonmarital child and the nonmarital father.

This lesson covers emerging issues of assisted reproduction technologies. Most specifically, it explores issues of parental rights on both a constitutional and state level. Topics covered include artificial insemination, surrogacy, and the status of un-implanted pre-embryos when the parties disagree about implantation. It does not cover post-partum conception. The lesson includes the issue of lesbian partners when one provides the egg and the other is the gestational mother but it does not cover other issues of lesbian parenthood.

This lesson will cover the general area of adoption law and is designed as an introduction for those students who have not studied the subject and as a review for those students who have.