Parental Rights Research Articles

Plunging Children into an Unconstitutional Purgatory: Why Texas Should Raise Its Standard of Proof for Placing Children in Foster Care

Texas currently allows Child Protective Services to remove children and place them in foster care for up to two years based only on probable cause of abuse or neglect. Removal itself is traumatic for children and foster care puts children at an unconstitutional risk of harm. Allowing courts to put children through the trauma of removal and foster care for years based only on probable cause departs substantially from the national norm for standards of proof, enables Texas to terminate parental rights at a high rate, and subjects children to a risk of harm for which the child welfare system is unable to compensate through other procedural protections. To better prevent children from being unnecessarily plunged into an unconstitutional purgatory in which they must wait to be reunified with their birth families or adopted by new families, Texas should raise its standard of proof for child removals from probable cause to a preponderance of the evidence. Raising the standard of proof to a preponderance of the evidence would better balance the state’s interests in protecting children from harm both in foster care and in their homes.

Liability for Violation of the Obligation of Care in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Poland

The problem of non-fulfilment or improper fulfillment by parents (persons who replace them) of childcare responsibilities exists in all countries, regardless of the form of government, state system, and income level of the population. Ukraine has been in the process of integration with the European Union for a long time, so it is useful to study the foreign legislative approach to the regulation of responsibility for the violation of these obligations. The purpose of the article is to study the Polish experience of establishing criminal liability for non-fulfilment of child care obligations. In the research dogmatic, systemic-structural, statistical, historical-legal, formal-legal methods were used. Attention is paid to the legislation of the Republic of Poland, which provides for the right and duty of parents to care for and raise children. The genesis of the criminal law regarding responsibility for violation of these duties in the Criminal Code of 1932, 1969, and 1997 is given. Statistical data on the number of criminal proceedings and persons convicted of this criminal offense (2009–2020) are summarized. The peculiarities of the structure of the crime composition provided for in Art. 210 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Poland were studied; objective and subjective signs. The analysis was carried out on the basis of the doctrine of Polish criminal law and the practice of courts of general jurisdiction, in particular the Supreme Court of the Republic of Poland. The practice of the Constitutional Tribunal of the Republic of Poland was used. Based on the results of the research, conclusions were formulated regarding objects of criminal law protection; objective and subjective side and subject composition. The differentiation of criminal liability in case of causing death to the victim was noted. The legislator also provided in cases of this crime the possibility of notifying the competent family court about the expediency of deprivation or limitation of parental or guardian rights in case of committing a crime to the detriment of a minor or in complicity with him. The separation of an independent structural section (subsection) in the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which includes criminal offenses against the family, as well as the improvement of criminal legal measures against persons who have committed such crimes, is supported.

The Function of Rape Myths in the Battle Over Parental Rights

The Function of Rape Myths in the Battle Over Parental Rights

Pride Flags in Public Schools: Evolving Legal Issues to Consider

The media has featured “controversies” over pride flags in public schools. Although some of these attempts to ban pride flags have been initiated at the state level, other efforts have occurred at the local level when school boards have tried to adopt policies banning pride flags. Parents have also challenged schools that display pride flags. Although there is no U.S. Supreme Court case that addresses this issue, litigation that has arisen in other related contexts (e.g., parental rights, teacher speech) may provide some guidance on this topic. A few different legal issues that provide insight into this topic are briefly explored.

부모 아닌 자의 양육권

Non-parents’ right to child custody is one of the many problems accompanying the current changed family view or family model. Korean Civil Law already has a history of trying to adapt to the new concept of family by breaking away from the traditional concept of family through legislation allowing (limited) grandparents’ right to visitation. This can be said to be part of the re-establishment of parental rights in terms of children’s welfare. The issue of custody of non-parents covered in this paper could also take the first step in its discussion in the same context. Such an examination inevitably involves adjusting the concept of parental rights, and it also involves a review of the relationship between parental rights and guardianship of minors as a supplement to parental authority.
 The custody of non-parents must first find its basis in guardianship of minors. However, it is worth noting that the supplementary nature of guardianship of minors to parental authority simultaneously implies an exclusive relationship between them. This is a limitation derived from the fact that guardianship of minors was originally designed as a supplement to parental authority, and in certain situations, it could come into an obstacle to realizing the maximization of children’s welfare. To solve this problem, there may be no need to re-establish the supplementary relationship between parental rights and guardianship of minors, but we need to consider an alternative of guardianship of minor. This article reviews the U.S. de facto parents system as the alternative. The de facto parent system, like the minor guardianship system, supplements the parental authority function, but its main focus is to contribute to the children’s welfare by maintaining and continuing the meaningful relationship already formed between the child and a non-parent. This does not simply assume an exclusive conflict with parental authority. This can be confirmed in the fact that joint custody or secondary custody is granted to the de facto parents in certain cases, which ultimately intended for the coexistence and cooperation of parents and de facto parents in raising children. This will be beneficial in achieving maximization of children’s welfare.

Abuse of parental rights: general characteristics, forms, and types

Abuse of parental rights: general characteristics, forms, and types

The Analysis of Problems Arising in the Exercise of the Right to Paternity in Family Law

Introduction: the global changes in the world erasing not only the patriarchal model of the family, but also the level of internal self-awareness and responsibility at the birth of a child in general, emphasize the need to consider the content of the models of the mother and father from a legal point of view, identifying not the socio-psychological root causes of this phenomenon in the modern world, but their consequence for the legal environment of the development of the institute of childhood. The statutory norms on paternity in modern law require detailed interpretation and improvement. Despite the equality of the rights of parents in parental legal relations, today there are separate differences in the legal status of the mother and father in the legislation. In this regard, the author set a goal: to analyze the problems that arise in the exercise of the right of paternity. Results: the peculiarities of the problem of establishing paternity, the peculiarities of the legal status of the father, including surrogacy, are studied. The problems of contesting paternity and determining the child’s place of residence and communication with parents are highlighted. Based on the analysis of the legislation, conclusions are drawn about the presence of certain elements of inequality in the legal status of the mother and father of the child. Most provisions curtail the rights of fathers. According to the results of the study, it is found that further improvement of the family legislation should be systematically aimed at eliminating the inequality of parental legal relations between the mother and the father of the child.

Why's it gotta be so complicated: New York's regulation of compensated traditional surrogacy agreements creates a constitutional violation

AbstractNew York's Child–Parent Security Act (CPSA) legalized compensated gestational surrogacy and created a simpler way for parents to establish their parental rights when utilizing assisted reproductive technology (ART). While this was a substantial step forward from past antiquated law, the CPSA continues to heavily regulate compensated genetic, otherwise known as traditional, surrogacy making it challenging to use. The CPSA infringes upon the right to procreate by limiting the ART methods available to those wanting to start a family. This Note proposes an amendment to the current CPSA, including the legalization of compensated traditional surrogacy in New York.

Surrogacy in the UK

Amy Noakes looks at the surrogacy process in the UK and the legal rights of parents and surrogates

Issues and Challenges of Women’s Rights

Women’s rights, as a term, typically refers to the freedoms inherently possessed by women and girls of all ages, which may be institutionalized, ignored or illegitimately suppressed by law, custom, and behaviour in a particular society. These liberties are grouped together and differentiated from broader notions of human rights because they often differ from the freedoms inherently possessed by or recognized for men and boys, and because activism surrounding this issue claims an inherent historical and traditional bias against the exercise of rights by women. Issues commonly associated with notions of women’s rights include, though are not limited to, the right: to bodily integrity and autonomy; to vote (universal suffrage); to hold public office; to work; to fair wages or equal pay; to own property; to education; to serve in the military; to enter into legal contracts; and to have marital, parental and religious rights. In this research paper I have discussed issues and challenges of women rights and also review the role of different international agencies in spreading awareness about women’s rights.

European Social Dialogues: Shaping EU Social Policy through Parental Leave Rights

The European Social Dialogue (ESD) has served as the platform for European social partners to negotiate parental leave policies at the European Union (EU) level since 1995. The partners’ efforts to revise the regulations in 2015, in response to the European Commission’s broader approach toward European work–life balance policies, failed, however, and the reasons for and implications of this failure remain insufficiently explored. Drawing on existing ESD literature and leveraging the regulator-intermediary-target (RIT) model, the authors develop a typology of policymaking outcomes based on the analysis of three parental leave directives from 1996 to 2019. The findings demonstrate that divergent preferences among European social partners, particularly when juxtaposed against the Commission’s policy objectives and interests, reduced the probability of a successful ESD through which European social partners could generate a framework agreement. Instead of being rule-makers, these conditions relegated European social partners to the role of rule-takers. If this trend continues, it poses a significant challenge to the role and influence of European social partners in EU policymaking.

The United States Constitution: Legal Literacy and School Nursing.

The school nurse works in the nexus of health care and education, combining laws and regulations from each discipline to create the boundaries of their practice. The U.S. Constitution provides fundamental rights for all citizens and is one example of the legal parameters that apply to school nursing practice. Without understanding the implications of this legal framework, the school nurse may not recognize situations that have the potential to deny students their guaranteed rights. Through a broad discussion of the Fourth (search and seizure), Fifth (protection from self-incrimination), and Fourteenth (equal protection, due process, and parental rights) Amendments, the author presents the dangers of disregarding or being unaware of these rights. The purpose of this article is to encourage school nurses to examine their practice through the lens of the legal protections afforded by the Constitution and to discuss considerations and recommendations to improved legal literacy and application to daily practice.

Typologies of Family Dependency Treatment Court Participants: Parental Characteristics and Differential Child Placement Outcomes

Background: Family Dependency Treatment Court (FDTC) is a problem-solving court for parents who have child welfare involvement and designed to address parental substance misuse by providing treatment and wrap-around services, with the goal of reunifying parents with their children. Objectives: This study aimed to identify different classes of FDTC parents and compare how child placement outcomes differ by class. Parental characteristics and permanent placement outcomes for 354 parents participating in a Central Florida FDTC were assessed using administrative data. An exploratory latent class analysis was conducted to classify parents. Results: Results revealed three distinct classes of FDTC participants: 1) co-occurring issues, 2) racial/ethnic minority participants, and 3) prescription opioid, meth, and heroin users. Regression analyses showed that parents with co-occurring issues were over two times more likely to achieve permanency (OR = 2.05, p < .05), and were two times less likely to terminate their parental rights (TPR) compared to the other two classes. Conclusions: Implications for tailoring FDTC procedures to parents’ individual needs, combating racial/ethnic disparities in access to services and placement outcomes, and improved child welfare and placement outcomes are discussed.

A social justice perspective on the delivery of family support

Family support as an approach to working with children, youth, parents, and families is widely practiced across Europe albeit with a range of diverse meanings and interpretations. This paper responds to this ambiguity and provides a conceptual understanding of the delivery of family support in Europe. In doing so it applies a social justice approach critically examining the extent to which Family Support reflects the right of families, children, youth, and parents to be supported. It identifies and critically examines similarities and differences in the meaning and application of family support as a key concept in the European context. It is based on a comprehensive review of literature, mapping multi-disciplinary approaches to the provision of support, based on academic material from 2015 to 2020 and adopting a broad and inclusive definition of family. The paper considers the complexities in developing a universally accepted understanding of family support that: has value for practitioners and managers; is selected as a focus by policy makers; is open to evaluation and research; is compatible with academic research; and most importantly provides responsive and effective support to children, youth, parents and families.

Parental and Newborn Rights in Resuscitation Decisions: The Risk of Governmental Overreach.

Parental and Newborn Rights in Resuscitation Decisions: The Risk of Governmental Overreach.

LIABILITY FOR VIOLATION OF FAMILY RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS UNDER UKRAINIAN AND THE EU LEGISLATION

The issue of liability for violation of family rights and obligations under the laws of Ukraine and the EU has always been of interest to domestic and foreign scholars. The main objective of our state in the field of family law is to harmonize the legislation with the norms of the European Union. The observance of human rights is a fundamental provision in international law and in Ukraine. After all, the rights of children, women, and parents in the family should be the highest legal and social value and they should be protected by the state in every state governed by the rule of law. The norms of international legislation enshrined in the fundamental documents must be observed in the states that have ratified them. The purpose of the research is to theoretically analyze the liability for violation of family rights and obligations under the legislation of Ukraine and the EU, to study the legal sources and to search for ways to solve the main current issues by studying domestic and international legislation and analyzing the scholars’ works. The regulatory framework governing the consequences of violating family rights and obligations is the subject of discussion.

What makes a father: differentiation of unmarried and divorced fathers in the context of custody under the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights

Abstract While marriage has traditionally served as the connective tissue between fathers, mothers, and their children before the law, the increasing commonality of cohabitation-based relationships without marriage has led to many children being born outside of the marriage union. This has complicated the legal understanding of fatherhood in particular, which has traditionally relied on the contractual nature and stability of the marital union to be legally defined and understood. States are often ill-equipped to handle parental separation and child custody in the case of civil unions, and unmarried fathers tend to have fewer venues of legal protection compared to divorced fathers in that regard. The purpose of this article is to identify the legal challenges surrounding unmarried fathers and parental rights in the context of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. It examines the elements of what constitutes legal fatherhood, identifies the main human rights issues surrounding unmarried fathers, and assesses the reasons for legal differentiation between divorced and unmarried fathers. Importantly, conclusions are drawn as to whether and why these differences are justified from a legal perspective. This article contributes to the need for more research in the area of father–child relationships and aims to provide guidance for policy and law-making with regard to unmarried parents in the context of children’s rights.

Destruction of legal relations in the field of parenthood: the current state of gender inequality of women according to the principle of “Father without a child” in the conditions of martial law, taking into account the circumstances of the latter’s stay

For centuries, the family has been viewed as a center of society with enormous influence. This is the place where the child first gets experience in the spheres of social, emotional and cognitive relations. The family is of fundamental importance for individuals who are part of it, as well as for society as a whole. To ensure the proper development of a child, not only appropriate living conditions are needed, but also the active presence of both parents. Each of them makes their own unique contributions to the child’s development.&#x0D; However, the full-scale Russian military invasion led to a mass exodus of Ukrainians abroad, leaving many families separated and distant. The problems of families separated by war and emigration can be further complicated by the fact that men are geographically separated and deprived of the opportunity to actively participate in their child’s life. This can affect the parent-child bond, as well as the children’s health and well- being. The mentioned problems require a systematic approach and joint efforts on the part of the Ukrainian authorities, as well as public organizations and experts. Necessary measures include the development of programs for children who have moved abroad, support for parents in solving their problems and improved cooperation between countries to ensure the rights of children and families who find themselves in this difficult situation.&#x0D; For parents who are in Ukraine and trying to establish contact and ensure visitation of their child, it is important to look for legal ways to protect their parental rights. This may include appeals to guardianship and guardianship authorities, as well as to the court with appropriate lawsuits.&#x0D; In general, the family is an important element of society, and the support of families who find themselves in difficult conditions due to war and emigration is important to preserve their well-being and harmony.

Problems of registration of acts of civil status of Ukrainians abroad who left during martial law in Ukraine

Acts of civil status are actions and events that occur and initiate, change, supplement or terminate inextricably linked to an individual and the possibility of being a subject of civil rights and obligations.&#x0D; The State Register of Civil Status Acts must include the following information: birth; adoption; deprivation and restoration of parental rights; marriage registration; divorce; change of name; and death of an individual. The authorized bodies empowered to carry out state civil registration are the state civil registration authorities (central executive body in the field of state civil registration, state civil registration departments of the Main Department of Justice of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, main departments of justice in regions, cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol, district, district in cities, city (cities of regional significance), city and district departments of justice).&#x0D; A vital record is a state document issued by an authorized body to carry out state registration of civil status acts, which contains personal information about a person and confirms the fact of such an action or event.&#x0D; Over the past two years, the state has significantly simplified the state registration of civil status acts. In particular, it is now possible to submit an application for marriage registration through the Unified State Web Portal of Electronic Services (Diia Portal), and if one of the spouses is a military officer, state registration of marriage can be conducted by the civil registry offices without the personal participation of such a bride or groom, and state registration of civil status acts can be conducted in diplomatic missions.&#x0D; The full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation has provoked an unprecedented flow of Ukrainians who were forced to flee Ukraine abroad as a result of the fighting. According to the Ombudsman of Ukraine, as of 2022, 14.5 million Ukrainians have left the country. The exact figures are being investigated.&#x0D; However, many citizens abroad face problems with state registration of civil status acts in diplomatic missions, which makes it impossible for them to fully exercise their right.

Autonomy, rationality, and religious initiation: replies to Hand, Wareham, Gheaus, Lewin, and Clayton

Abstract John Tillson concludes the symposium on his Children, Religion and the Ethics of Influence by replying to his five respondents. The reply focusses on Michael Hand’s defence of parental rights to raise their children in their faith; Ruth Wareham’s suggestion that the value of autonomy rules out a wider range of impermissible religious influences than Tillson’s account is able to; David Lewin’s alternative criteria for ethical influence and scepticism about rationality’s objectivity; Anca Gheaus’ proposal that initiation into multiple contradictory religious faiths is permissible; and Matthew Clayton’s rejection of the book’s perfectionist political morality.