AALS FAMILY AND JUVENILE LAW SECTION NEWSLETTER

I. Editor’s Message........................................................................................... 1

II. AALS Annual Meeting ................................................................................. 1

III Mentoring Program.................................................................................... 2

IV. Upcoming Conferences.............................................................................. 2

V. Publications/Articles published/ Special editions................... 4

VI. Call for Papers/Submissions.................................................................... 7

VII. Recent Events................................................................................................ 8

VIII. Projects.............................................................................................................. 9

IX. Section Listserv and Other e-news.................................................... 9

This newsletter is a forum for the exchange of ideas. Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of the Section and do not necessarily represent the position of the Association of American Law Schools.

I: Editor’s message: A sincere thanks to all of you who contributed news and information about conferences, publications, and other activities. I encourage you to sign onto our Section list-serv to get additional, timely Section news. (See Section IX)

Sarah Ramsey

Newsletter Editor and Secretary/Treasurer

Syracuse University College of Law

Syracuse, New York 13244-1030

(315) 443-2529; Fax (315) 443-4141; email: shramsey@law.syr.edu

II: AALS Family & Juvenile Law Section Annual Meeting —January 2002

Section Business Meeting: January 3, 6:30 p.m. Message from Jennifer Rosato (Brooklyn Law School). During our section business meeting at the AALS Conference in New Orleans, January 3, 2002, we will have a rare opportunity to share ideas about teaching family law and related courses. If you have any issues that you would like the small groups to address or would like to share any ideas/class exercises with section members, please e-mail Jennifer Rosato at rosato@brooklaw.edu on or before November 1, 2001. After the section business meeting, interested members are invited to continue our conversation over dinner at a restaurant in New Orleans. If you would like to join other section members for the dinner, please contact Robin Fretwell Wilson (University of South Carolina School of Law) directly at wilson@law.law.sc.edu on or before December 1, 2001.

Section Program: January 4, 10:30 a.m. Message from Barbara Babb (Baltimore)

Family law matters focus on some of the most intimate, emotional, and all-encompassing aspects of people’s lives. Teaching, lawyering, and judging in the family law area present challenges to this human component in a manner unmatched in almost any other area of law. The increasing volume and scope of family law cases in contemporary American society, as well as their indeterminate nature both individually and systematically, exacerbate the difficulty of their resolution. Presently, family law cases constitute about thirty-five percent of the total number of civil cases handled by the majority of our nation’s courts, a percentage which constitutes the largest and fastest growing portion of state civil caseloads. Complicating this situation is the fact that almost half of all family law litigants are not represented by attorneys, primarily due to the litigants’ inability to afford private counsel or to secure free legal services. As a result, access to the courts for family law adjudication also presents a compelling problem.

This panel will address the need for court reform in family law, particularly the role of unified family courts, and how law professors can contribute to meaningful reform through teaching and scholarship. The panelists will describe specific approaches to court reform developed through their teaching and scholarship, including a multidisciplinary center within California’s court system; a court-affiliated education program for divorcing and separating parents and an interdisciplinary education program, both originating at Hofstra University School of Law; and student lawyering that embraces a systemic orientation at Vanderbilt University Law School’s clinical program. The panelists also will caution about the ability of court reform to create additional problems or, at the least, to fail to cure the ills the measures were intended to remedy.

III: Mentoring Program: The Section unveiled its Mentoring Program this summer to overwhelming interest. More than 40 senior faculty members agreed to mentor 11 junior faculty, with the result that each junior faculty member was assigned two mentors. With many willing mentors remaining in the wings, please let any new faculty at your institution who teach juvenile and family law know about the program. To enroll, they simply need to contact Professor Robin Fretwell Wilson at the University of South Carolina School of Law by phone at (803) 777-8295 or e-mail at wilson@ law.law.sc.edu.

IV: Upcoming Conferences

Family Conflict Resolution & Mediation: Understanding Conflict and Strengthening Family Interactions—November 20, 2001

Message from Jana Singer (Maryland). The University of Maryland School of Law will co‑sponsor a Conference on Family Conflict Resolution and Mediation. The keynote speaker will be Professor Robert A. Baruch Bush, Harry H. Rains Distinguished Professor of Alternative Dispute Resolution Law at Hofstra University School of Law and co‑author of the widely acclaimed 1994 book The Promise of Mediation: Responding to Conflict Through Empowerment and Recognition. The Conference is designed to bring together judges, attorneys, court personnel, family service providers, mental health professionals, educators and others involved in helping families resolve and transform conflict. After the keynote and a morning panel presentation on Understanding Conflict as a Growth Experience, the afternoon sessions will feature concurrent workshops on topics including Family Business Mediation; Domestic Abuse and Custody Mediation; Court‑Connected Parent Education; Alternative Dispute Resolution in Child Welfare Cases; Families and Community Conferencing; and Parallel Parenting for High Conflict Families. For more information about the Conference, and to register, please visit www.umaryland.edu/familycr.

Defending Childhood: Developing a Child-Centered Law and Policy Agenda—December 7-8, 2001

Message from Barbara Bennett Woodhouse (Florida) The First Annual Conference of the Center on Children and the Law at Fredric G. Levin College of Law, University of Florida will take place at the Doubletree Hotel and Conference Center of University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.

This inaugural conference of a new Center founded by Barbara Bennett Woodhouse will examine the problems facing children and youth and explore evidence-based solutions. It brings together scholars from many fields, including law, medicine, sociology, history, psychology, and education to share perspectives about critical issues facing children and youth and to develop a research, practice and policy agenda for the coming decade. Topics will include child welfare, family policy, juvenile justice, sexism and racism, children's educational and medical issues and the ethical treatment of children and youth. UN Committee on the Rights of the Child Chairman, Jaap Doek, will be participating along with judges and advocates and many fine scholars including Tonya Brito, Margaret Brinig, Paul Butler, Nancy Dowd, Kate Federle, Martha Fineman, Frank Furstenberg, Richard Gelles, Martin Guggenhiem, Dorothy Roberts, Sharon Rush, Elizabeth Scott, Chris Slobogin, Danaya Wright and many more. For more information about the conference, please contact Barbara Devoe at devoe@law.ufl.edu or Cindy Zimmerman at 352-392-2211

Dave Thomas Center for Adoption Law‑‑4th Annual Symposium

Making Permanent Placements Succeed — March 4-5, 2002

Message from Kent Marcus (Capital). Capital University Law School's Dave Thomas Center for Adoption Law will host its 4th Annual Symposium at the Columbus Convention Center (Columbus, OH) and will focus on practical strategies for dealing with familiar challenges to successful permanent placements. As always, we will have a variety of teaching styles with diverse, multi‑disciplinary panels. This year, on the second day of the symposium, attendees will be allowed to select a practice track or a policy track. Nine hours of continuing legal and social work education credits (including one hour of ethics and 1/2 hour of professionalism) will be available (subject to formal approval by Ohio authorities). The keynote speaker at our awards luncheon on March 5 will be Judge Frederica Brenneman. She is a graduate of the first Harvard Law School class to admit women and spent most of her career as a juvenile/family court judge in Connecticut. Judge Brenneman is the inspiration for the Emmy nominated television show "Judging Amy", which stars her daughter, Amy Brenneman. More detailed agenda information and registration information is available by going to: www.law.capital.edu/adoption and clicking on "2002 Symposium."

The Relationship Rights of Children—March 15, 2002

This conference, sponsored by William and Mary’s Institute of Bill of Rights Law will feature speakers including Emily Buss, Naomi Cahn, June Carbone, Jim Dwyer, David Meyer, Elizabeth Scott, Barbara Woodhouse, and Peter Vallentyne.

14th ISPCAN Congress on Child Abuse and Neglect—July 7-10, 2002

Message from Richard D. Krugman, Congress Chair. The 14th International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect Congress on Child Abuse and Neglect will be held in the birthplace of ISPCAN—Denver, Colorado. The Congress will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the publication of Dr. C. Henry Kempe’s paper “The Battered Child Syndrome,” which renewed professional and public attention to the problem of child abuse and neglect. It is also the 30th anniversary of the founding of Kempe Children’s Center and the 25th anniversary of ISPCAN’s incorporation. The theme of the Congress is “Charting Our Progress Toward Protection of Children Worldwide.” For more information see: www.kempecenter.org or e-mail 2002@kempecenter.org.

ISFL World Conference: Family Life and Human Rights 2‑7 August, 2002

Message from Lynn Wardle (Brigham Young). The 11th World Conference of the International Society of Family Law will be held from 2nd to 7th August 2002, at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark (2nd ‑ 4th August), and at the University of Oslo, Norway (5th ‑ 7th August).

The theme of this conference, Family Life and Human Rights, will give participants the opportunity to discuss the interrelationship between two of the main institutions in the modern world, that is the family and its legal framework and the human rights standards in relation to all aspects of family life. It will be a conference where legal scholars, judges, lawyers and policy‑makers meet and exchange views at both an academic and a practical level concerning these basic issues. We hope that it will provide inspiration to continue work for a better world through respect for the family and the individual and provide an international forum to discuss related issues. The deadline for abstracts is December 1, 2001. For more information, contact Peter Lødrup: peter.lodrup@jus.uio.no or Linda Nielsen: linda.nielsen@jur.ku.dk or see <http://www.jus.uio.no/ifp/isfl/index.html.

University of Maine: Law, Labor and Gender —September 14, 2002

Message from Jennifer Wriggins (Maine). The University of Maine School of Law in Portland, Maine, will co‑sponsor a conference designed to bring together academics, attorneys and interested others to explore a range of themes relating to the issues of law, labor and gender. The keynote speaker will be Professor Deborah Rhode of Stanford Law School, author of many books and articles and of the ABA’s recent report The Unfinished Agenda. The Maine Law Review will be publishing a symposium issue of papers from the conference. For information about the conference and the Call for Papers see www.usm.maine.ed/law/index2.html at 'events' and 'law review' or contact jwriggin@usm.maine.edu.

V. Publications

The 4th edition of Educational Policy & the Law, by Mark Yudof, David Kirp, Betsy Levin, and Rachel Moran (Wadsworth Publishing Co., October 2001). This edition involves family issues such as home schooling, parental control, parent vs. child vs. state issues and juvenile law issues, such as zero tolerance and search and seizure.

Barbara Bennett Woodhouse has published chapters in two new books.

—Children's Rights, in Handbook on Youth and Justice (Susan O. White, ed., Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publications, 2001) sets out a theoretical approach to understanding children's rights, suggesting how five basic human rights principles can be tailored to meet the special situation of children.

—The Status of Children: A Story of Emerging Rights, in CrossCurrents: Family Law in the United States and England (John Eekelaar et al, eds. Oxford University Press, 2000) reviews the changing status of American children over the past fifty years and illustrates how children have gained increasing recognition as entitled to protection of their rights.

Sarah Ramsey and Douglas Abrams, Children & the Law in a Nutshell, (West, 2001).

Elizabeth Schneider’s book, Battered Women and Feminist Lawmaking (Yale University Press, 2000), a critical assessment of the last thirty years of feminist legal advocacy on domestic violence, which won the 2000 Professional/Scholarly Publishing Award of the Association of American Publishers, Legal Category, will be available in paperback, December 2001.

Clare Dalton and Elizabeth Schneider’s casebook, Battered Women and the Law (Foundation Press, 2001) is now available for course adoption. Contact steve.errick@westgroup.com for a complimentary copy.

Articles Published

Sy Moskowitz, Filial Responsibility Statutes: Legal and Policy Considerations, 10 (Brooklyn) Journal of Law and Policy 709 (2001). The article examines the history of filial responsibility statutes in the United States and their constitutional status. Policy arguments in favor of, and opposing, legal enforcement of adult children's duty to support elderly indigent parents are analyzed.

—On Golden Pond: Integrating Legal Issues of the Elderly into Family Law, 30 Stetson L. Rev., No. 4 (forthcoming 2001). Legal issues of older citizens traditionally have received short shrift in the law school curriculum, particularly in family law courses. This article examines eight topics customarily covered in family law courses, and explains how each of these would be enhanced by adding legal materials addressing the concerns of senior citizens.

Ann Laquer Estin, Moving beyond the Child Support Revolution, 26 Law & Social Inquiry 505‑528 (2001) (reviewing Thomas Oldham and Marygold S. Melli, eds. Child Support: The Next Frontier (2000)). This is a review essay, assessing the progress of child support reform over the past decade and arguing that there are two distinct sets of challenges ahead for child support policy. The essay suggests that these problems are suppressed rather than resolved by public policy choices that emphasize more and better enforcement techniques.

—Ordinary Cohabitation, 76 Notre Dame Law Review_ (2001). This article, part of a symposium on the 25th anniversary of Marvin v. Marvin, argues that while the demographics and social practices of cohabitation have shifted significantly since Marvin, the law of cohabitation has not. Surveying the legal norms of cohabitation, the article concludes that the law has maintained a substantial rhetorical and practical separation between marriage and cohabitation.

Andrew Schepard, An Introduction to the Model Standards of Practice for Family and Divorce Mediation, 35 Fam. L. Q. 1 (2001) and the Model Standards of Practice for Family and Divorce Mediation, 39 Family Ct. Rev. 121 (2001). The Model Standards redefine the nature of family and divorce mediation practice and result from a Symposium on Standards of Practice convened by the American Bar Association’s Family Law and Dispute Resolution Section, AFCC, the ABA’s Commission on Domestic Violence, and other major family law and family mediation groups.

Marina Angel, The School Shooters: Surprise! Boys are Far More Violent than Girls and Gender Stereotypes Underlie School Violence, _Ohio N.U.L.Rev._ Fall 2001.

—Abusive Boys Kill Girls Just Like Abusive Men Kill Women: Explaining the Obvious, 8 Temp.Pol.& Civ. Rts. L. Rev. 779 (1999).

Sarah Ramsey, Constructing Parenthood for Stepparents: Parents by Estoppel and De Facto Parents under the American Law Institute’s Principles of the Law of Family Dissolution, Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy (forthcoming, 2001).

—The United States’ Child Protective System—A Triangle of Tensions, 13 Child and Family Law Quarterly 25, (2001).

James G. Dwyer, Spiritual Treatment Exemptions to Child Medical Neglect Laws: What We Outsiders Should Think, 76 Notre Dame Law Review 1 (2000).

—School Vouchers: Inviting the Public into the Religious Square, 42 William and Mary Law Review 3 (2001).

—Informed Consent for Neonatal Circumcision: An Ethical and Legal Conundrum, (with Svoboda and Howe), 17 Journal of Contemporary Health Law and Policy (2000).

Barbara Stark, Marriage Proposals: From One‑Size‑Fits‑All to Postmodern Marriage Law, California Law Review (October 2001). This article argues that one‑size‑fits‑all marriage doesn’t really fit anyone and suggests addressing the problem through modular alternatives‑'marriage proposals’ ‑ which are not so much an alternative to 'regular' marriage as an acknowledgement that there is no 'regular' marriage. I conclude that postmodern marriage law may in fact be more compatible with contingent, problematic, but nevertheless enduring human love, than the reified abstraction we now call 'marriage'.

Emily Buss, Adrift in the Middle: Parental Rights After Troxel v. Granville, 2000 Supreme Court Review 279. This article criticizes the approach taken by the Supreme Court in Troxel v. Granville, arguing that it affords inadequate protection to parental rights and that affording parental decision making near absolute deference, particularly on matters of little public consequence such as visitation, serves children. This is so, in part, because parents are generally in a better position than the state to assess their children’s overall interests, but also because parents, good and bad, will bear ultimate responsibility for the implementation of any such decisions made.

—The Parental Rights of Minors, 48 Buffalo L. Rev. 785 (2000). This article first applies the arguments generally offered to limit minors’ rights to the context of parental rights, and then goes on to consider various possible means by which the law might limit minors’ parental rights. The article concludes, counter-intuitively, that it is the minors’ children, rather than the minor parents, who are most likely to benefit from affording minors unqualified parental rights, and that the benefit to this “third generation” may offer the best justification for avoiding legal regulation that would likely serve the rights-holding minor’s interests.

—The Adolescent’s Stake in the Allocation of Educational Control Between Parent and State, 67 Univ. of Chi. L. Rev. 1233 (2000). This paper argues that, particularly for older adolescents, the nature of their peer interactions has a far bigger impact on their development than does the content of their curriculum. Drawing on the psychological literature of child development, the paper suggests that exposing these older adolescents to ideologically unlike peers will facilitate identity development that best balances their interest in maintaining a sense of affiliation with their parent’s religious community, on the one hand, and their interest in exercising autonomy in the making of important choices, on the other.

David D. Meyer, Lochner Redeemed: Family Privacy After Troxel and Carhart, 48 U.C.L.A. L. Rev. 1125 (June 2001). Article contends that the Supreme Court's two most recent family‑privacy decisions‑‑Troxel v. Granville and Stenberg v. Carhart‑‑signal a convergence in the Court's family‑privacy jurisprudence. Rather than treating abortion as "unique" and entitled to a lesser degree of constitutional protection under the "undue burden" test, while giving more robust protection to other family‑related liberties under the strict‑scrutiny formula, these cases indicate that the Court intends to follow a similarly qualified approach to all sorts of family‑privacy controversies.

—Constitutional Pragmatism for a Changing American Family, 32 Rutgers L.J. 583 (October 2001). In symposium issue examining the Supreme Court's decision in Troxel v. Granville, this article contends that, despite superficial differences, the Justices shared a common commitment to pragmatism in deciding family‑privacy disputes. Article also suggests how lower courts might make sense of the Court's pragmatic impulse in future disputes over visitation and other child‑rearing issues.

—What Constitutional Law Can Learn from the ALI Principles of Family Dissolution, 2001 B.Y.U. L. Rev._ (forthcoming November 2001). In symposium issue examining the ALI Principles, this article considers potential constitutional objections to chapter two's innovative child‑custody provisions, including those permitting "de facto parents" and "parents by estoppel" to obtain custody against the wishes of a legal parent.

C. Quince Hopkins, Rescripting Relationships: Towards a Nuanced Theory of Intimate Violence as Sex Discrimination, Virginia Journal of Social Policy and Law, (forthcoming Spring 2002).

Laura Oren, Righting Child Custody Wrongs: The Children of the “Disappeared” in Argentina, 14 Harvard Human Rights Journal (Spring 2001).

Special Issues

Notre Dame Law Review: The most recent issue is a symposium pertaining to unmarried partners—contributors include Peg Brinig, Tom Oldham, David Chambers, Ira Ellman, David Westfall, Anne Estin, Grace Blumberg, and Milt Regan.

Family Court Review: July 2001 - Special issue on the Alienated Child in Divorce which includes articles by Janet R. Johnston and Joan Kelly and others on interdisciplinary approaches to diagnosing and helping these children. It also includes articles on whether testimony on “Parental Alienation Syndrome” meets standards of admissibility for expert testimony.

—January 2002 - Unbundled legal services and how courts and lawyers can address the crisis of pro se litigants in family law cases. The special issue is guest edited by Forrest (“Woody”) Mosten. It includes articles by Richard Zorza, Jona Goldsmith, Franklin Garfield and a comparative article on the status of unbundled legal services in Australia.

Journal of Law & Family Studies (www.law.utah.edu/Journals/jlfs.) The next issue will feature the publication of many of the papers presented at the recent conference on “The ALI Family Dissolution Principles: Blueprint to Strengthen or to Deconstruct Families?” held February 2001 at the J.Rueben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University.

VI: Call For Papers/Submissions

Whittier Law School is proud to announce the creation of the Whittier Journal of Child and Family Advocacy (WJCFA) and to invite Section members to submit articles for the inaugural issue, scheduled for publication in June 2002. The WJCFA will publish scholarly works on a wide variety of topics related to children and families, including abuse and neglect, delinquency, child custody and support, non‑traditional families, health care and bioethics issues, education law and others. Essays, book reviews and interdisciplinary pieces, as well as more traditional articles, are encouraged. For more information, contact Theresa Owens, at (714) 444‑4141 x313, or Prof. Deborah L. Forman at (714)444‑4141 x238. Electronic Submissions: Sixerzgirl@aol.com

The Journal of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers is currently soliciting articles for publication. The Journal is published twice a year and uses a symposia format. Topics for upcoming issues include professional responsibility, representing children and crimes in the family. Articles on other family law topics will be considered. The Journal is distributed to the 1400 members of the Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, judges, and law schools. FREE subscriptions are available for law professors. For further information contact the Executive Editor, Prof. Mary Kay Kisthardt, at (kisthardtm@umkc.edu) or (816) 235-2373.

The Journal of Law & Family Studies (JLFS) is a relatively new interdisciplinary journal addressing a broad range of empirical and doctrinal topics concerning families and family relationships. JLFS is published at least twice a year and explores issues in family and juvenile law as well as other family‑related issues relevant to law and public policy. JLFS publishes articles from the legal community and from other disciplines, including sociology, psychology, economics, family and consumer studies, and history. Submission of articles and empirical studies of interest are welcome. To submit an article, see http://www.law.utah.edu/Journals/jlfs.html for specifics.

The LRN Journal of Family and Children's Law would be happy to publish conference announcements, abstracts of working papers or recently published books or articles, abstracts of briefs, or other family law matters that you would like circulated. For more information, contact jcarbone@scu.edu.

VII: Recent Events

Welfare Reform Ends in 2002: What's Ahead for Low‑and No‑Income Families?

Message from Karen Czapanskiy (Maryland).

The University of Maryland School of Law sponsored a two‑day conference on welfare reform in October. The first day focused on national issues around TANF Reauthorization, with talks by Dorothy Roberts (Northwestern), Christine Cimini (Denver), Tonya Brito (Wisconsin), and Karen Czapanskiy (Maryland). Congressman Ben Cardin talked about proposals in Congress. The second day focused on government benefits for low‑ and no‑income families in Maryland, with a community conversation involving families, community groups, advocates, service providers and government officials. The plenary session was moderated by Ron Walters of the University of Maryland. To find out more about the conference: www.law.umaryland.edu/welfare

Divorce-Custody Law and Practice

The University of Minnesota Law School hosted a conference honoring Professor Robert J. Levy in September, 2001. Levy, the William L. Prosser Professor of Law, retired from the University of Minnesota Law School in May, 2001, capping a 42 year career at the Law School, during which he made major contributions to the law of divorce and custody. The Conference brought together leading Family Law scholars, practicing lawyers and mental health experts to present papers pursuing and extending the mental health/custody themes addressed by NICCL’s Desk Book, which Levy edited in 1999.

California Cloning: Responses to the Draft Report of the State Advisory Committee on Human Cloning

Message from Dr. David L. Perry (Santa Clara).

In October, 2001, Santa Clara University hosted a group of experts who gathered to examine the scientific, religious, ethical and legal aspects of cloning and stem cell research. The event was organized by the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, and co-sponsored by the High Tech Law Institute, the Bannan Institute for Jesuit Education and Christian Values, the School of Law, the Center for Science, Technology and Society, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Community of Science Scholars Initiative, and the law firm of Lathan and Watkins.

The focus of the dialogue was a draft report issued by the Advisory Committee, which offered recommendations to the state legislature on whether and to what extent cloning and stem cell research should be regulated. This report is likely to have a major impact on the nature and scope of cloning-related research and commercial ventures in California, and will undoubtedly also influence the national debate.

VIII: Projects

Annual Summer Jobs Clearinghouse: For the last several years, The Dave Thomas Center for Adoption Law at Capital University Law School has worked to place law students from across the country in paid and volunteer positions with employers able to provide summer experience with child welfare and adoption law issues. Last year, over 50 jobs were posted in more than 25 states and we placed over 20 students for the summer. The Center is currently gearing up the process again and is looking for judges, lawyers, government agencies, advocacy groups, etc. interested in hosting a law student this summer. Most of the students placed last summer were volunteers‑‑employers posting their jobs early in the process are sometimes able to get free student labor with students covering expenses through Public Interest Law stipends programs. Students and those providing placements can get more information about the Jobs Clearinghouse by going to: www.law.capital.edu/adoption.

Advanced Family Law Curricula Requested. The Law School Curriculum Committee of the Family Law Section of the American Bar Association has begun a project to collect examples of advanced family law curricula. The Committee hopes to collect and post a cross-section of the best curricula in a variety of areas that family law professors can either use in whole or in part as they plan their own family law classes. Copies of advanced family law curricula may be e-mailed to: twilal@waltherlarkin.com or mailed to Twila B. Larkin, Chair, Walther & Larkin, LLP, 6501 Americas Parkway NE, Suite 620, Albuquerque, NM 87110.

IX: Section Listserv and Other E-News:

Please subscribe to the section listserv, if you have not already done so. You may subscribe by sending the following message to majordomo@uidaho.edu: “subscribe aals-familylaw” and your name and institution.

New Website & Listserv: The University of Maryland School of Law has launched a new listserv and website about developments affecting government benefits for low-and no-income families. For further information on the website—Welfare Information, Policy and Practice—see www.law.umaryland.edu/welfare. As a member of the listserv, you will have a forum for exchanging ideas on TANF reauthorization and related issues, including reauthorization of food stamps and the child care block grant program. The list will not be moderated.

Weekly E-mail News Summary: Each week, the Dave Thomas Center for Adoption Law at Capital University Law School e‑mails to subscribers a summary of developments in the areas of

child welfare and adoption which have appeared in the media during the preceding week. Anyone wishing to subscribe to this free service should send an e‑mail to: adoptionlaw@law.capital.edu.