Domestic Violence and Custody: Importing the American Law Institute's Principles of the Law of Family Dissolution into Oregon Law
74 Pages Posted: 18 Jul 2000 Last revised: 26 Aug 2019
Abstract
The article examines the ALI's recommendations for how states should resolve the allocation of custodial and decisionmaking responsibility between parents when the parties have a history of domestic violence. The article compares the ALI's recommendations to existing Oregon law and concludes that the ALI gives broader attention to domestic violence, and better emphasizes the importance of domestic violence, than does Oregon law. The article highlights those areas where the specific concepts embodied in the ALI's recommendations could enhance Oregon's law and lists those provisions that Oregon should adopt. Despite the article's Oregon focus, the article may also prove useful to those outside of Oregon. By demonstrating the usefulness of a state-specific and topic-specific analysis of the ALI's recommendations, the article may encourage others to engage in a similar analysis. Those who are troubled by the ALI's recommendations as a whole, or who seek more incremental change, may elect to cherry-pick from among the ALI's provisions instead of accepting or rejecting the recommendations in their entirety. Overall, the ALI's recommended approach to domestic violence in the custody context presents some welcome "second-generation" reform, although the limitations of this reform are also identified.
Keywords: ALI, law, domestic violence, custody, Oregon
JEL Classification: K36
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation