Decision Making and Justice

This article considers how judges can improve decision making, especially in cases that involve children in the family court. It looks specifically at improvements that are being implemented in England and Wales following a major review of family justice in 2011. All judges need to be well‐trained and well‐informed if they are to make the best‐quality decisions they can. Three principles underpin the approach to improving judicial decision making, which must be systematic, evidence based, and tested, and the evidence that informs judicial decisions must be robust. Collaboration among professionals in the development of good practice, its dissemination, and its application should be the acknowledged goal, and it should involve the views and perceptions of the young people and families involved.     

Deliver us from Evil: Protecting the Child When Both Parents Ignore the Order of Protection

Orders of protection are regularly utilized to protect victims of domestic violence as well as their children, by restricting the subject from contact or specific activity with the protected parties. Unfortunately, it is common for the adult protected party to facilitate the violation of these orders in an effort to reconcile with the subject, placing children in danger. This undermines the protection that these orders were intended to offer; without penalty to the protected party. This Note proposes a model statute penalizing any party who knowingly endangers children by facilitating the violation of any order of protection; family or criminal.     

Forgotten Children of Immigration and Family Law: How The Absence of Legal Aid Affects Children in the United States

The absence of government‐appointed legal counsel in immigration proceedings adversely affects large numbers of children in the United States. Children born in the United States to parents without citizenship status (U.S.‐born children of noncitizen parents or UCNP) are harmed by a parent's detention and removal. Unaccompanied alien children (UAC) who have entered the country without legal status are adversely affected by their own detention and removal. The possibility of obtaining relief from removal is drastically diminished by the lack of legal representation. Currently UAC and immigrant parents are not entitled to court‐appointed attorneys. Any meaningful change in immigration law, such as a federal statutory amendment to provide UAC and immigrant parents with government‐appointed counsel is unlikely due to the present political dissension in Congress regarding this issue. Because UAC and immigrant parents are not entitled to government‐funded legal representation, a pro bono legal service system has developed, but is unable to meet the present need adequately. For immigrant parents, this Note proposes the adoption of a statute to allow the appointment of court liaisons in family court proceedings. The court liaison is a nonattorney who is familiar with the processes of the family court and ensures that immigrant parents are fully informed regarding all pertinent family court proceedings. For UAC, this Note proposes an amendment to the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act to mandate the appointment of a child advocate to all UAC. The child advocate is not a lawyer, but works with the UAC's attorney to provide the child with legal representation and advocacy.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:
• UCNP confront the loss of parents to detention and removal. Children are condemned to limbo, torn between absent biological parents and placement in foster care.
• The recent surge in the number of UAC who enter the United States by crossing the border from Mexico has been described as a humanitarian crisis. These children often remain alone without legal protection, vulnerable to detention and removal.
• Ideally, UAC and the immigrant parents would be provided with government‐funded legal representation in immigration proceedings. In the absence of the federal statutory reform necessary to make that a reality, state statutory reform to allow for the provision of court liaison programs for immigrant parents and federal statutory reform to allow the appointment of child advocates for UAC can begin to offer children and families needed legal support and advocacy.

     

儿童作为权利主体在人权理论上的证成与限度

西方学者对于儿童是否可以拥有权利的理性反思最初是在人权维度上展开的,他们依据人权的论证逻辑来论证儿童是人,因为他们是人,他们就应该享有人之为人的权利,儿童权利乃是一种不可剥夺的道德权利.无可否认,儿童作为权利主体在人权理论上的证成对于发掘儿童的内在价值、认真对待儿童权利、丰富人权理论具有十分重要的意义.但是由于这种论证过于简单和粗糙,其存在着对于人权理论中“人”的含义的重大误解,缺失对儿童这一群体特殊性的关注及其对儿童权利认识的有限性和不充分性等问题.