A natural father's biological relationship with his child is often insufficient by itself to trigger the father's parental rights recognized within the "substantial protection" of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth ...

Today, American trial courts are trying less and managing more private civil cases. They are also losing many private claims to other dispute resolvers. The traditional role of the trial judge as a neutral, detached, and ...

In her recent Columbia Law Review article, "Infant Safe Haven Laws: Legislating in the Culture of Life," Professor Carol Sanger shows that American safe haven laws, viewed within a larger political culture, promote the ...

Settlements of federal civil actions may, but need not, be subject to later judicial enforcement. As recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court in Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Insurance Co., one significant limitation on enforcement ...

The Illinois Crime Victim's Rights Amendment, added to the Illinois Constitution by the legislature and the voters in 1992, includes a 'right to restitution'. The amendment spurred some new legislation, now within the ...

A natural father is usually afforded under American law the unique "opportunity... to develop a relationship with his offspring" born to an unwed mother as a result of consensual sexual intercourse. This paternity opportunity ...

American courts and legislatures have struggled to define the participation rights of genetic fathers in governmental adoption schemes for infants born to unwed mothers as a result of consensual sexual intercourse. Federal ...

Safe Haven laws allow genetic mothers to abandon their newborns with no questions asked. Newborns are then protected from potential abuse or neglect and can be adopted at an early age into loving and welcoming families. ...

The Illinois laws guiding lawyer civil claim settlement authority are not well settled and should be reexamined to provide lawyers with clear standards when they agree to a settlement on behalf of their clients. A comprehensive ...

Public policy demands that American lawmakers, both federal and state, more vigorously promote the early, accurate, informed, and conclusive designations of fathers in law around the time children are born. There is, in ...