Carol S. Bruch | |
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Born | Winnebago, Illinois, U.S. | June 11, 1941
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Institutions | UC Davis School of Law |
Carol Sophie Bruch (born June 11,1941) [1] is an American legal scholar and professor emerita of the law school at the University of California,Davis. A recognized authority on family marital property law,and private international law,she has influenced and worked on the drafting of family law statutes in California and other US states,and also international agreements. [2] She holds a JD from UC Berkeley School of Law and an AB from Shimer College. [2]
Bruch was born into a highly educated family in the small town of Winnebago,Illinois,near Rockford;she was the second of four children. [3] Her mother,Margarete Willstätter Bruch,Ph.D.,(1906-1964),was a chemical physicist and the daughter of Nobel laureate Richard Willstätter. [4] [5] Her father,Dr. Ernest Bruch (1905-1974),was a physician and director of nuclear medicine at Rockford's St. Anthony Hospital, [6] [3] Her parents had emigrated from Germany to the United States in the 1930s as Germany became increasingly inhospitable. [3]
In 1957,at age 16, [4] Bruch entered Shimer College through the school's early entrance program. The program,established in 1950 under Ford Foundation support and still operating today,allows students to enter college after completing the 10th or 11th grade. [7] Excelling in her studies,Bruch was a member of the college honor society. [8] Her fellow honor students at Shimer,which then enrolled approximately 200 students, [9] included future international relations scholars Alan Dowty and Robert Keohane. [8]
As part of the experimental Great Books curriculum it shared with the University of Chicago,Shimer made extensive use of placement tests. [10] Through these tests,Bruch acquired a total of 24 credits toward graduation before taking a class, [4] and was therefore able to graduate after only three years.
Bruch received her A.B. degree on June 5,1960, [11] at age 18. [4] Six days after graduating from Shimer,Bruch married Jack Myers. [12] They had two children together. [4] Bruch taught elementary school for a time in Madagascar,when her husband was working there. [4]
After her young child started school,Bruch enrolled at the UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall),where she received her JD in 1972. [2] [4] She was an editor of the California Law Review,and also authored an article on the conflict of laws,which has remained an area of focus throughout her career. During law school,Bruch's honors included a Selected Professions Fellowship from the American Association of University Women [4] After graduation,she clerked for Justice William O. Douglas on the United States Supreme Court in the same term as Janet Meik Wright. Bruch was the fourth woman to hold a Supreme Court clerkship,and the first who was a mother. [4]
Eighteen months after her law school graduation in June 1972,Bruch and her husband divorced. [13] She has credited the experiences of both married and single parenthood with informing her life's work in family law. [2]
Bruch joined the faculty of the UC Davis School of Law in 1975,where she would remain throughout her career. She taught in the fields of Family Law,Marital Property Law,the conflict of laws (private and international) and Contract Law. [14] [15] In 1975,Bruch prepared a casebook for the study of child law entitled Cases and Materials on Children and the Law,which she revised in 1976. [2] Starting in 1976 she began to draft California legislation on family law issues,many in her individual capacity,and some as a consultant for the California Law Revision Commission. She taught or was a visiting scholar at law schools around the world and was a long-time board member and editor in comparative law circles. [16]
Bruch has authored influential amicus briefs in two key California Supreme Court family law cases. [16] The first of these was Marvin v. Marvin ,which laid the groundwork for modern California non-marital cohabitation law;an expanded version of this has been frequently reprinted. The second was In re Marriage of Burgess,a 1996 case that established key precedents on child custody law in cases of parental relocation. The court cited and adopted elements of her reasoning in both cases. [16]
Not limiting her academic work to the field of law,from 1995 to 2001,Bruch chaired an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in human development at UC Davis. [2] [17] Bruch was given the position of "Research Professor of Law" in 2001,which she continues to hold as of 2012. [2] She was named Distinguished Professor Emerita in 2005. [2]
Bruch is most widely known for her 2001 paper challenging the use of Richard A. Gardner's parental alienation syndrome (PAS) theory in child custody cases. She published an expanded version of this in 2002. [18] Taking what has often been characterized as a feminist or child advocate position,Bruch argued that PAS theory was used disproportionately to the disadvantage of mothers and children in child custody cases,and that in practice it was geared to discredit accusations of sexual abuse: [19]
Although Dr Gardner sometimes states that his analysis does not apply to cases of actual abuse,the focus of his attention is directed at discerning whether the beloved parent and child are lying,not whether the target parent is untruthful or has behaved in a way that might explain the child’s aversion. [20]
She also criticized Gardner's excessive reliance on his own non-peer-reviewed findings. [21] A rejoinder by Gardner was published on his website in both English and German. [22] Bruch responded in turn with rebuttals in both English and German. [22]
Bruch's writings,and those of other critics of PAS,have received considerable pushback from defenders of PAS,with claims including that Bruch and other critics misunderstood the theory itself, [23] misrepresented the theory's practical application, [19] failed to account for the full range of research findings, [24] or unfairly disparaged Gardner himself. [25] The doubts cast on PAS by Bruch's work and others have however proven influential,with the theory receiving an increasingly skeptical treatment by the courts and being rejected for inclusion in the DSM-V. [26] A 2009 survey of practitioners found that few considered PAS to be admissible as evidence. [27] PAS remains the subject of lively legal and scholarly dispute,with Bruch's paper still frequently cited. [28]
In 1989,Bruch served as a member of the U.S. government's delegation to an Organization of American States diplomatic session that drafted Inter-American Conventions. [16] In the same year,she joined the Advisory Committee on Private International Law to the US Secretary of State as the representative of the Association of American Law Schools, [16] continuing to serve in that capacity until 2008. [2] In recognition of this,her amicus briefs and her extensive pro bono legislative work,she was granted the first "Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award" of the UC Davis Academic Senate in 1990. [29]
Bruch was granted an honorary doctorate by the University of Basel in 2000,in recognition of her scholarship and activism on behalf of children. [15] [30]
Family law is an area of the law that deals with family matters and domestic relations.
Child custody, conservatorship and guardianship describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent and the parent's child, such as the right of the parent to make decisions for the child, and the parent's duty to care for the child.
Paternity law refers to body of law underlying legal relationship between a father and his biological or adopted children and deals with the rights and obligations of both the father and the child to each other as well as to others. A child's paternity may be relevant in relation to issues of legitimacy, inheritance and rights to a putative father's title or surname, as well as the biological father's rights to child custody in the case of separation or divorce and obligations for child support.
Parental alienation is a theorized process through which a child becomes estranged from one parent as the result of the psychological manipulation of another parent. The child's estrangement may manifest itself as fear, disrespect or hostility toward the distant parent, and may extend to additional relatives or parties. The child's estrangement is disproportionate to any acts or conduct attributable to the alienated parent. Parental alienation can occur in any family unit, but is claimed to occur most often within the context of family separation, particularly when legal proceedings are involved, although the participation of professionals such as lawyers, judges and psychologists may also contribute to conflict.
Parental alienation syndrome (PAS) is a term introduced by child psychiatrist Richard Gardner in 1985 to describe signs and symptoms he believed to be exhibited by children who have been alienated from one parent through manipulation by the other parent. Proposed symptoms included extreme but unwarranted fear, and disrespect or hostility towards a parent. Gardner believed that a set of behaviors that he observed in some families involved in child custody litigation could be used to diagnose psychological manipulation or undue influence of a child by a parent, typically by the other parent who may be attempting to prevent an ongoing relationship between a child and other family members after family separation or divorce. Use of the term "syndrome" has not been accepted by either the medical or legal communities and Gardner's research has been broadly criticized by legal and mental health scholars for lacking scientific validity and reliability.
Richard Alan Gardner was an American child psychiatrist known for his work in psychotherapy with children, parental alienation and child custody evaluations. Based on his clinical work with children and families, Gardner introduced the term parental alienation syndrome (PAS), which is now "largely rejected by most credible professionals". He wrote 41 books and more than 200 journal articles and book chapters. He developed child play therapy and test materials that he published through his company Creative Therapeutics. Gardner was an expert witness in child custody cases.
Joint custody is a court order whereby custody of a child is awarded to both parties. In the United States, there are two forms of joint custody, joint physical custody and joint legal custody. In joint physical custody, the lodging and care of the child is shared according to a court-ordered parenting schedule with equal or close to equal parenting time. In joint legal custody, both parents share the ability to make decisions about the child, regarding e.g. education, medical care and religion, and both can access their children's educational and health records.
Child custody is a legal term regarding guardianship which is used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent or guardian and a child in that person's care. Child custody consists of legal custody, which is the right to make decisions about the child, and physical custody, which is the right and duty to house, provide and care for the child. Married parents normally have joint legal and physical custody of their children. Decisions about child custody typically arise in proceedings involving divorce, annulment, separation, adoption or parental death. In most jurisdictions child custody is determined in accordance with the best interests of the child standard.
Richard A. Warshak is an American clinical and research psychologist and author. He is best known for his research and advocacy in the areas of child custody, shared parenting, and claims of parental alienation in the context of divorce. Warshak has written two books, The Custody Revolution, and Divorce Poison: Protecting the Parent-Child Bond From a Vindictive Ex, and the updated edition, Divorce Poison: How to Protect Your Family from Bad-mouthing and Brainwashing.
Carol Ann Corrigan is an associate justice of the California Supreme Court. She is a former prosecutor.
The fathers' rights movement has simultaneously evolved in many countries, advocating for shared parenting after divorce or separation, and the right of children and fathers to have close and meaningful relationships. This article provides details about the fathers' rights movement in specific countries.
A noncustodial parent is a parent who does not have physical custody of his or her minor child as the result of a court order. When the child lives with only one parent, in a sole custody arrangement, then the parent with which the child lives is the custodial parent while the other parent is the non-custodial parent. The non-custodial parent may have contact or visitation rights. In a shared parenting arrangement, where the child lives an equal or approximately equal amount of time with the mother and father, both are custodial parents and neither is a non-custodial parent.
Child abduction or child theft is the unauthorized removal of a minor from the custody of the child's natural parents or legally appointed guardians.
A gatekeeper parent, in legal setting, is a parent who appoints themself the power to decide what relationship is acceptable between the other parent and the child(ren). The term is broad and may include power dynamics within a marriage or may describe the behaviors of divorced or never married parents.
Landeros v. Flood was a 1976 court case in the state of California involving child abuse and alleged medical malpractice.
The term international child abduction is generally synonymous with international parental kidnapping,child snatching, and child stealing.
International child abduction in Brazil comprises cases in which the removal of a child by one of the joint holders of custody or non-custodial or contested parents to Brazil in contravention of other laws of other countries and/or the desires of other custody claimants. The phenomenon of international child abduction is defined in international law and legislated on by the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which entered into force in Brazil on January 1, 2000, and aims to trace abducted children, secure their prompt return to the country of habitual residence and organize or secure effective rights of access. In 2010 Brazil was accused by the US State Department of being non-compliant with the Hague Convention.
Bina Deneen (1868–1950), born Bina Maloney, was the first two-term first lady of Illinois, and the first to give birth in the Illinois Executive Mansion. She was the wife of Charles S. Deneen. Known at the time as "the ideal wife for a governor" for her calm and unassuming style, she was also an active participant in her husband's campaigns, and in the woman's club movement.
Santosky v. Kramer, 455 U.S. 745 (1982), is a Supreme Court case involving the burden of proof for the revocation of parental rights. The case arose when the Ulster County, New York, Department of Social Services sought to revoke John Santosky II and Annie Santosky's parental rights to their three children. Under Section 622 of the New York State Family Court Act, the state was permitted to revoke parental rights to a natural child if, after a fair preponderance of the evidence, a court found "permanent neglect." The New York State Family Court found such neglect by using the "fair preponderance" standard. The Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the burden of proof used.
Janet Leigh Meik Wright is an American legal scholar who has taught community property, estate planning and non-profit institutions at the University of Southern California, University of California, Los Angeles, and University of California, Davis.