Adoption Law & Policy is a seminar that addresses the fundamental and evolving issues that arise when adoptive families are created by law. Topics may include: (1) an overview of the history of adoption law and current trends in adoption policy and practice; (2) the adoption process including an examination of the differences between agency and independent adoption, and the form, timing and revocability of parental consent to adoption; (3) placement criteria (including the race and sexual orientation of the adoptive parent); (4) constitutional rights of nonmarital fathers; (5) adoption of Native American children and the Indian Child Welfare Act; (6) confidentiality and openness in adoption practice; (7) international adoption; and (8) and government law and policy on the adoption of children from foster care. Throughout the semester we will consider the broader historical, societal and political elements shaping adoption law.

This seminar explores, through lecture, discussion, role playing, and problem solving, the range of legal challenges and public policy issues affecting older adults. Subject areas include health care benefits (Medicare, Medicaid); long-term services and supports (nursing homes, home and community-based services, long-term care insurance, state-based programs); income security programs (Social Security, SSI); aging and autonomy, including elder abuse, neglect and exploitation and advance planning related to incapacity (powers of attorney, guardianship and its alternatives, choices regarding life-sustaining medical treatment); housing and consumer issues affecting older adults; and ethical issues in representing older adults. Coursework will address systemic inequities faced by older adults of color, older women, LGBTQ older adults, older adults with disabilities, and older adults who are immigrants or have limited English proficiency. The seminar is both practice- and policy-oriented and integrative with respect to other coursework and related disciplines.

This 2 or 3 credit seminar will provide an overview of the underlying and competing laws and policies arising from the assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) that continually make front page news. Since the 1980 opening of the country’s 1st IVF clinic amidst protests and pickets, courts and legislatures have struggled to create laws and policies in response to continually evolving reproductive advances. Topics will include: the legal status of the IVF embryo in the context of procreative rights (highlighted by the currently changing and challenging legal context); embryo cryopreservation, storage, disposition and mix-ups; legal implications of advances in egg freezing, reproductive genetics and oncofertility; posthumous reproduction; egg and sperm donation; traditional/genetic and gestational surrogacy; unique issues for single and same-sex couples, including the impact of legally recognized same-sex marriage; and professional and regulatory aspects of the ARTs.

Two classes that will examine selected legal and policy aspects of comparative ART law perspectives on “third-party ART” and the impact these differences have on cross-border reproductive practices, with a particular focus on surrogacy.

National experts in their respective fields will provide guest lectures on: medical advances in ART; psychosocial aspects of donor egg and 3rd party ART;  reproductive genetics; and potentially other emerging developments. 

In fieldwork practicum courses, students participate in weekly seminars and conduct related fieldwork at outside organizations. This practicum course will focus on the workings of the child welfare system in the District of Columbia. Students will participate in a two hour/week seminar and also undertake 10 hours/week of fieldwork at a child welfare-related organization.

SEMINAR: Students will study Supreme Court and District of Columbia cases defining the fundamental nature of the parent/child relationship and setting forth when state intervention is warranted to protect the best interests of the child. Students will gain an understanding of the various stages of child protection proceedings and the different roles, responsibilities and professional relationships of the attorneys representing the government, the child and the parents at each stage. Issues concerning interracial and gay adoption will be discussed, as will the overrepresentation of poor and minority youth in the child welfare system. Students will engage in simulation exercises, give an in-class presentation on a topic of their choosing, and will write a final paper.

FIELDWORK: Students will participate in fieldwork with a child welfare-related organization and share their experiences with the class and through written reflection memos. Some fieldwork sites require students to undergo police/background clearances, and others do not. If this is a concern for a student, the student should reach out to the professor before the beginning of the semester to discuss field placement options.

Note: F-1 and J-1 international students must consult with an international student advisor before enrolling in this course. Please email lawcentervisa@georgetown.edu.

Please see the Domestic Violence Clinic website for more information about the program.

For registration-specific supplemental materials, please see the Domestic Violence Clinic PDF.

For information about clinic registration generally, please see the Clinic Registration Handbook.

This course examines the legal regulation of the domestic relationships of adults, married and unmarried. Topics covered include marriage and other intimate relationships, divorce, custody disputes, alimony, child support, and division of property. We will also spend some time thinking about the big theoretical and policy questions of the field, especially in regards to Assisted Reproductive Technologies and their potential for changing traditional notions of the family.

While there is a final, take-home exam for the course, 50% of your grade will be based on a negotiation exercise which will take place at the end of October. I will discuss the exercise and final exam during our first class.

Family Law I: Marriage and Divorce is a survey course that introduces students to the fundamental legal concepts of family law. This course will examine the changing nature of the family and the state's role in recognizing and regulating personal relationships between adults and between adults and children. The covered topics include competing conceptions of the family and the values they reflect, regulation of entry into marriage, constitutional rights in the family context, the rights and obligations of nonmarital cohabitants, divorce and financial consequences of dissolution, including property division, spousal support, child custody and child support. Throughout the semester we will consider the broader historical, societal and political elements shaping family law.

This course examines decision-making within diverse family structures. It considers the relational distribution of power and responsibility among child, parent, and the state. It will consider these broader questions through the study of selected topics including procreative decision-making, informed consent within the family unit, child abuse and neglect, reproductive technologies, and adoption. These topics address some of the most current, multi-faceted, and dynamic areas of modern family law to study. These areas are changing rapidly and profoundly in law, society, and politics. This course intersects with many other areas of law in complex ways, such as Torts, Contracts, Constitutional Law, and Professional Responsibility and provides great depth and breadth in job opportunities and law reform initiatives.

By the completion of this course, you should be able to:

· Analyze legal issues governing decision-making within family structures;

· Contextualize family decision-making using multi-faceted lenses grounded in social, economic, and policy considerations and recognizing the implications of legal frameworks across cultures, communities, and diverse family structures;

· Construct persuasive client narratives to achieve specific client goals;

· Advise clients regarding their rights and responsibilities as parents;

· Read and interpret statutory provisions regulating the family unit and analyze their constitutionality, their policy implications, and their effect on prospective clients.

This course explores the allocation of decisional power among the child, the family,  and various agencies of the state. We will analyze the tensions between parents’ rights and  state power, as well as children’s rights and parental and state power. The course will  examine the intersection and impact of race, gender, indigeneity, and class on the case outcomes for litigants in the context of establishing parental rights, children’s rights,  custody, adoption, abuse and neglect, termination of parental rights, and juvenile  delinquency matters. Note: Students are not required to complete Family Law I: Marriage  and Divorce before enrolling in this course.

The overall themes and reading assignments for this course are directly related to Georgetown’s  Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILO). Specifically, this course equips students with the capacity for critical thinking regarding the intersections of race, gender, indigeneity, and class in conjunction with legal principles and regulations pertaining to childhood, parenthood, parental  rights, children’s rights, state’s parens patriae role, custody, adoption, abuse and neglect,  termination of parental rights, and juvenile delinquency.

This course will provide an introduction to the legal contexts and theoretical debates surrounding sex, gender, sexuality, and their intersections.  We will explore the way gender and sexuality have been debated, defined, and redefined in the contexts of gender identity and performance, sexual pleasure, reproductive rights, sexual violence, marriage, family organization, work, and education.  In these contexts we will consider the evolution of the law, the discursive effects of law, and the ways feminist and queer theorists have challenged and reimagined prevailing legal rules and cultural norms. In short, the class will probe the ways that law is gendered, sexualized, and raced, and with what overall effects on social institutions and practices.

Key topics will include:

• The Mutual Influence of Identitarian Politics and Law 
• Constitutional Law of Sex Equality, Liberty, and Religious Objection
• Regulation of Sexual Conduct
• Regulation of Reproduction
• The Evolving Meanings of Marriage & Family
• Sexual Harm & Consent
• Gender & Sexuality at Work, School and other Institutions

Please see the Juvenile Justice Clinic website for more detailed information about the program.

For registration-specific supplemental materials, please see the Juvenile Justice Clinic PDF.

For information about clinic registration generally, please see the Clinic Registration Handbook.

This course will examine society’s notions of motherhood and how various laws affect becoming and being a mother.  Specific topics include laws that affect reproduction, pregnancy, leave from work following childbirth, parenting decisions, when to legally punish mothers and lastly navigating motherhood and professional identity as a lawyer.  Some of the questions that will run through this course include: 

1. Given the importance of caring for children, how should the law construct expectations of parenthood?  
2. How does the law shape our notions of the responsibility of motherhood?  
3. Is there common ground among political opponents on issues related to law and motherhood?
4. What laws should be implemented to better support mothers in the United States?

In fieldwork practicum courses, students participate in a weekly seminar and engage in related fieldwork at outside organizations. This fieldwork practicum course will focus on helping people who cannot afford to hire a lawyer and are forced to represent themselves in divorce, child custody, and child support matters in D.C. Superior Court. Working under the supervision of attorneys at the Family Court Self Help Center (SHC) and the Family Law Assistance Network (FLAN), students will provide family law-related information and community education to D.C. residents who have to address their legal problems without the benefit of counsel. 

Students will participate in a two-hour/week seminar and carry out up to 10 hours/week of fieldwork on site at D.C. Superior Court. Students will assist litigants onsite at the SHC and prepare information about family law and procedure for self-represented parties. If available and needed, students may conduct client intakes for FLAN, also onsite at D.C. Superior Court.

SEMINAR: In the seminar, students will learn about: (i) family law and procedure in the District  of Columbia; (ii) the types of information  parties  need when they have to represent themselves; (iii) the best means for helping self-represented persons in crisis situations; (iv) developments nationally on involving non-lawyers, such as law students, in providing needed information and public education to self-represented parties; (v) requirements and restrictions of  the District’s unauthorized practice of  law rules, which govern the services students in the Practicum may provide;  and (vi) other innovative access to justice projects.

FIELDWORK: In the fieldwork component of the course, students will: (i) under guidance from the Family Court Self-Help Center and/or the Family Law Assistance Network (FLAN), provide self-represented litigants with basic information about family law and procedure; (ii) prepare easily understood family law public education materials; and (iii) participate in innovative projects.

Reproductive Justice is a concept developed by Black Women activists in the 1990s to provide a different framework to explore how systemic oppression impacts reproductive decision-making. Acknowledging that abortion and contraception were often not the primary reproductive concerns of many marginalized women, including women of color, young women, women with disabilities, undocumented women, and queer women, activists adopted a framework that considers the contexts in which reproductive decisions are made. This approach centers social, racial and economic justice, and focuses as much on the rights to have and raise children as it does on the right to not have them though access to safe and legal abortion care and contraceptive access.

This course will focus on the rights to not have a child, to have a child, and to raise a child. The course will not focus on abortion or contraception, but will address the impact of Dobbs and forced birth. Students are welcome to focus their writing requirement on abortion or contraception. The course will take an interdisciplinary approach to the issues, incorporating various bodies of law (family law, welfare policy, criminal law) along with an historical analysis, social science, and current events.

Roman law developed over the course of more than one thousand years, and it  continues to influence contemporary legal systems throughout the world. In this  course, we will examine the portions of Roman private law that correspond to the  Anglo-American law of family, property, and wills and estates. Readings will consist of  excerpts (in translation) from Roman legal sources, principally Justinian’s Digest. No  background knowledge of Roman law or of Roman history is required.