family law

Under Pennsylvania law, a divorce can be either “fault-based” or “no-fault.” Grounds for a “fault-based” divorce include the following: abandonment (unmoving spouse has left the home) without a reasonable cause for a period of one or more years; adultery; cruel and barbarous treatment (unmoving spouse has treated movant in a way that puts his/her life or health at risk); bigamy (movant’s spouse married movant without first divorcing his/her spouse); imprisonment for two or more years; or movant’s spouse has acted in a way that made movant’s life unbearable or extremely difficult.

In Association pour le Progrès et la Défense des Droits des Femmes Maliennes (APDF) and Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) v. Republic of Mali, the African Court examined whether Mali’s 2011 Persons and Family Code was compatible with the state’s binding obligations under African and international human rights law relating to the protection of women and children.

T.L.R. was an eighth-grader at the Texas School for the Deaf and was dating B.C., also an eighth-grader at the School. After about two months of dating, B.C. approached T.L.R. and told her he wanted to have sex with her; she responded “no” twice and tried to get away from him by entering the girls’ restroom. B.C. followed her into the restroom. T.L.R. told him “I don’t want this” but B.C. took her clothes off, took his clothes off, told her to lie down on the floor, and penetrated her. T.L.R.’s father sought and obtained a protective order against B.C. on behalf of his daughter. B.C.

In the case Benjamin v. McKinnon, the plaintiff sought an extension of protection orders she had against two defendants, a father and son. The trial court awarded the order of protection against the son, but not against the father.

The petitioner, a domestic violence survivor, could not find affordable legal assistance to appear before a court.  The Court ruled that member states must guarantee effective access to the courts, including access to counsel.

Ira Clements lived with his elderly wife, Helen, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Their daughter, Linda, believed that her father was abusing her mother. When Linda arrived at the family home with the intention of removing her mother from Ira’s home, Ira grabbed Linda by her hair and drew back his fist as though he would hit her. As Helen tried to sneak out of the house, Ira grabbed her arm and pulled her back into the house. When police officers arrived to investigate, Ira admitted to them that he grabbed Linda’s hair and stated that he “should have beat

The Venezuelan Civil Code (1982) sets forth rules on divorce, marriage, property, and succession. Article 185 lists the grounds for divorce, including adultery, physical or psychological abuse, abandonment, and marital rape. It also recognizes as serious grounds conspiracy by a spouse to corrupt or prostitute the other or the children, as well as collusion in such conduct. Article 185-A allows either spouse to petition for divorce after a de facto separation of more than five years, without proving fault or a specific cause.

Article 173 criminalizes incest, defined as sexual relations between persons over the age of 18 who are related either directly related (vínculo filial) or collaterally, up to the second degree of consanguinity. The offense is punishable by one to three years of imprisonment. A distinctive feature of this provision is that criminal action may be extinguished if the victim grants forgiveness, which operates as a bar to prosecution.

In Cole v. Cole, 35 N.Y.3d 1012 (2020), the New York Court of Appeals reviewed a mother’s challenge to a custody award favoring the father under Domestic Relations Law § 240(1)(a).

Section 53a-190 defines bigamy as knowingly marrying or purporting to marry another person while already legally married, or knowingly cohabiting as spouses with someone who is married to another. The offense applies whether the subsequent marriage is performed within or outside the state of Connecticut if the parties then live together in the state as spouses. The statute provides several affirmative defenses to prevent conviction where the conduct results from mistake or circumstances beyond the actor’s control.