Overlawyered » children’s rights

International law roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 05:06:48 +0000

Supreme Court orders rebriefing in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum case, could address extent of permitted extraterritoriality in Alien Tort Statute [Kenneth Anderson/Volokh quoting John Bellinger, Point of Law featured discussion, Ilya Shapiro on Cato brief]
UN “food rights” official: trade, investment pacts should not go forward without “human rights impact assessments” [De Schutter; his paternalist food-policy agenda] UN panel reviews Canada’s record on race, lectures on need for more multiculturalism [OHCHR]
Courts still reluctant to restrain parents’ physical discipline of kids, but UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, for which ratification push is expected in the U.S. this year, could change that [Elizabeth Wilson, ConcurOp]
Golan v. Holder: “Copyright Case May Have Profound Effect on Treaty Power” [Ilya Shapiro, Jurist]
Web accessibility litigation spreads to UK [Disability Law, related on role of U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, earlier and background]
New tone under Ambassador Joseph Torsella: “Obama Comes Around on U.N. Reform” [Brett Schaefer, NRO]
Reviewing new John Fonte book Sovereignty or Submission, Temple lawprof Peter Spiro contends that trend toward transnational governance isn’t “reversible…. It’s mostly wishful thinking to suppose that we can stick to the vision of the Founders.” [OJ, earlier here, etc., and see chapters 11-12 of Schools for Misrule]
Dante’s Divine Comedy “offensive and should be banned,” per UN anti-discrimination consultancy [Telegraph]

Tags: Alien Tort Claims Act, children's rights, international human rights, international law, United Nations, web accessibility

International law roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

August 12 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 12:08:46 +0000

More reviews of Schools for Misrule: Counterpoint (U. of Chicago), Wilson Trivino at PurePolitics.com;
“Cops Collar 12 Year Old for “Walking Alone” in Downtown Toronto” [Free-Range Kids] Cop tells mom kids under ten “by law are not allowed outside unsupervised except in their parents’ yard.” [western Maryland, same]
As lawmakers seek budget cuts, school finance litigators are on the march to counter their plans [WSJ Law Blog]
Wouldn’t waive regs: “U.S. blocks $1 million Italian supercar” [CNN Money]
You see, entrepreneurial suit-filing does create jobs: “Hike in Wage-and-Hour Litigation Spurs Demand for Calif. Employment Law Associates” [ABA Journal] How U.S. Congress devastated American Samoa through minimum wage hikes [Mark Perry]
CCAF objects in Sirius class action settlement [PoL, earlier]
“The Phantom Menace of Sleep Deprived Doctors” [Darshak Sanghavi, NY Times Magazine]

Tags: autos, children's rights, class action settlements, hospitals, Italy, law schools, schools, Schools for Misrule, wage and hour suits

August 12 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Update: “Quebec dad sued by daughter after grounding loses his appeal”

Walter Olson — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 04:26:28 +0000

“A Quebec father who was taken to court by his 12-year-old daughter after he grounded her in June 2008 has lost his appeal.” [CBC] For some reason the litigation has not done wonders for family harmony:

The girl — who now lives with her mother — doesn’t have much of a relationship with her dad now, [attorney Kim] Beaudoin said.

“We went from a child who wanted to live with her father, and after all this has been done, they’re not speaking anymore.”

Tags: Canada, children's rights, divorce

Update: “Quebec dad sued by daughter after grounding loses his appeal” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Divorce, Connecticut-Style”

Walter Olson — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:12:54 +0000

One Westport split cost the divorcing couple an estimated $13 million. It differed in degree, but not really in kind, from many lesser domestic catastrophes: “Divorcing couples in Connecticut regularly rack up bank-busting legal bills that can put the lesser earning party — and there often is an economic imbalance between warring couples — into bankruptcy. … the most expensive and sought-after divorce attorneys are commonly referred to as ‘junkyard dogs.’” Then there are the hefty sums you may be forced to hand over to lawyers who get themselves appointed guardians ad litem, to represent your kids against, well, you and your ex (Daniel D’Ambrosio, Hartford Advocate, Jul. 24).

Tags: children's rights, Connecticut, divorce, family law

“Divorce, Connecticut-Style” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Canada: court overturns parent’s grounding of 12-year-old

Walter Olson — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:49:41 +0000

The father wouldn’t let her go on a school trip because he said she’d been acting up, including using a friend’s account to post inappropriate pictures on a dating site. “But [Quebec Superior Court] Justice Suzanne Tessier, who was presiding over the case, found the punishment too severe.” The mother, who is divorced from the father, was supporting the girl; the school’s policy was that both parents’ permission was required for such trips. According to a lawyer involved in the case, the father has legal custody but the girl has been living with her mother for the past month. (AFP/FoxNews.com, Globe and Mail, Eugene Volokh). Plus: Token Conservative suggests a new writ of “habeas bratus”.

Tags: Canada, children's rights, divorce

Canada: court overturns parent’s grounding of 12-year-old is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system