scholarly journals Fiduciary Principles in Family Law

2019 ◽  
pp. 225-248
Author(s):  
Elizabeth S. Scott ◽  
Ben Chen
Keyword(s):  
Family Relationships ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Intellectually Disabled ◽  
Elderly Parents ◽  
Spousal Relationships ◽  
Legal Relationship ◽  
Primary Responsibility ◽  
The Family ◽  
Minor Children ◽  
Close Family

Family members bear primary responsibility for the care of dependent and vulnerable individuals in our society, and therefore family relationships are infused with fiduciary obligation. Most importantly, the legal relationship between parents and their minor children is best understood as one that is regulated by fiduciary principles. Husbands and wives relate to one another as equals under contemporary law, but this relationship as well is subject to duties of care and loyalty when either spouse is in a condition of dependency. Finally, if an adult is severely intellectually disabled or becomes incapacitated and in need of a guardian, a family member is often preferred to serve in this role. This chapter examines the application of fiduciary principles and doctrine to close family relationships. The chapter explains that while the parent-child and spousal relationships are governed by fiduciary principles and duties, enforcement of these duties (at least when family relationships are intact) is largely accomplished through informal bonding and monitoring mechanisms. In contrast, when family members become guardians of adult relatives, including elderly parents and disabled adult children, obligations are formally enforced under fiduciary law with minimal recognition of the family bond. The chapter examines the rationales for these contrasting approaches and questions whether adjustments are indicated. It concludes that modest relaxation of formal fiduciary obligations in the context of close family relationships might sometimes serve the interests of the incapacitated adult by supporting her relationship with the family guardian.

Redefining the Circumstances in which Family Hardship Should Mitigate Sentence Severity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirko Bagaric
Keyword(s):  
Family Members ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Financial Hardship ◽  
The Family ◽  
Family Connections ◽  
Criminal Penalties ◽  
Close Family

The hardship stemming from prison goes well beyond the pain experienced by offenders. The family and dependants of prisoners often experience significant inconvenience and hardship. Family members of prisoners have not engaged in wrongdoing and hence arguably their suffering should be a mitigating consideration in sentencing. However, this approach potentially unfairly advantages offenders with close family connections and undermines the capacity of courts to satisfy a number of important sentencing objectives, including the imposition of proportionate penalties. The courts and legislatures have not been able to find a coherent manner in which to reconcile this tension. There is conflicting case law regarding the circumstances in which family hardship can mitigate the severity of criminal penalties. This article examines these competing positions and proposes that family hardship should mitigate penalty severity only when incarcerating the offender would cause severe financial hardship to his or her dependants.

It's about Family: The Death of a Close Family Friend

2009 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Beder
Keyword(s):  
Family Structure ◽  
Family Member ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Extended Family ◽  
Entire System ◽  
The Family ◽  
Counseling Interventions ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Close Family

When an individual dies, the role of the family member(s) is clearly prescribed by society: support, presence, caring, and remembrance. Traditionally, the definition of “family” has broadened to create the “extended family” or “expanded family” with members defined by deep bonds, relationships, and friendships. Currently, close friends who become the extended/expanded family, can be as central as kin to family structure and stability. Therefore, when one member of an extended family dies, the death resonates throughout the entire system affecting not only the lives of the immediate family members, but also those in the expanded circle of family relationships. This article describes the relationships in one extended family and discusses the struggles and counseling interventions used when one member of an extended family suddenly dies.

scholarly journals Breaking the silence about illness and death: Potential effects of a pilot study of the family talk intervention when a parent with dependent children receives specialized palliative home care

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Megan Weber Falk ◽  
Rakel Eklund ◽  
Ulrika Kreicbergs ◽  
Anette Alvariza ◽  
Malin Lövgren
Keyword(s):  
Home Care ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Family Coping ◽  
Open Communication ◽  
Entire Family ◽  
Palliative Home Care ◽  
Dependent Children ◽  
Palliative Care Setting ◽  
The Family

Abstract Objective The entire family is affected when a parent is severely ill. Parents often need and appreciate professional support when talking to children about illness and death. The family talk intervention (FTI) is family-centered and intends to promote communication about the illness and its consequences, support parenting to enhance family coping and help family members share experiences with each other to create a shared family history. This study aimed to explore potential effects of FTI in specialized palliative home care, as reported by parents. Method This pre-post test intervention pilot was conducted in specialized palliative home care. A convergent mixed-method design was used to analyze interview and questionnaire data. Twenty families with dependent children were recruited from two specialized palliative home care units in Stockholm, Sweden. Results Parents reported that family communication improved after participation in FTI as family members learned communication strategies that facilitated open sharing of thoughts and feelings. Increased open communication helped family members gain a better understanding of each other's perspectives. Parents reported that relationships with their partner and children had improved as they now shared several strategies for maintaining family relationships. Parents were also less worried following participation in FTI. The ill parents stated that they gained a sense of security and were less worried about the future. Significance of results This study adds to the evidence that FTI may be a useful intervention for families with dependent children and an ill parent in a palliative care setting. This trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT03119545.

scholarly journals Family Practices Across Generations and National Borders

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-169
Author(s):  
Ionuţ Földes ◽  
Veronica Savu
Keyword(s):  
Adult Children ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Spatial Separation ◽  
Intergenerational Support ◽  
Elderly Parents ◽  
Practical Support ◽  
Family Practices ◽  
And Migration ◽  
National Borders

Abstract Part of the mobility and migration process, family relationships and mutual support are subject of various transformations. Spatial separation between family members creates a specific setting for analysis which leads to the necessity of understanding how family practices are arranged and developed across time and distance. The present study focuses on the dyad emigrated adult children and non-migrated elderly parents living in Romania and on the types of intergenerational family practices that occur between these dyads across national borders. Our analysis of family practices relies on tracing certain set of actions taken by family members in order to maintain, consolidate, and ultimately to display family solidarity. We consider here various forms of practices, namely technological mediated contacts, visits, time-consuming practical support and financial assistance. Analyses are based on the national survey entitled Intergenerational solidarity in the context of work migration abroad. The situation of elderly left at home, which provides empirical data about the relationships from a distance between elderly parents living in Romania and their migrant adult children. Descriptive statistics are provided in order to assess the flow directions, the frequency and the intensity of each type of intergenerational support. Our empirical evidence highlights that transnational support is asymmetrical and multidirectional. Results also support that intergenerational support and family relationships can no longer be theoretically approached in terms of a simple dichotomy.

“A Fly in the Buttermilk”

2019 ◽  
pp. 157-180
Author(s):  
Chinyere K. Osuji
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Family Members ◽  
White Family ◽  
White Families ◽  
Racial Boundaries ◽  
Domestic Migration ◽  
White Couples ◽  
The Family

This chapter compares the discursive strategies that black-white couples and their families drew on to navigate the integration of black spouses into white extended families. White Carioca families engaged in more openly racist opposition, racist humor, and/or indirect insults to express discomfort with blacks marrying into the family. In an “irony of opposition,” past race-mixing in Carioca white families did not shield black spouses from these sentiments. This countered the myth of racial democracy in which color is not an impediment to interpersonal relationships. Nevertheless, Carioca respondents were less likely to report resistance in white families than Angelino couples. U.S. couples' higher rates of domestic migration resulted in less integration of black spouses into white family life than among Brazilian couples, whose tight-knit family relationships led to black spouses' greater incorporation. Los Angeles couples understood white family members as using the discourse of “expressing concerns” about the relationship, then moving to more overt discouragement of marrying black partners. Couples understood this “expressing concern” discourse as an attempt at social desirability on the part of white family members, emblematic of U.S. “color-blind” racism.This chapter shows how intermarriage can leave white supremacy, anti-blackness, and racial boundaries intact within the family.

A social relations model of negative relational disclosures and closeness in families

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Schrodt ◽  
Tamara D. Afifi
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Family Member ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Adult Child ◽  
Social Relations Model ◽  
Spousal Relationships

This study examined the intrapersonal and interpersonal mechanisms underlying family member reports of negative relational disclosures and closeness. Participants included a mother, father, and young adult child from 170 families ( N = 510). Social relations analyses revealed that negative relational disclosures and closeness vary across family relationships as a function of actor and relationship effects. Mothers’ reports of negative disclosures from other family members varied primarily as a function of actor effects, whereas their closeness varied as a function of relationship and partner effects. Dyadic reciprocity emerged in both the father–child and spousal relationships. Fathers who received negative disclosures from their spouse and their child were more likely to have both family members report being closer to them, respectively.

scholarly journals ‘My own blood’: family relationships of unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people in the UK

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-199
Author(s):  
Kelly Devenney
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Young People ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Care And Support ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Significant Attention

This article explores the family social networks of unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people in the UK. While significant attention has been paid to their experiences, few studies have considered family relationships. The findings in this article, based on empirical research with unaccompanied young people, suggests that they are engaged in complex and fluid family relationships both within the UK and transnationally. The young people in this study felt significant obligations towards family members and sought to provide care and support to those in the UK and abroad. However, they faced significant barriers to achieving these aims.

scholarly journals Social Media Causing Communication Gap: A Study of Middle-Class Families in Latifabad, Hyderabad, Pakistan

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-66
Author(s):  
Rashid Ali Khuhro ◽  
Bashir Memon ◽  
Rabia Wahid
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Family Communication ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Communication Process ◽  
The Family ◽  
Communication Gap ◽  
Middle Class Families

In family communication, the effective communication stands as the base of strong relations among the family members. However, a little gap in communication weakens family relationships and creates severe problems. Like all types of advanced communication channels; the advent of social media has also facilitated the effectiveness of interface among people. Although, social media's instantaneous communication process ended the communication gap among masses. Thus, many scholars believed that it has also created a communication gap among humans, especially in family communication. In this way, this study aimed to examine the communication gap created by social media among middle-class families of sub-division Latifabad Sindh, Pakistan. The researchers adopted a focus group discussion technique to collect data from three middle-class families. The result of this study shows that most of the focus group participants prefer communication in interpersonal communication settings. Further, it reveals that the majority of the family members use social media by smartphone, tabs and laptops. Significantly, the findings of this study emerged that social media creates a communication gap among middle-class families of Latifabad Hyderabad, Sindh –Pakistan.

scholarly journals The Implementation of Inheritance Dispute Arrangement Based on Local Wisdom in Gayasan A, Jenggawah, Jember Regency

2021 ◽  
pp. 77-92
Author(s):  
Erfina Fuadatul Khilmi ◽  
Arvina Hafidzah ◽  
Praptika Septi Femilia
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Sociology Of Law ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Value System ◽  
Social Fact ◽  
Court Action ◽  
The Family

Differences in understanding the distribution pattern of inheritance rights potentially cause disputes which fade the family relationships and merge endless conflicts among the family members. The aim of the research is to comprehend the implementation of inheritance dispute arrangement based on local wisdom as an alternative method in achieving the community’s balance and harmony that they still consider the arrangement through a court action as a taboo of settlement. The research shows several findings; factors that influence the differences in the distribution of inheritance in Gayasan A, Jenggawah, Jember Regency are the absence of communication between the heirs (the giver) and heirs, which is known as debik kek lopaen; and the community’s view of the heirs also influence the distribution of inheritance rights, so that local wisdom is needed as a strategic tool in arranging the disputes by implementing internal discussions among the family members mediated by a customary head and a sanction of exclusion (not diajepi). Data collection was conducted through a combination of literature study and field study by triangulating the results of observations, interviews and questionnaires. The research design applied was the sociology of law with an approach of problem on the unwritten customary law implemented in the community of Gayasan A as a social fact developed from the value system of the community and supported by a theoretical approach

The Family Relationships of Older Australians at Risk of Homelessness

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 1440-1456
Author(s):  
Maree Petersen ◽  
Cameron Parsell
Keyword(s):  
Data Mining ◽  
At Risk ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Elder Abuse ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Aged Care ◽  
The Family

Abstract This article explores the links between older people’s homelessness and family relationships and aims to inform social work practice frameworks. Whilst breakdown in family relationships is widely recognised as linked to being at risk of homelessness, there is less understanding of the interplay of family, both positive and negative, with older people’s homelessness. Drawing on a study incorporating data mining of service records, this article aims to provide clarity on supportive and troubled family relationships and their links to housing crises as experienced by older Australians. The findings highlight a number of domains for social work practice including undertaking skilled assessments to understand the strengths and constraints experienced by families. Assessments will then inform intervention to support and provide resources to some families to prevent their older family members’ homelessness and to intervene in both a preventative and empowering way to address elder abuse. The implications for policy, in particular, the need for sectors of housing, aged care and health to intersect, are discussed.

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