At nine years old, Nujood Ali was force to marry a man in his late twenties. She was raped and beaten. Then she made history: she got a divorce.
Her ordeal as a child bride was reported in Yemeni media outlets before slowly getting picked up and reported internationally. She was ultimately named Glamour magazine’s woman of the year, and she traveled to New York as a new spokesperson for the rights of women.
Ali shared her story, in spoken form, with a French journalist, Delphine Minoui, and now the story has been published in print form in English, titled “I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced.” When the Arabic language edition is published shortly, Ali, who is now twelve years old, will finally be able to read her own story for the first time.
Ali told the story to Minoui in person, rather than writing it down.
“I do not know what is in it, except what I have been told about. I am still waiting to read it in my own language,” she told Reuters, which is reporting the story. “But ... Read more..
Archive for March, 2010
Generally, Miranda warnings (right to remain silent) are not required where the individual makes statements during a consensual encounter. They are required only where the defendant is in custody and under interrogation. If either element is missing, the warnings are not required.
In Davis, the Court reiterated the test for determining whether one is in custody for purposes of Miranda. The test is whether there is a “restraint on freedom of movement of the degree associated with a formal arrest.” Further, “[t]he proper inquiry is not the unarticulated plan of the police, but rather how a reasonable person in the suspect's position would have perceived the situation.”
These exact standards have been applied to traffic stops by the U.S. Supreme Court in Pennsylvania v. Bruder, Berkemer v. McCarty, and the Florida Supreme Court in Allred v. State. These cases stand for the proposition that Miranda warnings need not be given for an ordinary traffic stop until the defendant is subjected to circumstances that are the functional equivalent of a formal arrest. This is so, because such stops do not expose the defendant ... Read more..
No one wants a replay of the financial meltdown of the past couple years, but can new regulations really provide a long-term solution? Periods of heightened regulatory oversight seem inevitably followed by periods of deregulation, while the prospect of government bailouts may create a moral hazard that promotes excessive risk-taking. Thus, in an interesting new article on SSRN, Shelley Smith suggests an alternative response that does not involve government regulatory agencies. Her proposal instead focuses on the courts and reform of the law of adhesion contracts — those take-it-or-leave-it agreements that consumers routinely sign without reading or understanding.
Shelley argues that contracts of adhesion played an important role in creating the subprime mortgage mess, as consumers took on ruinous financial obligations without fully understanding the terms of the deals. She suggests that courts should create stronger incentives for the drafters of contracts of adhesion to make the key terms comprehensible to ordinary consumers. Thus, she would relax the normal presumption that the terms of the written contract will be strictly enforced where there is reason to doubt whether a reasonable person would have read ... Read more..
Thomas More was a very successful English lawyer (barrister — Lincoln’s Inn, 1501), a judge, and a Member of Parliament about the time of King Henry VIII. But he was much more than that. He came from a family of lawyers. His father, Sir John More, was a prominent lawyer and a judge.
We would probably not know about Sir Thomas More except for the fact that King Henry had appointed him Lord Chancellor of England and Wales in 1529, replacing Thomas Wolsey, but ultimately the King and Thomas did not see eye to eye with each other. As Lord Chancellor, he was the head of the judiciary and also the presiding officer of the House of Lords. We would call him the Chief Justice, as the House of Lords was the Supreme Court and in charge of regulating the judiciary. Sir Thomas was also one of the most respected people in England and Wales at the time — certainly the most respected lawyer then, and maybe one of the most respected lawyers of all time.
King Henry, you will recall, was married ... Read more..
Couples in marital trouble are waiting for the economic downturn to end before getting a divorce, according a Washington Post article.
In what the article calls the Great Recession, couples that probably should or want to dissolve are holding off in hopes that housing prices will return to normal and job prospects will improve.
Often, in these stressed out financial times, a money shortage can mean that there is not enough to support two separate households, or to hire the lawyers necessary to carry out divorce proceedings.
According to the Washington Post, the number of couples staying together past their expiration date is rising. This can mean that couples don’t actually follow through with the paperwork of a divorce, or that they take measures to save money, like living together while they separate emotionally.
In other words, an already difficult process becomes, in tough economic times, that much more complicated and nuanced.
The Post spoke with a number of divorce lawyers and divorcing couples who have been on the front lines of the changing divorce landscape.
David Goldberg is a divorce lawyer and a ... Read more..
