International Symposium on the Family:
“Parenting and the influence of culture”
Buenos Aires, May 12-13, 20111
Facultad de Derecho – Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina
ABSTRACTS
***
TBA
Jane Adolphe
Professor of Law
Ave Maria School of Law
(in absentia, sending paper)
***
***
TBA
Helen Alvare
Professor of Law
George Mason University Law School
***
BLOOD OF OUR BLOOD:
THE RELEVANCE OF THE BIOLOGICAL FAMILY
George W. Dent, Jr.
Schott van den Eynden Professorship
Case Western Reserve Law School
There is a movement to reduce or eliminate the social and legal significance of the
biological nexus between parents and children. Because homosexuals can get children only
through adoption or artificial reproduction, homosexual activists support this movement. It
is argued that “parents” should be those who really perform normal parenting functions.
This would deny biological parents of any rights in their children and deprive children of
any right in their biological parents, which is even more disturbing.
My paper will discuss whether blood—biological ties—should continue to be the
normal basis for the legal definition of the family. The paper will consider empirical studies
concerning the relevance of biological ties to parenting; anthropological analyses of the
family in the development of early humans; and philosophical views about the role of the
biological family in human flourishing. It will also explore the legal implications of
eliminating the legal preference for the biological family.
***
CULTURE, FAMILY, AND PARENTAL PROMOTION OF VIRTUE
Scott FitzGibbon
Professor of Law
Boston College of Law
There are three types of culture: one type aims principally at virtue, one at pleasure
and other feelings, and one at wealth, prestige and other instrumental goods. These three
categories correspond fairly closely to the three categories of affiliation recognized by
Aristotle in Book Eight of the Nicomachean Ethics (where he identifies “full” or “complete”
friendships,
affiliations
of
pleasure,
and
affiliations
of
utility).
A society’s character, as belonging principally to one or another of these three
categories, can be ascertained by ascertaining what traits, characteristics, and courses of
conduct will conduce to social success, prestige, recognition, and emulation. In some social
orders prominence is secured principally through the accumulation and exhibition of
wealth, for example, and through generating and running associations for the production of
goods and services. In other social orders prominence is secured and maintained through
buzz, glitz, and the generation of a whirr of pleasurable excitement (sometimes referred to
as “charisma”). In the third sort of society – one based upon virtue-- excellence of
character is continuously assessed and, when it is achieved, is steadily commended and
rewarded
with
recog-nition
and
emulation.
The Roman Republic stands as the historic paradigm of the virtue-based, virtuecommending, and virtue-celebratory social order. The Roman virtues of character,
preeminently those of fidelity, self-sacrifice, and patriotism, have been proposed as
exemplary in many of the cultures which directly or indirectly descend from the Roman
Empire, including those of Argentina and its South American neighbors. The cultures of
Northwestern Europe and its descendant countries are also heirs of Rome, but have
displayed tendencies in recent generations to emphasize emotion, pleasure, and the
instrumental goods as guides to conduct and grounds for recognition.
Family structure tends to reflect the social order. This is especially the case as regards
parenting practices, since parents often encourage and transmit the beliefs and practices of
their society as they prepare their offspring to join it. Here again, the Roman social order
may be taken as exemplary, since the transmission of the classic Roman virtues was
regarded as a central mission of parenting in classical Rome. Some tendencies in thought
and practice about parenting in the media and in social-science writings during the present
age tend to move that relationship towards a basis in feeling and emotion and to deemphasize the promotion of character.
***
Education and the Secular State: Whose Right?
Carmen Garcimartin
Associate Professor
University of La Coruña (Spain)
Freedom to choose religious and moral education for one’s children is a widely
recognized right in Western Constitutions and International Treaties. In practice, its
potential has not been fully accomplished due to some interventions -or exclusions- from
public powers that made a bit dim the shape of this right.
On the other hand, secularism that pervades European countries has reached also
the general approach to education. It seems as if maintaining a secular State should mean
educate non-religious citizens, wrongly identifying relativism and secularism.
The presentation will analyze some specific issues related to the right to religious
and moral education in Spain, with a reference to the situation in other countries of Europe.
The main topics will be:
-Nature of this right. Although the right is clearly shaped as a personal freedom,
some questions arise from its regulation. The Constitution guarantees the right, but it
cannot be wholly implemented without the State contribution. The debate is centred on
whether the Constitutional protection demands a positive action from public powers or it is
only needed a negative guarantee that nobody will interfere on its development.
-School programming.- One of the most controversial issues is the inclusion of
certain subjects in the school curriculum. The line that divides the morals and the science is
sometimes very narrow, and while the State can consider a subject of general interest,
parents could object on the basis that its contents collide with their religious or moral
points of view, and, therefore, the State cannot include it as a compulsory subject in public
schools.
In the aftermath of this discussion, it comes out the problem of private schools with
a religious or ideological ethos as an alternative for those parents who do not want to send
their children to public schools; however, many of them cannot afford a private school
either. Then, the effectiveness of the right to choose the religious and moral education
would be compromise, as far as it would be directly linked to the economy of the family.
-Religious education is a singular feature in European school systems. With the only
exception of France, religion -denominational or non-denominational- is taught at least as a
voluntary subject in all countries. Nevertheless, it has been a controversial matter, and it
remains as a battlefield in the political arena.
***
Reproductive technologies and parenting: trends and paradoxes
Jorge Nicolás Lafferriere
Director de Investigación Jurídica Aplicada
Facultad de Derecho – Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina
The increasing use of human reproductive technologies generates very complex
problems concerning parent-child juridical relations. Posthumous insemination,
heterologous fertilization procedures and surrogate motherhood pretend to alter the
traditional way we establish parenthood and motherhood. In this paper, we analyze some
trends in comparative family law in order to make some conclusions about the challenges
involved in reproductive technologies and parenting. In the first place, we consider the
problem of human reproductive technologies and the juridical issues arised by the use of
donor-gametes. We consider the legal systems that assure the anonymity of the donors.
Then we analyze the “core principles” that underlie this issues and draw some conclusions.
These conclusions deal with topics like the right to identity, the commodification of the
human body, the traceability of gametes, the exploitation of women, between others. We
also consider the problems related to the posturing of same-sex marriages to achieve a
pregnancy and the pretension to create “two-mothers” or “two-fathers” families. The recent
law passed in Argentina that legalizes same-sex marriage is taken into account. The
complexities of the different combinations of parents-donors-surrogate mothers are
considered. We finish our paper with some considerations about the intrinsecal problems
arised by these reproductive technologies and the need for strong legal measures to assure
the human dignity of the nasciturus and the transmission of life, with special consideration
to family law.
***
One Parent or Five? A Global Look at Today’s New “Intentional” Families
Elizabeth Marquardt
Vice-President for Family Studies & Director, Center for Marriage & Families
Institute for American Values
The idea of “intentional” parenthood is widely embraced among family diversity
leaders today. It is also seen as a neutral or positive concept by many family law scholars
and can be used by judges to determine legal parenthood status. This paper challenges the
concept of intentional parenthood by examining the astonishing and sometimes shocking
variety of family forms adults today conceive of intentionally, before a child is on the scene.
This global look includes examples and discussions of single fatherhood by choice,
posthumous conception, cloning, same sex parenting, heterosexual pairings in which a man
and woman contract to have children together without having a romantic or sexual
relationship with one another, polyamory, polygamy, couples contracting with other
couples to conceive children whom they plan to raise together across two households, and
more.
The paper makes the case that the wide variety of family forms dreamed up under
the “intentional” parent category undermines the assumption that intentional parenthood
is necessarily a neutral or positive good. Implications for family law and for the family
debate will be discussed.
***
Social Development and Social Change:
Global Implications of Emerging Family Structures
Marya A. Reed
Director of Operations and Finance
Richard G. Wilkins
Managing Director
The Doha International Institute for Family Studies and Development
Studies conducted over the past two decades suggest that children raised in a stable,
married, two-parent household have significant developmental advantages (including
better educational, health and interpersonal outcomes) than children raised in other family
structures. At the same time, however, it appears that the prevalence of the traditional,
two-parent household is declining, with increasing numbers of children born outside
wedlock, marriage rates declining and divorce rates either increasing or remaining at
historically high levels.
This paper will survey studies from various regions of the world that analyze
developmental outcomes for children in two-parent and other family structures. It will
also survey data from numerous countries and regions demonstrating recent trends in
family structure. Such data will include (where available) information regarding marriage
rates, divorce rates and children born outside of wedlock. The paper will conclude by
noting the regional and global implications arising from changing family structures.
***
Individual Autonomy vs. Family Solidarity
Richard Stith
Professor of Law
Valparaiso University Law School
Both autonomy, defined simply as choosing one’s own aims and acting alone, and
solidarity, defined in contrast as sharing in the aims of others and acting in concert, are
essential to human flourishing. But there are times when they seem nearly to exclude one
another. This essay concerns two of those times.
Care for the most vulnerable among us, those at the beginning of life and those who
may be nearing the end of life, requires solidarity. Truly “single” parenting is nearly
impossible; the solidarity of others is needed to bear and raise a child, and solidarity with
the child is needed as well. Likewise, the afflictions of age and illness are often too much to
bear without family or friend standing in solidarity.
Yet autonomous choices are being proposed for human life in its initial and final
stages. Those choices concern the existence of life itself: “Should I choose abortion or
birth?” and “Should I choose assisted suicide?” This essay argues that autonomy (or the
appearance of autonomy) may here undercut solidarity. Paradoxically, the ability to choose
life – to reject abortion or suicide –may isolate the chooser, may leave her without the
solidarity she needs in order to implement her choices.
This paper, then, focuses primarily on those who choose life, and on the life they
choose, not on the opposite choices. It has four parts: The first concerns the effect of letting
someone choose who in fact has no choice, i.e. the effect of granting de jure autonomy to
someone who is de facto oppressed -- a situation where a false appearance of autonomy
may help cover up actual subordination to another. But this sort of harm is really not
germane to this essay; it is discussed briefly only to clarify that it is being put aside. The
core of the essay concerns, instead, the negative effects even of true autonomy, of real
freedom to choose.
The second section discusses how a woman’s free choice for life may diminish what
is called here the “causal” basis of solidarity, relieving a father of his erstwhile
responsibility for bringing about a birth. The third section turns to the “sympathetic” basis
of solidarity between parents (and with others) with regard to the burdens of childcare,
examining how compassion is significantly lessened by a belief that the mother voluntarily
chose to be in her plight; similarly, the debilitated grandmother may receive less sympathy
if she appears for no good reason to reject assisted suicide or voluntary euthanasia.
Possible remedies, or at least ways to diminish harm, will be pondered here. Lastly, it will
be argued that choosing to let someone exist (or continue to exist) tends to reduce that
someone (who may even be oneself) to a thing, thus sharply undercutting the “personal”
basis of solidarity with a newborn child or with an aged parent.
Note that this essay does not claim that making life the object of choice undermines
all sources of solidarity. A husband, for example, may feel solidarity with his overburdened
wife because of his marriage vow to stand with her for better or for worse, even if he thinks
her blameworthy for choosing perversely to bear a child – or simply because he loves her
despite her every foible. Likewise, a parent or a child may shoulder the other’s burdens
simply because of their ties of blood or of love, even when one feels the other’s life to be a
net negative value, something that should not really have been chosen to continue. But
choice does sharply diminish causal, sympathetic, and personal solidarity, all three of
which ordinarily tie family members (and neighbors as well) together.
***
The Influence of Religion on Parenting:
Jurisprudential Principles and Legal Problems
Lynn D. Wardle1
Bruce C. Hafen Professor of Law
J. Reuben Clark Law School
Brigham Young University
This paper will review the importance of effective parenting for children, the
importance of religion as a support system for much effective parenting, and growing
problems with state intrusion upon parenting in ways that weaken religious influence and
undermine the faith-family connection.
The importance of parenting for the healthy and complete development of children
is a topic that many great thinkers about life, society and law have considered. This paper
will focus on enlightenment philosophers, including Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu and
1
The valuable research assistance of Alyssa Munguia, Robert Selfaison, and Curtis Thomas is gratefully
acknowledged.
others. Several common principles about the importance and responsibilities of parenting
that have been developed in that literature will be identified and explained.
The role of religion to support families, in particular to support effective parenting,
will be examined both in jurisprudential theory and in sociological studies. The theory
underscores the mutually reinforcing concerns of religions and parents. The data seems
consistently to show that children raised in families that have significant religious support
(religiosity and life experience) experience fuller, more successful, less troubled lives, and
that parents who are involved in religion are more nurturing, effective, and successful as
parents.
The “trilemma” of modern liberalism will be discussed. The trend toward greater
state and social hostility against some religions (especially fundamentalist Muslim groups)
will be examined. The impact upon parenting in families that belong to those faith
communities will be considered. The “ripple effect” of hostility toward other
“fundamentalist” religions, in particular, and all or most other religious communities in
general will be evaluated.
BIOGRAPHIES
Jane Adolphe holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Calgary as well as common-law
and civil-law degrees from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Professor Adolphe earned a
Licentiate in Canon Law and a Doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontificia Università della
Santa Croce in Rome, Italy. She began her legal career clerking for the Alberta Court of Appeal
and Court of Queen‘s Bench in Calgary, Canada. After practicing with the Bennett Jones law
firm, in Calgary, she served as a prosecutor with the Alberta Crown Prosecutor‘s Office in the
same city. She then worked as a consultant with the law firm of Capua, Varrenti e Associati in
Rome, Italy, and since 2001, she has taught law at Ave Maria School of Law, first in Michigan,
and then later, in Florida where it relocated in 2008. She has served at the United Nations by
participating in conferences on women, children and international criminal law. She has also
been a delegate for the Holy See at various international and regional meetings and conferences
and has worked as a consultant to its Secretariat of State since July 2007. Professor Adolphe‘s
course offerings include Family Law, Canon Law, Criminal Law, International Law,
International Human Rights and International Law and the Holy See. She has published articles
and book chapters on a variety of topics, most notably the protection of the natural family, and
the rights/duties of parents and children in international law.
Professor Helen M. Alvaré is an Associate Professor of Law at the George Mason Unviersity
School of Law where she teaches, inter alia, family law and property law. Professor Alvaré
received her law degree at Cornell University in 1984 and a master's degree in systematic
theology from The Catholic University of America in 1989. Before entering academia, she
practiced law in Philadelphia, specializing in commercial litigation and free exercise of religion
matters; worked at the Office of General Counsel for the National Conference of Catholic
Bishops, where she drafted amicus briefs in leading U.S. Supreme Court cases concerning
abortion, euthanasia and the Establishment Clause; and worked with the Secretariat for Pro-Life
Activities at the NCCB, where she lobbied, testified before federal congressional committees,
addressed university audiences, and appeared on hundreds of television and radio programs on
behalf of the U.S. Catholic bishops. She also assisted the Holy See on matters concerning
women, marriage and the family, and respect for human life. Professor Alvaré chaired the
commission investigating clerical abuse in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and is an advisor to
Pope Benedict XVI's Pontifical Council for the Laity, as well as an ABC News consultant. Her
scholarship regularly treats current controversies about marriage, parenting, and the new
reproductive technologies. Some of her recent publications include: Gonzales v. Carhart:
Bringing Abortion Law Back into the Family Law Fold, 69 Montana L. Rev. 409 (2008); The
Moral Reasoning of Family Law: The Case of Same-Sex Marriage, 38 Loyola U. Chi. L. Rev
349 (2006); An Anthropology for the Family Law of Indis/solubility, 4 Ave Maria L. Rev. 497
(2006); and The Turn Toward the Self in Marriage: Same-Sex Marriage and its Predecessors in
Family Law, 16 Stanford Law and Policy Review 101 (2005).
George W. Dent, Jr., has been a Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University Law
School since 1990 and the Schott-van den Eynden Professor of Law since 1998. Before joining
the faculty at Case Professor Dent taught at New York Law School, Cardozo School of Law
(Yeshiva University) and New York University School of Law. Professor Dent holds a B.A.
(1969) and J.D. (1973) from Columbia, and an LL.M. from New York University (1981).
Before entering academia he clerked for Judge Paul R. Hays on the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Second Circuit (1973-74) and practiced corporate law at Debevoise, Plimpton, Lyons &
Gates (now Debevoise & Plimpton). Professor Dent has published extensively in the areas
of corporate and securities law; law and religion; and family law. Among his publications in
family law are: Straight Is Better: Why Law and Society May Justly Prefer Heterosexuality, __
TEXAS REVIEW OF LAW & POLITICS __ (forthcoming March, 2011); Perry v. Schwarzenegger: Is
Traditional Marriage Unconstitutional?, ENGAGE: THE JOURNAL OF THE FEDERALIST SOCIETY’S
PRACTICE GROUPS (forthcoming March, 2011); Civil Rights for Whom?: Gay Rights Versus
Religious Freedom, 95 UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY LAW JOURNAL 553 (2006-07); "How Does SameSex Marriage Threaten You?," 59 RUTGERS LAW REVIEW 233 (2007; Traditional Marriage: Still
Worth Defending, 18 BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF PUBLIC LAW 419 (2004).
Scott FitzGibbon is a graduate of the Harvard Law School (J.D.), where he was an Articles
Officer of the Harvard Law Review, and of Oxford University (B.C.L.), where he studied legal
philosophy. He is a professor at Boston College Law School, a member of the American Law
Institute, and a member of the International Society of Family Law. He is the Editor in
Chief of the International Journal of the Jurisprudence of the Family. He is the author of
“Marriage and the Good of Obligation” (American Journal of Jurisprudence, 2002);
“Marriage and the Ethics of Office” (Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics, and Public Policy,
2004); “A City Without Duty, Fault or Shame,” in RECONCEIVING THE FAMILY: CRITICAL
REFLECTIONS ON THE AMERICAN LAW INSTITUTE'S PRINCIPLES OF THE LAW OF FAMILY DISSOLUTION
(Robin Fretwell Wilson, ed., Cambridge University Press, 2006); “The Seduction of Lydia
Bennet: Toward a General Theory of Society, Marriage and the Family,” (Ave Maria Law
Review, 2006); “Procreative Justice and the Recognition of Marriage,” in FAMILY LAW IN
THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY (2007); and “’Just Like Little Dogs’: The Law Should Speak
with Veracity and Respect,” in THE JURISPRUDENCE OF MARRIAGE AND OTHER
INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS (Scott FitzGibbon, Lynn Wardle & A. Scott Loveless, eds.,
2010). His scholarly presentations include “The ‘Beautiful City’ of Plato’s Republic: How
the Legal and Social Promotion of Divorce and Same-Sex Marriage Contravenes the
Philosophy and Undermines the Projects of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”
(Geneva, Switzerland, August, 2004); “Divorce and the Decline of Obligation: Towards a
Recovery of the Philosophy of Marital Fidelity” (Beijing, China, July, 2004); “Procreative
Justice and the Recognition of Marriage” (Provo, Utah, September, 2006); “Marriage Law:
Selected Topics” (Padua, Italy, May, 2007); “Supporting the Family by Telling the Truth:
The Law’s Duty of Veracity” (Vienna, Austria, September, 2008); and “Is Family Law
Sacred?’ (Bar Ilan University, Israel, 2009).
He was the co-convener, together with
Professor Lynn Wardle, of a symposium on the Jurisprudence of Marriage at Boston College
Law School and Brigham Young University on March 13 & 15, 2009, and of a symposium on
the Jurisprudence of the Family at Bratislava Law School on May 28-29, 2010, at which he
delivered a paper entitled “’That Man is You!’: The Juristic Person and Faithful Love.”
Carmen Garcimarten
Academical Degrees:
-Iuris Doctor Degree, 7-12-87
-Law Doctorate PhD in Jurisprudence (Ph.D.) 7-28-98
Teaching Experience in Church&State and Marriage Law:
-Teaching Assistant 1999-2000; Assistant Professor 2000-2003. University Santiago de
Compostela. Spain
-Assistant Professor 2004 to 2006. Associate Professor, 2007 to present University of La
Coruña. Spain.
-Erasmus Lecturer, Yeditepe University, Istanbul-Turkey (2009).
Administrative Positions:
-Secretary of the Department of Public Law, University of La Coruña
-Coordinator of Visitor Students’ Program, School of Law, University of La Coruña, Spain.
-Scientific Board of two Spanish Reviews
Research Experience:
Granted by the Regional and National Government of Spain (two years). Member of several
National Research Projects. Visiting Scholar in Università La Sapienza, Rome (Italy);
National University of Ireland – Galway; Catholic University of America, Washington D.C.,
USA.
Publications:
Four books on Relations between Church and State and Marriage Law; more than twenty
chapters of books and articles in Spanish, European and USA Journals, and several reviews
in European Journals.
Conferences:
Keynote Speaker in National and International Conferences: Madrid, Almeria (Spain),
Tehran, Milan, Vilnius (Lithuania).
Presentations in Mexico, Granada (Spain), Washington D.C., Tel-Aviv, London, Copenhagen.
Jorge Nicolás Lafferriere: Lawyer (Universidad de Buenos Aires), Doctor in Juridical
Sciences (Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina –UCA-). Director de Investigación
Jurídica Aplicada de la Facultad de Derecho de la Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina,
Profesor Protitular de Principios de Derecho Privado (UCA y UBA). Director de la Revista
Prudentia Iuris. Director del Centro de Bioética, Persona y Familia. Former Academic
Secretary of the Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina.
Elizabeth Marquardt is editor of FamilyScholars.org, where she also blogs. She is vice
president for family studies and director of the Center for Marriage and Families at the
Institute for American Values. She is the co-investigator most recently of My Daddy’s Name
is Donor, a study that examines the identity and kinship experiences of adults conceived
through sperm donation. The study was the subject of reporting and commentary in
publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Slate, Le
Monde and the Irish Times. Marquardt is author of Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of
Children of Divorce (Crown, 2005). Based on the first nationally-representative study of
grown children of divorce in the U.S., she argues that while an amicable divorce is better
than a bitter one, even amicable divorces profoundly shape the inner lives of children. She
is also co-principal investigator of a national study, Hooking Up, Hanging Out, and Hoping
for Mr. Right: College Women on Dating and Mating Today. Marquardt has appeared often
on NBC’s Today Show as well as on broadcast news programs on CNN, ABC, FOX, CBS, and
PBS and scores of radio programs including BBC World News and national and local NPR
stations. Her writings have been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los
Angeles Times, Slate, Huffington Post, and elsewhere. She holds a Master’s in Divinity and
an M.A. in international relations from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. in history and
women’s studies from Wake Forest University.
Dr. Marya Reed is the Director of Operations and Finance at The Doha International
Institute for Family Studies and Development at Education City, Doha. Qatar. Established
by Her Highness Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser Al-Missned, Consort of His Highness the Emir of
Qatar and President of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs, the Institute sponsors and
conducts interdisciplinary international research regarding family life. Prior to joining
Qatar Foundation, Dr. Reed was the Executive Director of the World Family Policy Center at
the J. Reuben Clark School of Law, Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah. During her
tenure at the Doha International Institute and the World Family Policy Center, Dr. Reed
conducted extensive research and published numerous articles on such topics as
international comparative constitutional law, international law, family policy and media
regulation. Dr. Reed holds a Juris Doctor degree from the J. Reuben Clark School of Law,
Brigham Young University.
Richard Stith is a Professor of Law at Valparaiso University School of Law where he has
taught since 1973. He has also served as Director, Biomedical Ethics, at St. Louis University
School of Law, and as Visiting Professor (Philosophy) at Poona University, India (Fulbright,
1980-1981), Universidad de Valparaíso, Chile (Law) (Fulbright, 1988), Zhongshan
University, China (Law) (Fulbright, 1992), UKMA, Ukraine (Political Science) (Fulbright,
1996), and Universidad Panamericana, Mexico (Law) (Fulbright, 2000-2001). He is a
graduate of Harvard College, Yale Law School, and has graduate degrees from University of
California, Berkeley (Political Theory) and Yale University (Religious Ethics). Among his
recent publication are: Location and Life: How Stenberg v. Carhart Undercut Roe v. Wade, 9
WILLIAM & MARY J. WOMEN & LAW 255 (2003); The Priority of Respect, 44 INT'L PHILOSOPHICAL
QUARTERLY 165 (2004); Keeping Friendship Unregulated, 18 J. OF LAW, ETHICS & PUBLIC POLICY
263 (2004); La vida considerada como cosa, 56 CUADERNOS DE BIOÉTICA 23 (Spain, 2005); and
Securing the Rule of Law through Interpretive Pluralism: An Argument from Comparative
Law, 35 HASTINGS CONST. L. QUARTERLY 401 (2008); and Punishment, Invalidation, and
Nonvalidation, forthcoming in 14 LEGAL THEORY (2008).
Lynn D. Wardle is the Bruce C. Hafen Professor of Law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School at
Brigham Young University where he began teaching in 1978. His primary fields of teaching
and writing are family law, comparative family law, conflict of laws, and U.S. constitutional
history. Professor Wardle was President (2000-02) and Secretary-General (1994-2000) of
the International Society of Family Law (ISFL), and serves on the ISFL Executive Council.
He also is a member of the American Law Institute. Some recent publications include The
Judicial Imposition of Same-Sex Marriage: The Boundaries of Judicial Legitimacy and
Legitimate Redefinition of Marriage, 50 Washburn L.J. 79-107 (2010); Section Three of the
Defense of Marriage Act: Deciding, Democracy, and the Constitution, 58 Drake L. Rev. 9511103 (2010); and Matrimonio Entre Personas Del Mismo Sexo ¿ Un Rabo O Una Pata? (SameSex Marriage and the Limits of Legal Positivism: A Tail or A Leg?) in "Cuadernos de Derecho
de Familia" (Oct/2010), at 13-15.
Richard G. Wilkins, The Robert W. Barker Professor of Law, Brigham Young University
(retired), is the Executive Director of The Doha International Institute for Family Studies
and Development, Doha, Qatar. Established by Her Highness Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser,
Consort of His Highness the Emir of Qatar, the Institute sponsors and conducts
interdisciplinary international research regarding family life. Dr. Wilkins has argued eight
cases before the United States Supreme Court and has presented papers at conferences in
Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North and South America, and Scandinavia. He has
made presentations to numerous UN bodies and commissions, including the UN General
Assembly, the Commission on Social Development and the Commission on Human
Settlements. He has testified before legislative panels in Australia, the European Union,
Sweden and the United States. Professor Wilkins is married to Melany Moore Wilkins, who
holds a Masters Degree in Social Work. They are the parents of four children and have six
grandchildren.
CONTACT INFO
Professor Jane Adolphe
Ave Maria School of Law
1025 Commons Circle
Naples, FL 34119
Office: (239) 687-5387
Fax:
(239) 687-5340
Email: jadolphe@avemarialaw.edu, jadolphert@gmail.com
Professor Helen Alvare
George Mason University Law School
Arlington Campus, Rm. 402
3301 Fairfax Dr.
Arlington, VA 22201
Tel (703) 993-9845
halvare@gmu.edu
Professor George Dent
Schott van den Eynden Professorship
Case Western Reserve Law School
11075 East Blvd.
Cleveland, OH 44106
(216) 368-3311 tel
(216) 368-6144 FAX
Email: gwd@po.cwru.edu
Professor Scott FitzGibbon
Boston College Law School
885 Centre Street
Newton, MA 02459
Phone: 617-552-4320
Email: fitzgisc@yahoo.com
Carmen Garcimartin
Profesora Titular de Universidad (Associate Professor in Law)
Facultad de Derecho (School of Law)
University of La Coruña
Campus de Elviña
15071-La Coruña
SPAIN
Phone: +34-981-167000 ext. 1554
Cell Phone: +35-680-355805
Email: cgarcimartin@udc.es
Jorge Nicolás Lafferriere
Director de Investigación Jurídica Aplicada
Facultad de Derecho – Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina
Av. Alicia M. de Justo 1400, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Phone number: 54-11-43490491
E-mail address: nicolas_lafferriere@uca.edu.ar
Elizabeth Marquardt
Editor, Family Scholars
Vice-President for Family Studies & Director, Center for Marriage & Families
Institute for American Values
1841 Broadway, Suite 211
New York, NY 10023
Tel: 212. 246-3942
Mobile: 847 612 4122
Email: emarquardt70@sbcglobal.net
Dr. Marya Reed
Director of Operations and Finance
The Doha International Institute for Family Studies and Development
P.O. Box 34080
Doha, Qatar
Office: +974 4783410
Mobile: +974 5129223
Fax: +974 4454 8248
E-Mail: mreed@qf.org.qa
Professor Richard Stith
Valparaiso University School of Law
656 South Greenwich St.
Valparaiso, IN 46383-4945
U.S.A.
Telephone: 1-219-465-7871
Fax: 1-219-465-7872
Email: richard.stith@valpo.edu
Professor Lynn D. Wardle
518 JRCB
J. Reuben Clark Law School
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
Phone: 801-422-2517
Email: wardlel@law.byu.edu
Dr. Richard G. Wilkins
Executive Director
The Doha International Institute for Family Studies and Development
P.O. Box 34080
Doha, Qatar
Office: +974 4454 8221
Fax: +974 4454 8248
Mobile: +974 5554 2939
E-Mail: rwilkins@qf.org.qa
Professor Jane Adolphe (paper only)
Professor Helen Alvare
Professor George Dent
Professor Scott FitzGibbon
Carmen Garcimartin
Elizabeth Marquardt
Dr. Marya Reed
Professor Richard Stith
Professor Lynn D. Wardle
jadolphe@avemarialaw.edu, jadolphert@gmail.com
halvare@gmu.edu
gwd@po.cwru.edu
fitzgisc@yahoo.com
emarquardt70@sbcglobal.net
mreed@qf.org.qa
richard.stith@valpo.edu
wardlel@law.byu.edu
cgarcimartin@udc.es
ubasset@uca.edu.ar, ucbasset@gmail.com