The Journal of Law and Policy is committed to generating a symposium-based publication that brings together communities of scholars, through a mutual and collaborative student and faculty process, emphasizing existing and emerging visions of the law in relation to interdisciplinary and multicultural perspectives, the implications of technology, and the consequences of economic globalization for the purpose of influencing law and social policy.
Mission Statement:
This publication originated in 1968 as the Urban Law Annual and focused entirely on issues surrounding land use, urban development, and other legal concerns of urban communities. The scope broadened in1983 when the Journal expanded (and became the Journal of Urban and Contemporary Law) to encompass a broad range of topics while still emphasizing urban and land-use law. In 1999, the staff and its advisors began a lengthy process of reevaluating the Journal’s role in the advancement of legal scholarship. As a result of this process, the Journal once again broadened its scope to become the Washington University Journal of Law & Policy.
The Journal is committed to generating a symposium-based publication that brings together communities of scholars, through a mutual and collaborative student and faculty process, emphasizing existing and emerging visions of the law in relation to interdisciplinary and multicultural perspectives, the implications of technology, and the consequences of economic globalization for the purpose of influencing law and social policy.
In furtherance of this mission, the Journal, unlike most law reviews, centers each volume around a pertinent theme or issue. The articles therein are authored by professors of law, legal practitioners, judges, and distinguished scholars from a variety of academic disciplines. Each year, the Journal publishes an “Access to Justice” volume. This volume is a compilation of essays from the Washington University School of Law’s “Access to Justice” speaker series, one goal of which is to encourage and challenge audiences to use their legal education for the ultimate betterment of our society. Additionally, the Journal collaborates with faculty members to publish symposia along a broad spectrum of contemporary topics.
Current Volume:
Volume 72 • Issue 1 • 2023 • Nonmarriage and the Law: Fourth Annual Roundtable
Today, nearly twenty million adults in the United States are cohabitating, some maintaining committed relationships while living separately and others living together while maintaining relationships with some form of intimacy or dependency—apart from the traditional confines of marriage. All the while, others have chosen to remain single. With the proliferation of these arrangements comes legal reforms—albeit slowly—to address and accommodate nontraditional couples along with scholarship to examine the reasons couples and individuals are parting from tradition in higher numbers.
Published by the Washington University Journal of Law and Policy (“Journal”), this seventy-second volume continues a growing tradition of cutting-edge scholarship. As part of our fourth roundtable event on nonmarriage, this volume features articles and essays (reflections) from academics across a wide range of disciplines on the economic rights of nonmarital partners, the constitutional issues relating to nonmarriage, the design of regulatory responses to family composition, and the implications of legal directives across a myriad of demographic categories, including race, gender, class, and sexual orientation—to name a few. The featured authors have worked tirelessly to bring quality contributions on the phenomenon of nonmarriage to this Symposium’s publication— Nonmarriage and the Law: Fourth Annual Roundtable.
Article
Reflections on "Personal Responsibility " After COVID and Dobbs
Susan Frelich Appleton and Laura Rosenbury
2023-06-04 Volume 72 • Issue 1 • 2023 • Nonmarriage and the Law: Fourth Annual Roundtable • 129-166