Conflict of Laws (Family Law)

Conflict of Laws is a bit different than other subjects tested on the UBE.  Historically, though I suppose this can change at any time, it has only shown up as a sub-topic within an essay primarily testing another subject.  So, perhaps one out of multiple questions on an essay will ask about a Conflicts issue while most of the remaining points are awarded for knowledge about a different substantive area.

As such, when studying for Conflict of Laws, it's important to understand how to analyze these issues as they might show up attached to a different subject area. I'll focus a variety of posts on this with this post focused on how a Conflict of Laws issue might show up in a Family Law essay.

Here's what to know:

Pre-Marital Agreements: The enforceability of premarital agreements are generally governed by the law of the state in which the agreement was executed or the law of the state with the most significant relationship to the parties and to the pre-marital agreement.

Marriage: A marriage valid where celebrated is valid everywhere and likewise a marriage void where celebrated is void everywhere. There is, however an exception: a marriage, even if valid where celebrated may be invalid in a different state if the marriage violates a "prohibitory rule" of the domicile of one of the parties and if the parties immediately return to and become domiciled in that state. Prohibitory rules are generally those that express a strong public policy of a given state.

Annulment: Annulment is governed by the law of the place where the marriage was celebrated.

Divorce: Issues involving divorce are governed by the law of the plaintiff's domicile.

Children: Attempts to legitimate a child (to change a child's status from non-marital to marital) are valid if valid under the law of the father's domicile. Property incidents related to the child's status are generally governed as directed by the First Restatement (the law of the state where the property is located) or the Second Restatement (the law of the state that created the status of the child).

Adoption: A court will apply its own local law to govern adoption. Property incidents related to adoption should be analyzed either by the law of the state where the property is located or by the law of the state where the adoption took place.