Academic literature on the topic 'Abused wives Legal status'

Within the eighteenth century a college known as "The Unity System of {Lovers} Nationality" mentioned the theory that women should find the nationality with their husbands after marriage. Additionally, the nationality of men should be enforced on women. However, in the 20th century, a movement identified as feminism surfaced which resulted in the forming of a school called known as "System of Nationality Independence". This college advocated the parting of marriage and nationality and assumed that women's nationality should not change following marriage. These legal schools experienced different manifestations in the positive laws and regulations of different countries and it is sometimes hard to classify them into an individual legal college. The legal systems of countries can be categorized into two communities: legal systems advocating the imposition of husbands' nationality on wives; legal systems opposing the imposition of husbands' nationality on wives. This paper tries to comprise different systems of relationship between marriage and nationality.

Based on life history narratives of 57 women in India and interviews with 21 practitioners, we document the neglect, abuse, and instrumental deprivation of women’s rights through the process of transnational abandonment. While gendered local sociocultural milieus and economic norms contribute to these harms, they are crucially enabled and sustained by transnational formal-legal frameworks. Widening the explanatory lens for understanding domestic violence beyond the family and community, we argue that in a globalized world, (inter)state policies serve to construct these women as a subordinate category of citizens—“disposable women”—who can be abused and abandoned with impunity.

Abstract This article addresses The legal discourse in respect of the status of deserted Jewish Wives-Agunot in light of Halachic-Jewish Law Responsa of Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Toledano [Jewish legal] work Hayam Hagadol (Cairo, 1931) and Bat Ami (Tel Aviv 1947), which belongs to the category of Rabbinic Responsa. From these sources we learn of the legal discourse and his halachic approach in matters related to legal status of deserted Jewish wives (“Agunot”). From his responsa we learn of his use of the legal discourse, how he combined fully spelled out words and acronyms in Hebrew, the main language of his writings. He also used Aramaic, and foreign words written in Hebrew letters, as well as technical terms. We learn of his approach after he had meticulously studied halachic problems and issues, and combined halacha with historical events that impacted on the Jews over the centuries. Using these he issued halachic rulings. He used common sense, and did not rule out modern inputs, but rather addressed them and reached a halachic decision in order to provide his petitioners an adequate response. This article examines whether he was a strict rabbinic adjudicator or tended towards leniency.

Husbands’ violence towards their wives is one of the greatly important issues in social sciences. Accordingly, the current study aims at determining the levels of violence practiced by husbands towards their wives to propose a professional program from the perspective of the general practice of social work to overcome such a phenomenon. The study is descriptive in nature, where the researcher has used a comprehensive social survey method. To achieve the goal of the study, the researcher has prepared a questionnaire that consisted of two parts. The first part contains the primary data of the two sections, and the second contains (38) phrases distributed over four axes to measure the levels and types of violence among the sample’s members. The study has been conducted in the Safety House to Care for Abused Women in Gaza. The study’s sample amounted to (26) battered women. The results have revealed that the level of psychological violence is the most prevalent (81.3%), then comes physical violence (68.6%), then social (68%), and finally, comes economic violence (66.6%). The Study concluded that there are statistically significant differences between the level of violence practiced by husbands towards their wives in the Safety House for the care of battered women according to the variables of wife's educational status, and number of children. In light of these results, the study has concluded a proposed program from the perspective of general public practice to overcome husbands' violence against their wives.

The banker Pasion, father of the notorious fourth-century litigant and politician Apollodoros, some of whose speeches have survived under the name of Demosthenes, was originally a slave; freed by his owners, he made a substantial fortune from banking and subsequently received Athenian citizenship for his generous gifts to the city. At [Dem.] 59.2 we are given a paraphrase of the decree which enfranchised him: 'Aθηναον εἶναι Πασωνα κα κγνους τοὺς κενου ‘[the Athenian people voted] that Pasion and his descendants should be Athenian’. In common with inscriptions recording grants of citizenship, and unlike Roman military diplomata, the decree appears to have ignored Pasion's wife Archippe. The silence of the decrees of enfranchisement is echoed in the literary sources, with the result that we have no explicit testimony to the legal status of the wife of an alien who was granted Athenian citizenship. M. J. Osborne assumes that the status of the wife was in no way affected by the grant; she remained an alien. D. Whitehead has argued that in such cases the wife's status was indeterminate; in the event of the death of her first husband she might find herself married either to an Athenian citizen or to an alien, whereupon her status would be defined according to that of her husband. This article will argue that Archippe's status was unaffected by Pasion's receipt of citizenship, that is, that she remained a metic. I shall then proceed to consider the question of the implications of the difference in status of Pasion and Archippe subsequent to his enfranchisement for the legal basis of the relationship between them, and finally draw a tentative conclusion about the date of Pasion's receipt of citizenship.

In the summer of 2015 Hungary constructed a 175 km long barbed-wire fence at its southern border with Serbia. New criminal offences and asylum procedures were introduced that limited access to refugee status determination and ignored agreed EU asylum policy, deterring and de facto preventing asylum seekers from entering Hungarian territory. This paper provides an analysis of these new measures, which criminalized asylum seekers, and the subsequent Hungarian policy in relation to the case law of the European Court of Human Rights – arguing that the Hungarian authorities excessively abused their discretion in implementing these new policies of immigration and border control.

In 1725, Jane Webb, a free woman of color, sued Thomas Savage, a slave owner and middling planter, in Northampton County Court, on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Webb v. Savage was an unusual lawsuit, the culmination of over twenty years of legal wrangling between two parties who had an uncommon and intimate connection. The case originated in a 1703 contract between the pair, and at the time it was written, its terms, assumedly, were clear and mutually agreed upon. Two decades later, however, a tangled skein of circumstances obscured the stipulations of that original agreement. Over the course of those same years, the legal meaning of freedom for individuals like Jane Webb had fundamentally changed. Both fraught interpersonal relations and the evolution of race-based law mattered to the 1725 chancery case for one simple reason: Thomas Savage owned Jane Webb's husband. Despite the fact that Webb's spouse, named only in the records as Left, was enslaved, their marriage was legally recognized, and the seven children born to the couple, following the legal doctrine partus sequitur ventrum, took their free status as well as their surname from their mother.

Cerai talak (formula for divorce) and Cerai gugat (sue for divorce) are two terms of termination of marriage bond in Indonesia. The formula of divorce is a term that coincides with a divorce coming from the will of a husband and sue for divorce is the desire of a wife to separate from her husband. Islamic Law legalizes the right of wives in cases of divorce redeem (khulu‘) and fasakh because of syiqaq. On the other side, there are signs setting the rights up, so that the given reasons to use the rights must be legal in syar‘i. The reasons for the legality of divorce is a common-cause factor, so that the banning with threatening hadiths as well as those of the hadiths that say wives must obey their husbands, the wives should not hurt their husband and the wives are prisoners of husbands are all categorized into general. At another angle, there also the hadiths concerning with the status a couple husband and wife is heaven and hell for them in a household. Contextualization of hadiths that ban a wife asking for divorce without any legal cause from Syar‘i, and also those of the hadiths legalize khulu‘ are the realization of the conjugal lives with regards to the mandate of Allah and religious values. The facts of a wife sue for divorce to her husband are the conditions related to a confusion occurred in a household which are influenced by a variety of factors, i.g. economy, adultery, polygamy, social strata and others. A sue for divorce which is Syar’i based condition is a disagreement prolonged strife after peace held between the two sides and act endangers a wife

　　　1 January 2010 was a milestone for the survivors and victims of same-sex domestic violence in Hong Kong. After a hard fought legislative battle, the Domestic and Cohabitation Relationships Violence Ordinance (DCRVO) was extended to cover cohabitation relationships irrespective of sexual orientation. 　　　With the inclusion of same-sex cohabitants in the legislation, gay survivors are provided the same legal protection as different sex couples. It is believed that equality has been achieved for gay victims, in theory at least. Indeed, the topic of same-sex domestic violence seemed to vanish from the public sphere as soon as the Ordinance was enacted. Nevertheless, considering the cultural and social obstacles experienced by gay victims of domestic violence, e.g. social perception of homosexuality and the fear of being ‘outed’ by reporting the incidents, coupled with a lack of supplementary support services available to people with alternative sexual orientations, it is uncertain how effective this amendment will be to Hong Kong sexual minorities in practice. Therefore, the primary research question for this thesis is to what extent the DCRVO is effective in protecting in practice. 　　　This research question will be answered by a combination of qualitative and quantitative empirical research methods. This paper focuses on three areas particularly - the awareness amongst the gay community in Hong Kong of the legislation; the availability of same-sex domestic violence support services; and the subsequent complementary policies provided by the government. This study argues that without adequate complementary policies, the DCRVO will always remain to be a piece of work in progress, and not the ultimate solution for gay victims in Hong Kong.
published_or_final_version
Law
Master
Master of Philosophy

Despite growing awareness of the severity of domestic violence, the lives of battered women are too often misconstrued by the Canadian public and the judicial system. The author argues that stereotypes of victimized battered women emanating from the courts and feminist theory may both prevent women who kill their partner from making valid claims of self-defence and generally undermine women's fight against oppression. The author reviews the doctrine of the battered woman syndrome and its application in the context of self-defence to illustrate how the courts' treatment of the doctrine conveys a narrow and incomplete depiction of battered women. An alternative theoretical framework based on battered women's partial agency is proposed as a means to address feminist theory's simplified representation of battered women. Various law and policy reform initiatives in the criminal justice system are explored to assess how the law may validate and promote battered women's partial agency.

This thesis investigates current sentencing practices relating to the diverse, complex and emotionally laden phenomenon of child sexual abuse. It focuses on relevant legislative provisions, on case law and on an empirical study conducted amongst regional court magistrates. Trends, developments and problems are analysed and possible solutions to the main problems identified are investigated. The thesis concludes with proposed guidelines regarding the sentencing process in child sexual abuse cases. Such guidelines address general and specific principles, the use of victim impact statements, the increased recognition and use of behavioural science in the sentencing phase with regard to both the victim and the offender, and relevant aggravating and mitigating factors. The guidelines are an attempt to give some structure to the current haphazard approach adopted by the courts with regard to harm experienced by the victim. They are also aimed at assisting experts to provide more effective and reliable pre-sentence reports. Further, the thesis attempts to provide clarity concerning the factors that are considered to be aggravating or mitigating in the offence category, child sexual abuse, as well as with regard to the weight that should be attached to them. In addition, recommendations are made for the purpose of possible law reform and further research in relation to the regulation of judicial discretion through the introduction of formal sentencing guidelines, victim impact statements and the accommodation of behavioural science in the sentencing process pertaining to sexual offenders. This proposal is based on current South African sentencing practices as reflected in the consolidation of local judgments scattered over many years in different law reports and, to some extent, on English, Canadian, Australian and American sentencing practices as researched in this study.

Includes bibliography
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The human security concept challenges the traditional view of state security. The very essence of human security means to respect human rights. The Commission on Human Security did not focus on women as a special area of concern in the 1994 Human Development Report. The report does not recognise that being subject to gender hierarchies increases women’s insecurity and that women experience human security differently from men and shows that the human security concept does not include gender based violence (GBV) because there is no specific attention paid to issues that predominantly pertain to women. This study is conducted from a feminist perspective. It is reflexive research and based on standpoint theory. The data is gathered through analysis of secondary data and primary data, collected through interviews. GBV in South Africa tends to be continuous and the perpetrator is most likely to be a spouse or partner. Studies show that women are seen as being dependent on and weaker than men. Many men view women’s rights legislation as a challenge to the legitimacy of men’s authority over women. Women who try to be more independent in their relationships are regarded as threats and violence against them becomes a way for men to show control. The criminal justice system in South Africa has made progress in protecting women from GBV but myths, stereotypes and social conventions still prevent women from receiving justice. Traditionally, the state regards what happens in the private sphere as outside its responsibility. The public/private dichotomy challenges state regulations and norms which is evident in the case of domestic violence. It is often argued that GBV has remained imperceptible because it takes place in the private sphere. However, this research indicates that due to the socio-economic situation in South Africa, the abuse is often publicly known by those in the immediate environment as people live in informal housing. This research shows that a human security framework that targets GBV has to be developed for those who bear its consequences. When women are not viewed as subjects, issues that mainly affect them remain invisible. It is necessary that analysis of human insecurity starts from the conditions of women’s lives. Many women in South Africa live highly traumatic lives. Fighting GBV requires that we know the victims of GBV and let them decide what they need to feel secure. Creating human security requires that other threats which contribute to GBV, such as poverty, gender stereotypes and prejudice are also addressed. GBV has become an epidemic in South Africa and is a permanent constraint in women’s lives and impacts society as a whole. The security of the state rest on the security of women and as long as the state fails to treat GBV as a serious crime and protect women the state is more likely to use violence on a larger scale against its citizens.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die Menslike Veiligheidskonsept daag die tradisionele siening van staatsveiligheid uit: die kerbetekenis van Menslike Veiligheid is om menseregte te respekteer. Die Kommissie op Menslike Veiligheid het nie op vroue as ‘n spesiale area van kommer gefokus in die Menslike Ontwikkelingsverslag van 1994 nie. Die verslag het daarin gefaal om te erken dat die realiteit van geslags-hiërargieë vroue se insekuriteit verhoog, en dat die ervaring van menslike sekuriteit van mans en vroue verskil. Hierdie navorsing sal toon dat die menslike veiligheidsbegrip nie in staat is om geslags-gebaseerde geweld (GGG) in ag te neem nie, aangesien daar geen spesifieke aandag verleen is aan vraagstukke wat hoofsaaklik op vroue betrekking het nie. Hierdie studie is vanuit 'n feministiese perspektief gedoen. Die navorsing is reflektief en op standpunt-teorie gebaseer. Die data is deur die analise van sekondêre data, asook die gebruik van primêre data i deur middel van onderhoude ingesamel . GGG in Suid-Afrika is geneig om oor ‘n uitgerekte tydperk plaas te vind en die mees waarskynlike oortreders is ‘n eggenoot of lewensmaat. Navorsing toon dat gemeenskappe geneig is om vroue as swakker en afhanlik van mans te sien. Wetgewing op die regte van vroue word deur vele mans as ‘n uidaging van hul legitieme superioriteit, ten op sigte van vroue, gesien. Vroue wat dus onafhanklikheid in hul verhoudings probeer uitoefen, word as bedreigings gesien en geweld word gebruik om hulle “in hul plek te hou”. Die Suid-Afrikaanse kriminele regstelsel het al vordering gemaak in terme van die beskerming van vroue teen GGG, maar mites, stereotipes en sosiale konvensies belemmer steeds die volle gang van die gereg. Die staat het in die verlede die private sfeer as buite sy jurisdiksie gesien. Die openbare/private sfeer digotomie bied uitdagings vir staatsregulering en vir die implementering van regulasies , en dit word veral duidelik in die geval van huishoudelike geweld. Daar word aangevoer dat aangesien GGG in die private sfeer plaasvind, dit onsigbaar bly. Hierdie navorsing het egter bevind dat GGG in die Suid-Afrikaanse konteks dikwels in die openbare gemeenskapsfeer (deur diegene in die onmiddelike omgewing) opgemerk word, omdat baie mense in Suid-Afrika informele nedersettings woon.Hierdie navorsing het verder bevind dat ‘n GGG raamwerk vir menslike veiligheid ontwikkel moet word wat diegene wat die gevolge van GGG dra insluit. Indien vroue nie spesifiek as navorsingssubjekte geag word nie, bly faktore wat hulle spesifiek beïnvloed onsigbaar. Dit is belangrik dat analise van menslike insekuriteit begin om die omstandighede van vrouens se lewens in ag te neem. Vroue in Suid-Afrika leef in hoogs traumatiese omstandighede. In die bestryding van GGG is dit belangrik dat die slagoffers van GGG in ag geneem word en dat dit hulle toelaat om dit duidelik te maak wat hulle onveilig laat voel. Die skep van menslike veiligheid vereis dat bedreigings wat bydra tot GGG, naamlik armoede, geslagstereotipes en vooroordeel , ook aangespreek word. GGG in Suid-Afrika het ‘n epidemie geword, en plaas ‘n permanente beperking op vroue se lewens. Dit het ook ‘n blywende impak op die samelewing as ‘n geheel. Die veiligheid van die staat rus op die veiligheid van vroue. Solank as wat die staat versuim om GGG te bekamp en as ‘n ernstigge misdaad te erken, en vroue nie die beskerming van die staat geniet nie, is daar ‘n hoër moontlikheid vir die gebruik van geweld deur die staat teen sy eie burgers op ‘n groter skaal.

This study outlines the results of an evaluation of programmes through a developmental quality assurance process within shelters for abused women and their children in Gauteng Province. The survey obtained the attitudes and opinions of the social workers/social auxiliary workers and shelter managers towards their services. The study reflects empirical findings as well as strengths and developmental areas within these shelters. The results from the study indicate that shelters for abused women and their children are functioning well. However, the Minimum Standards for Shelters are not fully adhered to. Therefore, internal and external evaluations should be used by shelter managers to evaluate their own performance and to improve service delivery.
Social Work
MA(SS) (Social Work)

This thesis focuses on Aboriginal women as survivors of intimate violence, and as participants in debates about justice and rights in the academic, political and legal spheres. While several federal and provincial reports have documented the adverse impact of the dominant criminal justice system on Aboriginal peoples, most of the reports fail to consider the impact of the dominant system, and of reform initiatives on Aboriginal women, who engage with such systems primarily as survivors of violence. Although feminist legal scholars and activists have focused on survivors of violence in critiquing the dominant justice system, such discourses have also tended to ignore the needs and concerns of Aboriginal women in recommending reforms to the dominant system, as well as in theorizing the causes and sites of intimate violence. Using feminist methods, I explore how the writings of Aboriginal women have begun to fill these gaps. In focusing on gender and racial oppression, Aboriginal women have complicated theories on and reforms around intimate violence, and have demanded that they be included in the shaping of public institutions in both the Canadian legal system, and in the context of Aboriginal self-government. While Aboriginal women largely support the creation of Aboriginal justice systems, some have expressed concerns about the willingness of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal leaders to include women in the process of creating, implementing and operating such systems. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as well as Aboriginal rights under the Constitution Act, 1982 have been advocated as means of achieving Aboriginal women's participation in this context. This gives rise to a number of fundamental questions which I examine in my thesis. What is the historical basis for the participation of Aboriginal women in the political process, and for survivors of violence in both the dominant and Aboriginal justice systems? What is the significance of the absence of Aboriginal women from dominant discourses on justice and intimate violence? Might a broader level of participation for survivors of violence, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, ameliorate the problematic aspects of the dominant justice system? Does the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms provide a vehicle for survivors of violence who seek a greater level of protection and participation in the dominant justice system? Can the Charter, or Aboriginal rights under the Canadian constitution, assist Aboriginal women in establishing a right of participation in the processes leading to the creation of Aboriginal justice systems, and their participation in such systems once they have been created? What are the limitations of rights discourse in this context? My analysis suggests that the Supreme Court of Canada's conservative approach to rights, as well as more fundamental limitations in rights discourse, make constitutional litigation within the dominant system a sometimes necessary, but not ideal strategy for Aboriginal women in defining their involvement in the political and justice arenas. On the other hand, there is potential for rights discourse to bear more fruit once Aboriginal decision making fora are in place, in keeping with holistic approaches to interpretation, and the traditional roles of Aboriginal women and survivors of violence in justice and in the community.

The researcher identified in her work as a social worker that sexually abused adolescents experience difficulties with testifying in court. The goal of this research was directed at developing guidelines to assist adolescents who have to testify in court. The researcher utilised the qualitative research approach with an exploratory and descriptive nature. Semi-structured interviews were done with a sample of adolescents who have testified in court, a sample of parents or caregivers of adolescents who have testified in court and social workers working with adolescents who testify in court. These interviews were conducted to gain insight into how the research participants experienced the court process in order to formulate guidelines for adolescents who have to testify in court. The researcher concluded that adolescents experience testifying in court as negative. Guidelines were developed from the information obtained from the research participants to support adolescents who has to testify in court.
Social work
M.Diac. (Play therapy)

M.Sc. (Psychology)
Increasing attention has over the past decade been directed at sexual abuse in the form of media exposure and the formation of specialised units for the protection of children's rights. In this manner the South African Police Service have, since the first Child Protection Unit was formed in 1986, established units country wide in an attempt to erradicate this phenomenon. An overwiew of the literature makes it apparent that there are lots of conflicting opinions pertaining to sexual molestation. Not only do researchers differ in their definitions of sexual molestation but also on the incidence, typology and ethiology thereof. Flowing from the diverse and far reaching consequences suffered by the victim coupled to the accompanied legal and ethical aspects, child molestation presents as an extremely complex phenomenon to fully address. The Child Protection Unit of the South African Police Service thus appears to be the most appropriate place for the handling of child molestation because of the law inforcement context thereof. The goal of the study was thus to identify the needs of this unit in an effort to help the unit achieve the highest possible standards of effectiveness. To realise this study a phenomenological investigative method was used in the form of a need assessment questionnaire which was sent to the Johannesburg and Pretoria units. Data was collected in the form of completed questionnaires and was evaluated and interpreted in a qualitative manner. Needs determined, amongst others, were for more extensive training in specialised areas as well as a need for the direct involvement of a social worker and a psychologist at the Child Protection Unit. The above mentioned needs in conjunction with other identified needs and criticism voiced by the respondents, formed the basis for the recommendations proposed at the end of this thesis.

This chapter is devoted to the history of the law of marriage. The formation of marriage was for many centuries a matter for the Church and its law. In medieval times marriage was held to be a sacrament and indissoluble. Divorce a vinculo matrimonii meant a decree of nullity, not dissolution. Divorce a mensa et thoro, or judicial separation, was available on grounds of misconduct, but the parties were not free to remarry. Bastardy, the status of children born outside marriage, was also for the canon law. The second part of the chapter goes into the common law of coverture, the status of married women, and the slow progress towards giving wives the right to own property and make contracts. It ends with the piecemeal reforms of divorce law, following the establishment of a secular divorce court in 1857.

Abstract Upon becoming a widow, an early modern woman was often faced with patriarchal anxieties and stereotypes about her new status. This held particularly true for widows who embarked on legal proceedings. While rejecting certain stereotypes, other tropes could work to her advantage. This could mean that widows fashioned a different image of themselves at different times, or in different areas of their lives. The persona a widowed litigant chose to adopt was dictated by the kind of suit she brought. Other models were tied to specific circumstances. This, together with the nature of these legal records, forced widowed litigants to fashion themselves as a particular kind of widow, while life-writing demonstrates that they may have been all of the above at the same time. As such, never were they merely widows, but they were biblical widows, wives and/or femes soles.

As reformers and lawmakers raised the age of consent to marriage and made it more difficult for minors to become husbands and wives, young people reacted by marrying extralegally. From the late nineteenth century through the first three decades of the twentieth, the rates of minor marriage increased, in part, this chapter argues, because marriage became one way of legaly claiming freedom and independence from parents. Marriage emancipated children, it let them escape from abusive homes, keep their wages or inheritances, and have sex without being prosecuted under newly passed statutory rape laws. It allowed them to contest their status as children, itself newly enshrined in the law in a whole host of Progressive Era reforms targeting childhod and adolescence. At the same time the legal device of marriage could also trap girls in abusive and exploitative relationships where they had little recourse to legal protection.

The Indian subcontinent is inhabited by three principal communities, namely the Hindus who are in the majority, followed by Muslims and Christians. The Christians, though numerically in the minority, enjoyed the support of the British rulers for them to claim a separate legal status. Hindu law did not permit divorce, whereas Muslim law allowed divorce only the male spouse and Christian law allowed divorce to both the male and the female spouses. Conversion to Islam by the Hindus and the Christians brought about inter-personal law conflicts. The Regulating Act, 1781, enacted by the British rulers, introduced the rule that in a court action, where the parties professed different religions, the applicable law was the law of the defendant. As this rule failed to produce a satisfactory result where a Hindu wife, who got converted to Islam, could not get divorce that she sought because Hindu law did not permit divorce, Ormond, J. introduced the norm of justice, equity, and good conscience. Recent reforms in the Hindu law, coupled with enactment of the Muslim Marriage Act, 1939, brought about relief to wives who embraced Islam and sought relief. Courts played a significant role by giving a divorced Muslim wife maintenance right for life.