Introduction

• Pages: 11-14
• Date: 01 July 2024
• Published date: 01 July 2024
• Author: Lisa F. Grumet,Natalie Halpin,Kelly Jackson

xi

Introduction

LISA F. GRUMET, NATALIE HALPIN, AND KELLY

JACKSON*

We are honored to introduce this Family Law Quarterly issue on the

new Restatement of the Law, Children and the Law, which was approved

by the American Law Institute in 2024 with nal publication forthcoming

in 2025. This issue features articles by several of the Reporters who drafted

the Restatement.1 In their articles, the authors reect on the Restatement

and its role in identifying developments in the law and potentially guiding

systemic reform. We have also included excerpts from the Restatement:

the Table of Contents, which demonstrates the Restatement’s scope; and

the “black-letter” text and comments for several Restatement sections

concerning child welfare, public education, and juvenile justice.

The new Restatement of Children and the Law is a tremendous resource

for family law practitioners and scholars, and also for policymakers. Since

its foundation in 1923, the American Law Institute has developed multiple

“Restatements” that help to explain key areas of the law, including Torts,

Contracts, Property, and other subjects.2 Collectively, Restatements have

been cited in judicial opinions more than 200,000 times, and also have

inuenced state and federal legislation and regulations.3

The Children and the Law Restatement is organized into four parts. Part

I, Children in Families, discusses the parent-child relationship, the state’s

authority to intervene in the family, and limits on the state’s authority. Part

1. The authors are Reporter Elizabeth Scott, Harold R. Medina Professor Emerita of Law

at Columbia Law School; Associate Reporters Professors Clare Huntington, Barbara Aronstein

Black Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, and Solangel Maldonado, Eleanor Bontecou

Professor of Law at Seton Hall Law School and member of the Family Law Quarterly Board of

Editors; and David Thronson, Professor of Law at Michigan State University College of Law

and member of the Members Consultative Group on the Restatement.

2. About ALI, am. l. inst., https://www.ali.org/about; Publications, am. l. inst., https://

www.ali.org/publications.

3. Richard Revesz, When Legislatures and Agencies Rely on Restatements of the Law, am.

l. inst. (Dec. 4, 2019), https://www.ali.org/news/articles/when-legislatures-and-agencies-rely-

restatements-law; see also Frequently Asked Questions, am. l. inst., https://www.ali.org/faq.

*Lisa F. Grumet, faculty Editor in Chief for the Family Law Quarterly, is a Professor of

Law at New York Law School (NYLS) and Director of the Diane Abbey Law Institute for

Children and Families. Natalie Halpin, NYLS ’25, and Kelly Jackson, NYLS ’25, are the

2024–25 Executive Articles Editors for the Family Law Quarterly.

Published in Family Law Quarterly, Volume 58, Numbers 2 & 3, 2025. © 2025 American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof

may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.