The man recognized by law as the male parent of a child. • A man is the legal father of a child if he was married to the child’s natural mother when the child was born, if he has recognized or acknowledged the child, or if he has been declared the child’s natural father in […]
The child who is intended to result from a surrogacy contract. See surrogate parent under PARENT; surrogate mother under MOTHER; intentional parent under PARENT; legal father under FATHER; SURROGACY CONTRACT.
A man who, though not a child’s legal father, is estopped from denying liability for child support. • This estoppel usu. arises when the man (1) has lived with the child for at least two years, (2) has believed in good faith that he was the child’s father, (3) has accepted parental responsibilities, and (4)
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A child born after a parent’s death. • Ordinarily, the phrase posthumous child suggests one born after the father’s death. But in at least one case, a legally dead pregnant woman was kept on life-support machines until the child could be safely delivered; so it is possible for a mother’s posthumous child to be born.
conubium (k[schwa]-n[y]oo-bee-[schwa]m), n. [fr. Latin con “together” + nubere “to marry”] Roman law. 1. The legal capacity to wed. 2. The collection of rights that accompany a marriage between persons who have the capacity to marry. — Also spelled connubium. — Also termed jus connubii. See CONCUBINATUS; JUSTAE NUPTIAE. “The word connubium denotes properly the
emancipation. 1. The act by which one who was under another’s power and control is freed. 2. A surrender and renunciation of the correlative rights and duties concerning the care, custody, and earnings of a child; the act by which a parent (historically a father) frees a child and gives the child the right to
apprentice. 1. Hist. A person bound by an indenture to work for an employer for a specified period to learn a craft, trade, or profession. “Apprentices, in the strict legal sense, are servants, usually but not necessarily infants, who agree to serve their masters with a view to learning some trade or business, and whose
mort d’ancestor (mor[t] dan-ses-t[schwa]r). [Law French “death of an ancestor”] Hist. An assize founded on the death of an ancestor. — Also termed (in Scots law) brieve of mortancestry. “Another of the petty assizes was that of mort d’ancestor, founded on the Assize of Northhampton 1176. The question in this assize was whether the plaintiff’s
An adoption in which the biological mother (sometimes with the biological father) chooses the adoptive parents and in which the child often continues to have a post-adoption relationship with his or her biological family. • Typically the birth parents meet the adoptive parents and participate in the separation and placement process. The birth parents relinquish
fama publica (fay-m[schwa] p[schwa]b-li-k[schwa]). [Latin “public repute”] Hist. A person’s reputation in the community. • A person’s fama publica could be used against him or her in a criminal proceeding. Cf. ILL FAME . “Now in the thirteenth century we find in the sheriff’s turn a procedure by way of double presentment, and we may