Professor Solangel Maldonado Publishes New Book, Receives Approval for Restatement on Children and the Law

Seton Hall University School of Law’s Eleanor Bontecou Professor of Law, Solangel Maldonado, recently celebrated the culmination of three important projects. She was involved in the American Law Institute’s approval of the Restatement of the Law, Children and the Law. She published a new book centered around the law’s influence on the most personal and private choices, and she led a session on applying critical race theory in the classroom.

American Law Institute Children and the Law

Professor Maldonado was recently an Associate Reporter of the Restatement of the Law, Children and the Law, the first Restatement to comprehensively examine the legal regulation of children. The Restatement was approved by the American Law Institute’s membership on May 22, 2024. Professor Maldonado was appointed in December of 2014 to the Restatement and is the first Latina to serve as an associate reporter on a restatement project. She reflected, "One of the most fulfilling aspects of this restatement was the opportunity to work closely with dozens of dedicated research assistants throughout the 9-year process and to collaborate with judges, practitioners, and law faculty at other institutions who served as Advisers on the project."

The project was led by Reporter Elizabeth Scott of Columbia Law School, and covers issues such as parental rights and state intervention in cases of abuse and neglect; the rights of students and the limits of state authority in public schools; the rights and special protections of youth in both the juvenile and criminal justice systems, from police contact to dispositions and sentencing; and children as legal persons, covering free-speech rights and the authority of minors to consent to certain medical decisions, among other things. 

To learn more about the Restatement of the Law, Children and the Law, visit https://www.ali.org/news/articles/american-law-institutes-restatement-law-children-and-law-approved/ 

Fresh off the Press

Last month, Professor Maldonado’s book, The Architecture of Desire: How the Law Shapes Interracial Intimacy and Perpetuates Inequality, was published. The Architecture of Desire examines how the law influences the most personal and private choices, who people desire and choose as intimate partners, and explores the psychological, economic, and social consequences of these choices. She argues that romantic preferences, as shaped by law, perpetuate segregation and subordination by limiting, on the basis of race, individuals' prospects for marriage and marriage-like commitments, as well as economic and social mobility. 

Professor Maldonado includes studies of online and offline dating preferences to demonstrate that romantic predilections follow a gendered racial hierarchy. The book proposes ways to minimize the law's influence over desire, love, and families, such as changes to dating platforms as well as to housing, education, and transportation policies.

To purchase a copy, visit https://nyupress.org/9781479812356/the-architecture-of-desire/

A copy of the book is also available for Seton Hall Law students in the Peter W. Rodino, Jr. Law Library Center.

Graciela Olivárez Latinas in the Legal Academy

On May 21, Professor Maldonado led a breakout session on "Operationalizing CRT in Teaching" at the 2024 Graciela Olivárez Latinas in the Legal Academy (GO LILA) Workshop, hosted by Berkeley Law School in California. Professor Maldonado was one of the founding members of GO LILA in 2022. Through this workshop, others are invited to share their stories and learn how to inspire other Latinas to join the legal academy. The annual workshop dedicates time to scholarship, job market preparedness, exploring identities and history, professor development, wellness, and building community. During the breakout session, Professor Maldonado provided insights and tips on how to incorporate and navigate conversations about race in teaching.

To learn more: https://sites.law.berkeley.edu/go-lila-workshop-2024/

Categories: Policy and Research