Community Property in the United States

This is the only casebook presenting the law — both statutes and cases — of all nine community property states. Pertinent parts of most key statutes are quoted in full. Students interested primarily in the law of one of the community property states will understand the law of that state better due to their exposure to the laws of other states that take different approaches to resolving various issues. This comparative approach leads readers to appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of the rules in their states. Each chapter of the casebook concludes with several fact-law problems to engage the reader, sometimes directed at specified jurisdictions, and usually containing citations to get the reader started on his or her analysis. In addition to basic community property law, the casebook thoroughly presents the several conflict of laws approaches to solving multi-state marital property problems as well as the law concerning putative marriage and property rights arising out of unmarried cohabitation. The book also highlights special rules of federal income tax law for community property.