Faculty

Karen Czapanskiy

Francis & Harriet Iglehart Research Professor of Law

Phone: (410) 706-2516
Fax: (410) 706-6644
E-mail:
Office: 381

BA, 1969, University of California, Berkeley
JD, 1973, Georgetown University

Professor Czapanskiy has been an attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, taught at the University of Hawaii Law School and the Washington College of Law, and clerked for the Honorable Rita C. Davidson, Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

Since joining the faculty in 1983, Professor Czapanskiy has served as the reporter for the Maryland Joint Special Committee on Gender Bias in the Courts and as a member of the Governor’s Commission on Disruptive Youth.

She was chair of the Section on Women in Legal Education of the AALS and organized the Maryland/DC/Virginia Women Law Teachers Group. She is a member of the American Law Institute and the Prytanean Society. Her teaching and research interests include poverty law, family law and the relationship of law to the lives of women, children and families. Professor Czapanskiy spent the fall semester of 1994 as a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Durban-Westville, South Africa.

In response to welfare reform, Professor Czapanskiy worked with lawyers from the Homeless Persons Representation Project and students and other faculty from the Law School to create the FIP Legal Clinic. The Clinic has engaged in individual and systemic advocacy around issues such as ensuring medicaid coverage for welfare leavers, disability screenings and administrative appeals. Professor Czapanskiy's scholarly research since 1996 has focused on the consequences of welfare reform inside and outside of Maryland.

Books

Family Law: Cases, Text, Problems (5th ed. 2010) (with others). [Abstract]

Articles

Special Kids, Special Parents, Special Education, 46 Michigan Journal of Law Reform (forthcoming 2013). [Full Text]

1992: A Year of Women, Bravery, and Growth, 80 UMKC Law Review 751 (2012).

Disabled Kids and Their Moms: Caregivers and Horizontal Equity, 19 Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy 43 (2012). [Full Text]

Chalimony: Seeking Equity Between Parents of Children with Disabling Conditions and Chronic Illnesses, 34 N.Y.U. Journal of Law & Social Change 253 (2010). [Full Text]

The Right of Public Participation in the Law-Making Process and the Role of the Legislature in the Promotion of This Right, Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law 1 (2008) (with Rashida Manjoo). [Full Text]

Book Review, 45 Family Court Review 335 (2007) (reviewing Linda C. McClain, The Place of Families: Fostering Capacity, Equality, and Responsibility). [Full Text]

To Protect and Defend: Assigning Parental Rights When Parents Are Living in Poverty, 14 William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal 943 (2006). [Full Text]

Unemployment Insurance Reform for Moms, 44 Santa Clara Law Review 1093 (2004). [Full Text]

Why Does It Matter Where I Live? Welfare Reform, Equal Protection, and the Maryland Constitution, 63 Maryland Law Review 655 (2004). [Full Text]

Domestic Violence and the Maryland Family Violence Option, 2 American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy, and the Law 447 (2003). [Full Text]

Parents, Children, and Work-First Welfare Reform: Where is the C in TANF?, 61 Maryland Law Review 101 (2002). [Full Text]

Clinical Legal Education: An Annotated Bibliography (2d edition), 7 Clinical Law Review at S1 (2001) (with J.P. Ogilvy). [Full Text]

ALI Child Support Principles: A Lesson in Public Policy and Truth-Telling, 8 Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy 259 (2001). [Full Text]

Musing about Community, or Why Is It Better to Be an American Grandparent than a Cuban Father?, 102 West Virginia Law Review 729 (2000) [Full Text]

Interdependencies, Families and Children, 39 Santa Clara Law Review 957 (1999). [Full Text]

Gender Equality under the Constitutions of South Africa and the United States, in The Constitution of South Africa from a Gender Perspective (S. Liebenberg ed., 1995).

Child Support, Visitation, Shared Custody and Split Custody, in Child Support Guidelines: The Next Generation (Margaret Campbell Haynes ed., 1994). [Full Text]

Grandparents, Parents and Grandchildren: Making a Case for Interdependency in Law, 26 University of Connecticut Law Review 1315 (1994). [Full Text]

Domestic Violence, the Family and the Lawyering Process: Lessons from Studies on Gender Bias in the Courts, 27 Family Law Quarterly 235 (1993). [Full Text]

Anti-Harassment: Building Law School Policies, 4 Maryland Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues 1 (1993). [Full Text]

Babies, Parents, and Grandparents: A Story in Two Cases, 1 American University Journal of Gender and the Law 85 (1993). [Full Text]

Volunteers and Draftees: The Struggle for Parental Equality, 38 UCLA Law Review 415 (1991). [Full Text]

Gender Bias in the Courts: Social Change Strategies, 3 Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics 1 (1990). [Full Text]

Child Support and Visitation: Rethinking the Connections, 20 Rutgers Law Journal 619 (1989). [Full Text]

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due: The Role of the Non-Economic Contribution of the Physical Custodian in Establishing Child Support, in Critical Issues, Critical Choices: Special Topics in Child Support Guidelines Development (1987). [Full Text]

Time Limits Under the Freedom of Information Act: Another Problematic New Property Reform, 44 Maryland Law Review 38 (1985). [Full Text]

Grove City College v. Bell: Touchdown or Touchback?, 43 Maryland Law Review 379 (1984). [Full Text]

Bias Impeachment and the Proposed Federal Rules of Evidence, 61 Georgetown Law Journal 257 (1972) (with John Schmertz, Jr.). [Full Text]

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Courses

Affiliations

Clinical Law Program