Talk:Common law adoption

Merger proposal
This page should be merged with the Adoption article, under the contemporary forms of adoption.Tobit2 (talk) 04:44, 28 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Oppose. The term "common law adoption" is a legal term, and the article is indexed as a separate term, allowing definition for each nation's specific laws. Merging would become too restrictive, as analogous to merging all articles named "xxx law" into one giant article named "Law". Similarly, merging would complicate the listing of the article in a category for common-law terms. -Wikid77 (talk) 06:01, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Support. Adoption is a legal mechanism. Common law adoption is a subset of that legal mechanism (in some jurisdictions).  Separating this article from its parent sunders it from the fuller historical and contemporary context, compelling it to become a little seen stub that gets haphazard maintenance from editors working on the main articles.Tobit2 (talk) 13:20, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Comment It seems like in this instance common law adoption is not a subset of the legal mechanism of adoption as common law adoption refers to adoption that occurs outside of legal avenues.Curtis (talk) 16:14, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Response Since a common law adoption is eventually recognized by the courts, it must occur through a legal avenue. Moreover, the outcome must also fall under the Adoption laws of the jurisdiction.  The only difference introduced by a common law adoption is that rather than a parent giving up her rights or having them terminated by the state due to abuse/neglect, the courts assume the rights are forfeit based on time of absence.Tobit2 (talk) 23:10, 28 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Support per response by Tobit2 Curtis (talk) 14:08, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Based on the responses, I will complete the merger.Tobit2 (talk) 00:41, 2 September 2009 (UTC)