About

Clare Huntington is the Barbara Aronstein Black Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, having joined as a full-time faculty member on July 1, 2023. She is a nationally recognized expert in family law and poverty law, with her scholarship exploring the institutions and empirical foundations of the legal system’s approach to relationships. Her research focuses on early childhood development, aging, the impact of AI on affective lives, and the legal challenges faced by nonmarital families due to the law’s focus on marriage. Huntington has received five teaching awards, including the Willis L.M. Reese Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 2025. Her academic contributions include publications in leading law reviews and the authorship of books such as 'Failure to Flourish: How Law Undermines Family Relationships' and the edited volume 'Social Parenthood in Comparative Perspective.' She has served as associate reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law, Children and the Law. Prior to her current position, she was the Joseph M. McLaughlin Professor of Law at Fordham Law School, where she was also an associate dean and was named Teacher of the Year in 2021. Huntington’s background includes clerking for Supreme Court Justices Harry A. Blackmun and Stephen G. Breyer, and working as an attorney adviser in the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. She is actively involved in academic and policy initiatives related to families and inequality, and she is an affiliated faculty member with the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University and the Columbia Population Research Center.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Political Science
• Psychology
• Law
• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Science
• Criminology
• Medicine
• Environmental health
• Psychiatry
• Geography

Selected publications

• 13 Ensuring All Families Flourish

  New York University Press eBooks · 2026-02-25

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Constraining the Family Regulation System: The Contribution of the Restatement of the Law, Children and the Law

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• AI Companions and the Lessons of Family Law

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Fatherhood, Family Law, and the Crisis of Boys and Men

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• FATHERHOOD, FAMILY LAW, AND THE CRISIS OF BOYS AND MEN.

  PubMed · 2024-11-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Boys and men in all racial and ethnic groups and across most socioeconomic groups are struggling on many fronts, including education, employment, physical and mental health, and social integration. In these areas and more, boys and men are much worse off than they were only a few decades ago. The crisis-which is concentrated among men without college degrees-is rooted in large-scale structural changes to the economy that have decimated jobs for this group and policy choices that emphasize incarceration while doing little to address economic inequality. The decline in male well-being is not just a problem for boys and men. It is a problem for families. Men's economic prospects have a profound impact on whether couples will commit to each other. Men without steady work-and with behaviors that often accompany unemployment, including a higher frequency of intimate partner violence-have trouble sustaining long-term relationships, and many do not marry. They often have children, but once romantic relationships end, unmarried men tend to drift away from the family. Many fathers want a larger role in their children's lives, but this is possible only if they can strengthen their relationship with mothers. Many mothers also want fathers to be more involved, but they are concerned about issues fathers bring to the family. And children want a relationship with both parents. Family law is part of the problem, contributing to the familial isolation of men without college degrees. In recent decades, family law has undergone a significant transformation, but this transformation primarily benefits married couples. The legal system now seeks to create "postdivorce families"-that is, families in which both parents are cooperative, active caregivers, notwithstanding the end of the parents' romantic relationship. To this end, custody laws encourage shared parenting, and family courts offer alternative dispute resolution processes, counseling, and other assistance that strengthen fathers' active membership in the family. But men facing economic precarity are unlikely to be married and thus need not go to court when a romantic relationship ends. Accordingly, these men do not benefit from this transformation in custody rules and processes, and they are unlikely to access the supportive services. The child support system makes things worse by imposing unrealistic orders on low-income fathers that alienate men from their families. And the family regulation system, also known as the child welfare system, treats these fathers as incompetent caregivers or, even worse, as threats. Family law may relegate men in crisis to the periphery of family life, but it can also help bring them back. The goal is not to restore men's patriarchal authority but rather to extend the model of cooperative parenting to more families. To this end, this Essay proposes far-reaching reforms to custody rules and processes, child support, and family regulation. In each of these problematic areas of family law, the proposed reforms give families greater autonomy in shaping agreements about family relationships, support to make these bargains workable, and opportunities for men to be active fathers.

  PublisherOA PDF

• Child Development and the Family Regulation System

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2023 · 1 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Political Science
  • Criminology

  Abstract Child abuse and neglect clearly harm children, but the risks that accompany involvement with the family regulation system (also known as the child welfare system), especially placement in foster care, also present considerable risks to child development. This chapter describes these competing risks to child development, the legal framework governing the family regulation system, and scholarly debates in the field. It then analyzes the system in the broader context of the legal regulation of children, showing that the family regulation system is out of step with other areas and in need of significant reform. A core problem with the system is its crisis orientation, paying too little attention to family support and the prevention of child maltreatment. Equally problematic, the family regulation system reflects and reinforces racial and economic inequality. Black and Native American children are significantly overrepresented in the system and have worse outcomes than other children. Addressing these issues would help foster healthy child development.

  PublisherDOI

• Social Parenthood in Comparative Perspective

  New York University Press eBooks · 2023 · 2 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Sociology
  • Psychology

  Investigates social parents – people who function as parents but who may not be recognized as such in the eyes of the law What makes a person a parent? Around the world, same-sex couples are raising children; parents are separating and re-partnering, creating blended families; and children are living with grandparents, family friends, and other caregivers. In these situations, there is often an adult who acts like a parent but who is unconnected to the child through biogenetics, marriage, or adoption—the common paths for establishing legal parenthood. In many countries, this person is called a “social parent.” Psychologically, and especially from a child’s point of view, a social parent is a parent. But the legal status of a social parent is hotly debated. Social Parenthood in Comparative Perspective considers how the law does—and how it should—recognize social parenthood. The book begins with a psychological account of social parenthood, establishing the importance of a relationship between a child and a social parent and the harms of not protecting this relationship. It then turns to social scientists to identify and explore some circumstances when a child may have a social parent. And to compare legal responses to social parenthood, the book draws on the expertise of legal scholars in nine countries in North America and Europe. The legal contributors describe the existing laws governing social parents, critique their efficacy, and offer new insights. Though almost all of the countries analyzed have adapted to the new reality of family life by recognizing social parents in some manner, the nature and extent of the recognition varies widely. The volume concludes by discussing some of the issues flowing from the decision to recognize social parents, including whether social parents should have the same legal rights and responsibilities as other legal parents, whether all social parents must be treated identically, whether the law should limit a child to two parents, and much more. Families are changing, and the law must adapt accordingly. Social Parenthood in Comparative Perspective charts a way forward by offering solutions to help policymakers consider options for addressing social parenthood.

  DOI

• Conclusion: The Future of Social Parenthood

  New York University Press eBooks · 2023-07-13

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Introduction

  New York University Press eBooks · 2023-07-13

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Contents

  New York University Press eBooks · 2023-07-13

  paratextOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Christiane von Bary

  3 shared

• Nestor M. Davidson

  Fordham University

  3 shared

• Maxine Eichner

  3 shared

• Elizabeth S. Scott

  3 shared

• Courtney G. Joslin

  University of California, Davis

  3 shared

• R. A. Lenhardt

  2 shared

• Sonia Katyal

  1 shared

• Peter Byrne

  1 shared

Education

• B.A.

  Columbia University

  1996

• Other, Restatement of the Law, Children and the Law

  American Law Institute

Awards & honors

• Willis L.M. Reese Prize for Excellence in Teaching (2025)
• Teacher of the Year, Fordham Law School (2021)
• Honorable Mention, Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PR…
• Elected Member, American Law Institute (2015)
• Excellence in Teaching, University of Colorado Law School (2…