JOINT CUSTODY after divorce was a phenomenon of the 1980s and a product of the divorce revolution.[1]� As described by the First Department in 1988,[2]� with joint physical custody, children may live alternatively with both parents, while with joint legal custody, although the children actually live with only one parent, both parents continue to share the same rights and responsibilities as they did during the marriage to participate in the decisions affecting their children.
In such a situation, the day-to-day child-rearing decisions are made by the parent with whom the children are living, while decisions on major issues, such as religious training, education and medical care, and sometimes even decisions on such other matters as discipline, diet and the choice of a summer camp, are jointly made. Both arrangements constitute a form of joint custody, and there is no single arrangement under, or uniform application of, joint custody.[3]�
