Digital Commons Network^™

Bias In The Classroom, One Degree Removed: The Story Of Turner V. Stime And Amicus Participation, Robert S. Chang

Faculty Articles

This article summarizes a recent amicus brief written by the Korematsu Center. It describes a Spokane, Washington medical malpractice case where juror racial bias toward a party’s attorney was used as direct evidence. It describes the momentum and mobilization of the amicus brief, and the success in the appellate courts. It is offered as a model for how law school clinics can engage in effective advocacy to help democratize the courts.

The Fred T. Korematsu Center For Law And Equality And Its Vision For Social Change, Robert S. Chang

Faculty Articles

The Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality at Seattle University School of Law takes its name and inspiration from Fred Korematsu. Entrusted with honoring and furthering his legacy, the Korematsu Center, although not speaking as or for him, constructs its identity through its activities as an actor in the legal community and more broadly in the public. The Korematsu Center is very self-consciously engaged in developing a distinct personality as a collective entity that exists not just as a collection of the individuals or projects within the center.

The Korematsu Center is constituted by its commitments, by what …

Latcrit Xv Symposium Afterword, Steven W. Bender, Francisco Valdes

Faculty Articles

In this afterword, the authors begin to sketch the kind of future that they imagine. This afterword starts with an overview account of the first fifteen years of LatCrit theory, community, and praxis. Then turns to a handful of highlights regarding current or new programmatic initiatives that LatCrit scholars have recently launched or plan imminently to launch-a quick survey intended to connect the past with the present before turning to the future. In the concluding part of this afterword, the authors lay out some of the basic parameters for the LatCritical future that they imagine and that they hope to …

What Comes After Gender?, Robert S. Chang

Faculty Articles

A conference paper about postracialism and the end of gender as a social category in the U.S. as of June 2011 is presented. It discusses the management of diversity and the multiplicity of gender formations, as well as gender's role in social identity and the incorporation of masculine and feminine personal traits.

Rodrigo’S Reconsideration: Intersectionality And The Future Of Critical Race Theory, Richard Delgado

Faculty Articles

The author presents a discussion between him and his friend Rodrigo Crenshaw on intersectionality and the future of critical race theory. They discuss the three core critical-race theory ideas which include narrative jurisprudence, integroup coalitions and intersectionality. The author also explains the concept of classical liberalism.

Meeting Across The River: Why Affirmative Action Needs Race And Class Diversity, Deirdre M. Bowen

Faculty Articles

This paper is a response to Richard Sander’s latest work challenging the notion that race based affirmative action is still relevant and demanding that institutions of higher education consider class based affirmative action. To support his thesis, Sander conducts an empirical study on who benefits from affirmative action.

This Article is divided into three sections, each containing a critique of Sander’s arguments and analysis. First, I briefly reframe and reiterate the history of race and ethnicity in affirmative action’s origins to directly confront the assumption that Sander makes about what affirmative action’s original purpose entailed. The goal of Part I …

Living History Interview With Richard Delgado & Jean Stefancic, Richard Delgado, Jean Stefancic

Faculty Articles

One of the unique features of Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems ("TLCP") is the publication of a "Living History Interview" with a person of international accomplishment and renown. The Living History Interview complements the symposium format of TLCP by blending theory and practice, thus giving a practical perspective to the questions examined in the symposium. The purpose of the Living History Interview is to invite the responses of a prominent international scholar, jurist, or politician-not to explore his or her professional point of view, but to gain insight into his or her personal perspectives as shaped by historical events in …

The Mystery Of Life In The Laboratory Of Democracy: Personal Autonomy In State Law, Adam J. Macleod

Faculty Articles

Recent controversies, such as enactment of an individual mandate to purchase health insurance and the legalization of assisted suicide in Washington and Montana, have renewed the war over personal autonomy. Debates about the value and limits of personal autonomy also play major roles in the controversies over abortion, same-sex intimacy, and same-sex marriage. On one side of the autonomy war, advocates of unfettered individual freedom assert that by her un-coerced and autonomous choice, the individual person determines the value of human goods such as life, health, and marriage.

On the other side, proponents of strong government restrictions on personal choice …