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Foreword: Symposium On Gender & Incarceration, Giovanna Shay

Western New England Law Review

The articles in this Symposium edition include four pieces on gender and incarceration. The first by Jen Manion discusses the gendered history of punishment itself. The second by Rachel Roth addresses reproductive justice issues in prison, including access to abortion for incarcerated women and the use of restraints in labor. Carol Strickman, of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, writes about family ties, visitation, and parent-child programs. Finally, Terry Kupers describes how incarceration and the threat of prison sexual violence shapes gender roles, particularly toxic masculinity.

Copyright Law—Unique Characteristics Of Music Warrant Its Own System: How Adopting The Intended Audience Test Can Save Music Copyright Litigation, Alison P. Wynn

Western New England Law Review

Music has been a crux of everyday life for decades. Almost ninety-one percent of the United States population listens to music, and spends more than twenty-four hours a week listening to their favorite songs—making music one of the top forms of entertainment for most Americans. Music has unique qualities that differentiate it from other works of authorship, which must be recognized by copyright law.

The current subjective measure used to determine unlawful appropriation of copyrightable work is not sufficient. A minority of courts have expanded the current “ordinary observer” standard to consider the “intended audience” of the specific work—claiming the …

The Next American Revolution, Timothy K. Kuhner

Western New England Law Review

Scholarly literature does not provide an adequate understanding of money in politics and corporate political power, which is, ultimately, the role of concentrated capital in democracy. The United States’ rising economic and political inequalities are not properly diagnosed as the excesses of a generally legitimate capitalist democracy in need of legal reforms. Rather, these inequalities are the symptoms of an overarching flaw in our political system that requires a revolution—one of the non-violent, constitutional kind.

Action follows understanding and if the understanding of a problem is weak and superficial, the reform agenda will also be weak and superficial. Supreme Court …

Gender And Domination In Prison, Terry A. Kupers

Western New England Law Review

This Article discusses gender relations in prison systems and the plight of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and gender variant prisoners within these systems, where strict conformity with narrow definitions of gender are violently policed. The dominance hierarchy, Blue Code, and toxic masculinity in male prison culture also shape the culture in women’s facilities and much of what happens to LGBT and gender variant juvenile prisoners. The Author describes gender relations in male and female prisons through the context of experiences of inmates raped by other prisoners or prison staff.

The Author argues that the horrific pain and suffering caused by …

Bridging The Justice Gap With A (Purposeful) Restructuring Of Small Claims Courts, Victoria J. Haneman

Western New England Law Review

Lack of access to justice affects not only the poor, but also working-class and middle-income individuals unable to afford attorney rates. This Article presents a roadmap to both access and justice by reimagining the workings of United States’ small claims. Given that small claims cases constitute a significant number of all civil cases, expanding the jurisdiction of these courts in a way that speaks to individual access is a workable and pragmatic approach. In an effort to broaden jurisdiction while also carving restrictions to curb abuse, the Author offers that small claims courts may assist with bridging the justice gap …

Immigration Law—Mixed Feelings On Mixed Petitions To Reopen Removal Proceedings: The Necessity Behind Requiring A Test To Determine Applicability Of The Changed Country Conditions Exception, Matthew Minniefield

Western New England Law Review

The Federal Courts of Appeals have created a circuit split regarding “mixed petitions” to reopen removal proceedings. Mixed petitions, those brought under both a change in the petitioner’s personal circumstances and a change in the country conditions of the country of removal, need to be allowed in specific, but not all, situations.

The upward trend in quantity of removal proceedings over the past decade and beyond has created a surge of removal proceedings that even a properly trained and funded set of immigration courts would have difficulty handling. The immigration courts in the United States are both under-funded and oftentimes …

Incarceration As A Threat To Reproductive Justice In Massachusetts And The United States, Rachel Roth

Western New England Law Review

This Article is an edited and expanded version of Rachel Roth’s presentation at the 2016 Western New England Law Review Symposium on Gender and Incarceration. It provides an overview of reproductive justice and describes (1) how prisons and jails undermine reproductive health, rights, and justice for the people they confine, and (2) how mass incarceration undermines the prospect for reproductive justice in the United States overall. It focuses on examples from women’s prisons and includes issues and advocacy work from Massachusetts and across the country.

Foreword: Classcrits Ix Symposium Issue, Matthew Titolo

Western New England Law Review

These are dangerous but also hopeful times for the left. The Trump years, and the years of right-wing governance that may lie in store for other countries, are not likely to be good ones for progressive policymaking. Since 2008, a network of scholars, practitioners and activists meet as the ClassCrits group to discuss socioeconomic inequality in the United States and around the world. The Articles in this ClassCrits IX Symposium issue all deal in one way or another with the problems created or exacerbated by neoliberalism or by longstanding defects of the American legal, economic and political systems: access to …