Law Commons^™

Minority And Women Entrepreneurs: Building Capital, Networks, And Skills, Michael S. Barr

Other Publications

The United States has an enviable entrepreneurial culture and a track record of building new companies. Yet new and small business owners often face particular challenges, including lack of access to capital, insufficient business networks for peer support, investment, and business opportunities, and the absence of the full range of essential skills necessary to lead a business to survive and grow. Women and minority entrepreneurs often face even greater obstacles. While business formation is, of course, primarily a matter for the private sector, public policy can and should encourage increased rates of entrepreneurship, and the capital, networks, and skills essential …

When Sixteen Ain't So Sweet: Rethinking The Regulation Of Adolescent Sexuality, Nicole Phillis

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Legally speaking, sexual maturity poses a significant enough liberty interest for a minor to make medical decisions regarding contraceptive medicine or to choose motherhood without parental involvement, but not quite enough for her to obtain an abortion independently. The law incentivizes teenage motherhood by only granting decisional autonomy to those minors who choose to have a child; the minor female's right to procreate vests regardless of her individual maturity. The law discourages teenage abortions by using the choice to terminate a pregnancy to trigger a presumption of immaturity; the minor female's abortion right is pitted against personal autonomy via parental …

Section 2259 Restitution Claims And Child Pornography Possession, Dina Mcleod

Michigan Law Review

In 2009, a child pornography victim brought a criminal restitution claim against a defendant who possessed images of her abuse. The statutory provision authorizing restitution, 18 U.S.C. § 2259, had never before been used to bring a claim against a defendant who had only possessed, rather than produced or distributed, child pornography ("child pornography possession defendants"). The federal courts have not developed a consistent approach to resolving Section 2259 claims involving such defendants. This Note argues that two conceptions of traditional proximate cause doctrine can provide a framework for analyzing such claims. It examines Section 2259 claims using both a …

Victimizing The Abused?: Is Termination The Solution When Domestic Violence Comes To Work?, Nicole Buonocore Porter

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Part I of this article will discuss domestic violence, explaining the dynamics of domestic violence in an effort to shed light on why it is so difficult for a battered woman to leave the abusive relationship. This understanding is necessary for a sensitive and informed decision-making process. This Part will also discuss the magnitude of the effect that domestic violence has on the workplace. Part II will discuss a company's potential legal liability for: (a) wrongfully terminating the employee-victim and (b) failing to protect other employees (including, perhaps, the employee-victim herself) if the company does not terminate the employee-victim and …

What Money Cannot Buy: A Legislative Response To C.Rac.K., Adam B. Wolf

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Children Requiring a Caring Kommunity (C.R.A.C.K.) is an organization that pays current or former drug addicts $200 to be sterilized. While generating great public controversy, C.R.A.C.K. is expanding rapidly throughout the country. Its clients are disproportionately poor women of color, who are coerced by the offer of money into permanently relinquishing their reproductive rights. This Note argues that C.R.A.C.K. is a program of eugenical sterilization that cannot be tolerated. Moreover, C.R.A.C.K. further violates settled national public policy by offensively commodifying the ill-commodifiable, by demeaning women, and by starting down a slippery slope with devastating consequences. This Note proposes legislation that …

Assesing The Family And Medical Leave Act In Terms Of Gender Equality, Work/Family Balance, And The Needs Of Children, Angie K. Young

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

While recognizing that parental leave is only one aspect of the FMLA, this Article concentrates on the provision allowing leave to parents in order to care for their children. Before analyzing the FMLA in detail, it is helpful to explore what aims a parental-leave policy should have. The purpose of this Article is to propose and defend three goals that parental-leave legislation should strive to meet: equality of career opportunities for men and women, the right to participate in both work and family, and meeting the needs of children. After articulating what parental-leave legislation should aim for in theory, this …

Women's Pension Reform: Congress Inches Toward Equity, Anne Moss

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In the workplace and in the home, women suffer economic injustices. The inequities of our private and governmental pension systems compound their financial problems, leading to inadequate retirement income for many older women. For example, only ten percent of women age sixty-five and over received private pensions or annuities in 1982, as compared to twenty-nine percent of men age sixty-five and over. Women receiving pensions likewise get much less than men, averaging $1,520 in 1982. The average for men in 1982 was $2,980.

Gradually, policymakers are recognizing the shortcomings of pension systems. In the past few years, federal legislation has …