Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
- Institution
Articles 1 - 12 of 12
Full-Text Articles in Law
Derivative Racial Discrimination, Kevin Woodson
Derivative Racial Discrimination, Kevin Woodson
Law Faculty Publications
This Article introduces the concept of derivative racial discrimination, a process of institutional discrimination in which certain social and cultural dynamics impede the careers of minority workers in predominantly white firms even in the absence of racial biases and stereotypes. Derivative racial discrimination is a manifestation of cultural homophily, the universal tendency of people to gravitate toward others with similar cultural interests and backgrounds. Although not intrinsically racial, cultural homophily disadvantages minority workers in predominantly white work settings due to various race-related social and cultural differences. Seemingly inconsequential in isolation, these differences produce racial disparities in the accrual of valuable …
Diversity Without Integration, Kevin Woodson
Diversity Without Integration, Kevin Woodson
Law Faculty Publications
The de facto racial segregation pervasive at colleges and universities across the country undermines a necessary precondition for the diversity benefits embraced by the Court in Grutter — the requirement that students partake in high-quality interracial interactions and social relationships with one another. This disjuncture between Grutter’s vision of universities as sites of robust cross-racial exchange and the reality of racial separation should be of great concern, not just because of its potential constitutional implications for affirmative action but also because it reifies racial hierarchy and reinforces inequality. Drawing from an extensive body of social science research, this article explains …
Human Capital Discrimination, Law Firm Inequality, And The Limits Of Title Vii, Kevin Woodson
Human Capital Discrimination, Law Firm Inequality, And The Limits Of Title Vii, Kevin Woodson
Law Faculty Publications
This Article advances the legal scholarship on workplace inequality through use of evidence derived from interviews of a sample of black attorneys who have worked in large, predominantly white law firms. It does so by calling attention to the manner in which these firms operate as sites of human capital discrimination — patterns of mistreatment that deprive many black associates of access to the substantive work opportunities crucial to their professional development and career advancement. This Article identifies the specific arrangements and practices within these firms that facilitate human capital discrimination and describes the varied, often subtle harms and burdens …
Judicial Selection In Congress' Lame Duck Session, Carl W. Tobias
Judicial Selection In Congress' Lame Duck Session, Carl W. Tobias
Law Faculty Publications
This Article first scrutinizes the Obama Administration confirmation and nomination processes. It then critically explores selection and concludes that Republican obstruction instigated the most open positions the longest time. Because this deficiency undermines swift, economical, and fair case resolution, the Article suggests ideas to promptly decrease the remaining unoccupied judgeships after the session commences.
Race And Rapport: Homophily And Racial Disadvantage In Large Law Firms, Kevin Woodson
Race And Rapport: Homophily And Racial Disadvantage In Large Law Firms, Kevin Woodson
Law Faculty Publications
Over the past two decades, clients and other constituencies have pushed large law firms to pursue greater racial diversity in attorney hiring and retention. Although these firms have devoted extraordinary resources toward better recruiting and retaining attorneys of color, and despite a proliferation of “best practices” guides and diversity policy recommendations, these considerable efforts have yielded only modest gains. With respect to black attorneys in particular, the tide of racial progress in these firms has moved forward at a glacial pace, even ebbing and receding in recent years.
Although large law firms now hire significant numbers of black attorneys as …
Is The Truth In The Eyes Of The Beholder? The Perils And Benefits Of Empirical Research In International Investment, Chiara Giorgetti
Is The Truth In The Eyes Of The Beholder? The Perils And Benefits Of Empirical Research In International Investment, Chiara Giorgetti
Law Faculty Publications
Empirical research is the new hot trend in international law. An increasing number of publications include empirical data that aim at strengthening their author's argument. Indeed, empirical data are used to make an argument less fallible, as the author's conclusions are transformed from subjective to objectively proven by the empirical wrap. Professor Catherine Rogers' novel article, The Politics and Empirics of International Investment Arbitrators, highlights important limitations that empirical data may produce in international investment law research.a As such, it is a needed and important contribution to the understanding and development of this type of scholarship, and generally to the …
Who Decides Who Decides In International Investment Arbitration?, Chiara Giorgetti
Who Decides Who Decides In International Investment Arbitration?, Chiara Giorgetti
Law Faculty Publications
The past twenty years have witnessed a dramatic rise in international adjudication, and especially in international investment arbitration. As international investment arbitration has become more prominent and pervasive, one of its fundamental tenets has come under fire: the practice of having the parties themselves nominate one or more of the arbitrators. Critics contend that party-appointed arbitrators are inherently biased and thus propose eliminating party-appointments altogether. In this article, I argue that moving away from party-appointed arbitrators is unwarranted and unwise, and would too radically transform international investment arbitration. Instead, I propose a simpler solution: adopting stricter arbitrator challenge rules and …
Justifying Diversity In The Federal Judiciary, Carl W. Tobias
Justifying Diversity In The Federal Judiciary, Carl W. Tobias
Law Faculty Publications
This Essay thus scrutinizes Obama’s judicial selection effort, which confirms many ideas that Scherer espouses while showing how political deficiencies in the modern selection process erode diversity and legitimacy, and perhaps Scherer’s provocative solution. This response ultimately discusses some promising measures beyond Scherer’s recommendation that could enhance diversity and legitimacy in light of the threat that politicization poses
A Demographic Snapshot Of America's Federal Judiciary: A Prima Facie Case For Change, Jonathan K. Stubbs
A Demographic Snapshot Of America's Federal Judiciary: A Prima Facie Case For Change, Jonathan K. Stubbs
Law Faculty Publications
Nearly a decade ago, then judge Sonia Sotomayer gave a speech at the U.C. Berkeley Law School and asked a simple question: “What it all will mean to have more women and people of color on the bench?” This article places Justice Sotomayer’s perceptive question in historical context by providing a demographic profile of the gender and race of federal judges confirmed to the bench from September 24, 1789 through January 13, 2011. The paper focuses principally upon federal courts of general jurisdiction, specifically, the Supreme Court, the various Courts of Appeal and the federal district courts. After presenting historical …
Punishment, Invalidation, And Nonvalidation: What H.L.A. Hart Did Not Explain, Richard Stith
Punishment, Invalidation, And Nonvalidation: What H.L.A. Hart Did Not Explain, Richard Stith
Law Faculty Publications
Elaborating first upon H. L. A. Hart's distinction between imposing duties and imposing disabilities, this article explores the two senses mentioned (but not fully explained) by Hart in which power-holders may be legally disabled. Legal invalidation (nullification) of norms that have been generated by vulnerable power-holders is seen to reduce diversity or pluralism in every normative sphere, from the supranational to the intrafamilial. By contrast, mere legal nonvalidation (noncognizance) of such norms tends to preserve the autonomy of the power-holders that created the norms, thus enhancing legal pluralism. Punishment for creating forbidden norms amounts in principle to an in-between sort …
An Evidentiary Framework For Diversity As A Compelling Interest In Higher Education, Kimberly J. Robinson
An Evidentiary Framework For Diversity As A Compelling Interest In Higher Education, Kimberly J. Robinson
Law Faculty Publications
This Note argues that if courts choose to reexamine evidence on the value of diversity in higher education, they should not apply the evidentiary requirements that the Supreme Court has applied to cases involving questions of past discrimination. Rather, courts should consider the unique nature of diversity in higher education and the protection afforded the academic context in which the evidence is considered and modify their review of the evidence presented accordingly. Furthermore, this Note argues that the interest of an institution of higher education16 in diversity is "compelling" in light of the evidence that a racially diverse student body …
Respect For Diversity: The Case Of Feminist Legal Thought, Carl W. Tobias
Respect For Diversity: The Case Of Feminist Legal Thought, Carl W. Tobias
Law Faculty Publications
Respect for diversity was one quality many faculty members considered significant when searching in 1987 for a new dean of the University of Michigan School of Law. Yet other so-called elite law schools and less prestigious institutions recently have evinced little concern for diversity and even indifference toward the idea. Tenure and appointment disputes at several Ivy League schools have sparked heated controversy and call into question their institutional commitments to diversity. Those disputes have involved the legitimacy of work by women in legal theory and feminist legal thought, although considerable contentious activity also seems to reflect a general lack …