Law Commons^™

Bridging The Continental Divide In Maternity Protection, Selma Shelton

Selma Shelton

This paper argues that the inconsistency in application of the PDA coupled with the limitations of the FMLA reflect that the United States has insufficient protection for pregnant employees. The limited legal mandates protecting pregnant women in the United States are easily contrasted with the generous comprehensive protections afforded to pregnant employees in Ireland. However, without being oblivious to the striking demographical, geographical, cultural, social, political, and religious differences between the United States and Ireland, this paper compares the provisions of the two countries with regard to pregnancy and suggests that Ireland’s provisions are attainable goals in the United States …

The All-Woman Texas Supreme Court: The History Behind A Very Brief Moment On The Bench, Alice G. Mcafee

Alice G. McAfee

On the surface, there is nothing particularly noteworthy about the case of Johnson v. Darr, and, in fact it was not the merits of the case that made the headlines. It was the makeup of the tribunal. Long before women in Texas were even granted the right to serve on juries and before any woman ever served as a judge on any of the lower Texas courts, the judges appointed to hear the case of Johnson v. Darr were all women. This was the first time a woman was appointed in any capacity to serve on the Texas judiciary and …

A Call For Refuge: The Case Of Forced Marriages, Emily A. Harrell

Emily A Harrell

This case note examines the ramifications of the Second Circuit Court of Appeal’s recent decision in Gao v. Gonzalez, 440 F.3d 62 (2d Cir. 2006), holding that women who were forced into marrying within a Chinese community where forced marriage was condoned and enforceable qualified as a “particular social group” eligible for asylum within the meaning of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Gao brings into question the position of the United States and the duties owed to refugees in such circumstances. This issue is particularly significant given the demonstrated concern for human rights as manifested by the United States accession …

Why Judy Norman Acted In Reasonable Self-Defense: An Abused Woman And A Sleeping Man, Marina Angel

Marina Angel

The reasonable man has been replaced by the reasonable person, but that person still functions within legal doctrines conceived by men and interpreted to fit the facts of men's lives. To understand why it is sometimes reasonable for an abused woman to kill her abuser while he is asleep or otherwise incapacitated, basic criminal law doctrines do not have to be changed. They do, however, have to be applied to the facts of abused women's lives.

The issue of exit – why didn’t she leave – must be explained. Concepts of time – immediate, imminent, and cyclical – must be …

Legal Archaeology And Feminist Legal Theory: A Case Study Of Gender And Domestic Violence, Debora L. Threedy

Debora L. Threedy

This article examines the case of State v. Jensen, in which a man was convicted for violating a protective order, only to have the conviction overturned by the appellate court on the ground that the female prosecutor, by using her three peremptory challenges to exclude three males from the jury, violated the constitutional guarantee of equal protection. Using the case as a jumping off point, the article goes on to consider how gender affects the legal system’s ability to deal with domestic violence. This paper is located at the intersection of the methodology of legal archaeology and feminist legal theory. …

Toward Real Workplace Equality: Nonsubordination And Title Vii Sex-Stereotyping Jurisprudence , Erin E. Goodsell

Erin E. Goodsell

This paper seeks to resolve a problem in federal anti-discrimination jurisprudence. The Supreme Court has held that plaintiffs may have a Title VII employment discrimination claim where they have been discriminated against based on an “impermissible sex stereotype,” but the lower federal courts, lacking a clear definition of what an “impermissible sex stereotype” may be, are inconsistent in their application of the sex-stereotyping doctrine. I argue that applying the feminist principle of nonsubordination, which examines whether legal rules or cultural practices serve to subordinate women to men and seeks to change those rules or practices that do, could help to …

Regulation And Citizenship For Foreign Spouses In Taiwan―From The Perspective Of Cultural Legal Study, Shu-Chin Grace Kuo

Shu-chin Grace Kuo

In this article, taking a “foreign spouse” as an issue that has made a great impact on the local marriage market, I will use the approach of Cultural Legal Study to explore how the state governs and regulates the marriage of immigrants through written law, in which I primarily focus on Immigration Law and Family Law, legal discourse and the rhetoric of legal reform regarding foreign spouses. In fact, there is one international marriage in every five newly married couples in recent years in Taiwan; most of the foreign spouses are female, and come from China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and …

Regulation And Citizenship For Foreign Spouses In Taiwan―From The Perspective Of Cultural Legal Study, Shu-Chin Grace Kuo

Shu-chin Grace Kuo

In this article, taking a “foreign spouse” as an issue that has made a great impact on the local marriage market, I will use the approach of Cultural Legal Study to explore how the state governs and regulates the marriage of immigrants through written law, in which I primarily focus on Immigration Law and Family Law, legal discourse and the rhetoric of legal reform regarding foreign spouses. In fact, there is one international marriage in every five newly married couples in recent years in Taiwan; most of the foreign spouses are female, and come from China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and …

Domesticity And The Texas Community Property System, Lauren F. Redman

Lauren F Redman

This paper addresses whether the Texas community property system, which was designed to be in direct opposition to the common law coverture system, insulates women from the problems inherent in domesticity.

When Is A Battered Woman Not A Battered Woman? When She Fights Back, Leigh Goodmark

Leigh Goodmark

Over the past thirty years, the public, media, and the legal system have coalesced around a stereotypical image of the victim of domestic violence. Before the birth of the battered women’s movement, the assumption was that domestic violence happened to “them”—poor African American women who lived in slums. Advocacy by the battered women’s movement around the idea that domestic violence is endemic in all races, ethnicities, religions and socioeconomic brackets, coupled with the introduction of “battered woman syndrome” and its reliance on the theory of learned helplessness to explain why battered women remained in abusive relationships, changed the portrait of …

Childsoldiers,Slavery, And The Trafficking Of Children, Susan W. Tiefenbrun

Susan W Tiefenbrun

Despite a proliferation of international human rights treaties, labor laws, and humanitarian laws that should provide children with special protection from abduction into child soldiering, the trafficking of children and their use as soldiers is increasing. This paper will examine the relationship of human trafficking, slavery, and child soldiering. Part I will examine the root causes of the development and expansion of child soldiers. Part II will examine the international and domestic laws that protect against the use of children as soldiers. Part III will examine two literary representations of the use of child soldiers and the significant insights such …

From State Of California V. Scott Peterson To State Of Utah V. Mark Hacking- Will More States Adopt Fetal Protection Laws? , April J. Walker

April J. Walker

No abstract provided.

The Illusion Of Transformative Conflict Resolution: Mediating Domestic Violence In Nicaragua, Leticia M. Saucedo, Raquel Aldana

Leticia M. Saucedo

In this article, we examine the implementation of mediation in domestic violence cases in Nicaragua as a case study of the transnational movement of alternative conflict resolution through rule-of-law reforms across the world. Unlike scholarship about mediation in the United States, the effects of mediation’s global implementation are undertheorized. This article examines the importation of U.S. style mediation and its implementation in domestic violence situations in developing countries such as Nicaragua where traditional legal systems are weaker than those institutionalized in the United States. In particular, we evaluate mediation as applied in Mulukukú, an isolated community in the rural north …

Cultivating Forgiveness: Reducing Hostility And Conflict After Divorce, Solangel Maldonado

Solangel Maldonado

In recent years, scholars writing in the emerging “law and emotion” field have explored the role of emotions on criminal, administrative, securities, torts, employment, and constitutional law. Yet, surprisingly few scholars have examined their role in family law. Examining the role of emotion in family law is particularly important because the potential for harm resulting from “negative emotions” such as persistent anger and the desire for vengeance may be greater in the family law context. A divorced parent’s anger towards the other parent can lead to excessive conflict for years after the legal relationship has ended, harming both parents and …

The Case For The Genetic Parent: Stanley, Quillion, Caban, Lehr, And Michael H. Revisited , Anthony Miller

Anthony Miller

Does a genetic parent have a constitutional right to exercise the fundamental rights which the United States Constitution affords parents? If a lesbian couple has a child with one woman donating the ova, which is artificially inseminated and implanted in the other woman, is the donor woman a mother under the Constitution? If sometime in the future a heterosexual couple has a child through the process if in vitro fertilization and through the use of an artificial womb, would the woman and man be the child’s mother and father for constitutional purposes? While the United States Supreme Court has recognized …

Streedhana And Mehr, Krishna Kumari Areti

Krishna Kumari Areti prof

Streedhana is the exclusive property of woman under Hindu Law. Mehr, which is also known as Dower, is also the exclusive property of woman under Islamic Law. But, both are very different and at the same time not different as both reflect the position of women in Indian society. Both are in monetary form and given at the time of or during the time of marriage or in connection with the marriage.

The Perils Of Marriage As Transcendent Ontology: National Pride At Work V. Governor Of Michigan, William B. Turner

William B Turner

National Pride at Work v. Governor of Michigan provides a unique opportunity to watch as courts struggle to define “marriage.” This is not a suit seeking recognition of same-sex marriages. It presents the question of whether an amendment to the Michigan state constitution prohibiting recognition of same-sex marriages or any “union” that is “similar” to marriage also prohibits public employers in the state from conferring benefits on the same-sex partners of their employees. The trial and appeals courts came to exactly opposite conclusions, and their respective positions nicely demarcate the options in what promises to be an ongoing debate in …

Butterfly Effects From The Life Of A Little Girl: A Book Review Essay Of Equal Justice: The Courage Of Ada Sipuel, Alfreda S. Daimond

Alfreda S. Diamond

The book review essay critiques Equal Justice: The Courage of Ada Lois Sipuel written by William Bernhardt and Kim Henry. It offers a short essay on the butterfly effects that one life had on the Civil Rights Movement and the quest for equal educational opportunity under the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Problem With Unpaid Work, Katharine K. Baker

Katharine K. Baker

This article examines the problems with a social norm that assumes women should shoulder a disproportionate amount of unpaid family work. It evaluates the most recent empirical data which suggests that women continue to do substantially more unpaid work than men, and men continue to do substantially more paid work than women. It then briefly reviews two standard explanations for where this gendered division of work may come from, biological inclination and/or systems of male dominance. It suggests that neither of these traditional explanations have given adequate consideration to the normative question begged by the extant division of labor. Is …

Reproductive Rights Of Tibetan Women In The Light Of International Women 'S Rights, Lhakpa Chodon

Lhakpa Chodon

While the world debates the legitimacy and morality of abortions, women in Tibet are subjected to involuntary and forced abortions and sterilization. The Chinese Family Planning Policies implemented in Tibet raises a serious question as to the reproductive rights of women, cultural and religious rights. Does these policies witholds the water in international women's instruments or human rights?

The Future Of Women In The Legal Profession: Recognizing The Challenges Ahead By Reviewing Current Trends, Maria P. Lopez

Maria Pabon Lopez

In 2004, the Indiana Supreme Court Race and Gender Commission undertook a large survey of lawyers’ perceptions about women in the legal profession in order to assess which areas of gender bias have improved and which areas could stand improvement. This article takes the data from this survey and interprets its significance for women in the profession and for the justice system overall. The article compares the findings from the 2004 study of Indiana lawyers to the findings of a similar earlier Indiana study (conducted in 1990) and draws conclusions regarding the overall occurrence of gender bias in Indiana along …

Like A Virgin? Virginity Testing As Hiv/Aids Prevention: Human Rights Universalism And Cultural Relativism Revisited, Erika R. George

Erika R. George

I explore the tensions between gender equality, personal autonomy and evolving cultural practices when a traditional practice that arguably violates universal international human rights and domestic constitutional norms also enjoys strong support—as is the case with virginity testing in South Africa. The practice of virginity testing has reemerged, advanced not only as a return to tradition but also as an HIV/AIDS prevention strategy. I examine the debates about virginity testing and its recent prohibition by the government in order to more fully consider the limitations of liberalism as the foundation for human rights when operating within a pluralistic cultural context …

Breastfeeding In The Workplace: Accommodating Women And Benefiting Employers, Melissa Martin

Melissa Martin

This article argues that accommodating women by facilitating breastfeeding in the workplace also benefits employers. It states that current legislation designed to protect women’s employment rights simply does not cover breastfeeding. It argues for a law protecting women’s right to breastfeed at work because it benefits the women, their children, and ultimately the employers.

"Avoiding Harm Otherwise": Reframing Women Employees' Responses To The Harms Of Sexual Harassment, Margaret Johnson

Margaret E Johnson

This article concerns the concepts of employee harm and harm avoidance within the liability framework for hostile work environment sexual harassment by a supervisor. Whether an employer is liable for supervisor sexual harassment depends in part on whether or not the employee avoids her harm or mitigates her damages resulting from the sexual harassment. Despite the law’s interest in employee’s harm avoidance, courts have failed to fully explore the vast array of harms resulting from sexual harassment and the variety of ways in which an employee avoids these multiple harms. This article reframes the legal discussion of an employee’s actions …

Gender Matters: Making The Case For Trans Inclusion, Nancy J. Knauer

Nancy J. Knauer

The transgender communities are producing an important and nuanced critique of our gender system. For community members, the project is self-constitutive and, therefore, has an immediacy that also marks the efforts of other marginalized groups who have attempted to make sense of the world through description, interrogation, and, ultimately, a program for transformation. The transgender project also has universalizing elements because, existing within the gender system, each one of us embodies a particular gender articulation. It is through this articulation that we define ourselves in relation to the gender we were assigned at birth, the gender we choose, the gender …

No Chance To Prove Themselves: The Rights Of Mentally Disabled Parents Under The Americans With Disabilities Act And State Law, Dale S. Margolin

Dale S Margolin

This article explores the relationship between state child welfare laws that terminate parental rights and the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The article begins by analyzing the application of the ADA to termination of parental rights proceedings against parents with mental disabilities. It then surveys state child welfare laws, focusing on the treatment of parents under New York State law. The article concludes by advocating for a change to reflect the principles of the Americans with Disabilities Act in state laws and in practice.

Community Notification And The Perils Of Mandatory Juvenile Sex Offender Registration: The Dangers Faced By Children And Their Families, Joanna S. Markman

Joanna S. Markman

The impetus for the creation of a separate juvenile justice system, as will be explained below, was the acknowledgment that children are not adults, and as such, do not have the capacity for rationale thoughts as do adults. Moreover, the juvenile justice system was derived to create a structure whereby rehabilitation would be the ultimate objective in devising juvenile punishment or, as it is referred to in the language of juvenile law, disposition.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to garner sympathy for the plight of the sexual offender. This Article is not designed to do so. Moreover, while it …

Intercountry Adoption And Poverty: A Human Rights Analysis, David M. Smolin

David M. Smolin

This Article explores the question of whether intercountry adoption is an effective, appropriate, or ethical response to poverty in developing nations. As a matter of methodology, this fundamental question of adoption ethics is explored through the lens of international human rights law. This Article specifically argues that, where the birth parents live under or near the international poverty standard of $1 per day, family preservation assistance must be provided or offered as a condition precedent for accepting a relinquishment that would make the child eligible for intercountry adoption.

The Personal Is Political--And Economic: Rethinking Domestic Violence, Deborah M. Weissman

Deborah M. Weissman

This Article seeks to expand the scope of the domestic violence discourse within the context of the theory and practice of legal strategies. The intent is to shift the analytical parameters beyond the criminal justice system to include the political economy of everyday experiences of households. Such a paradigm shift examines the conditions of the private sphere as a function of the circumstances of public realms. It considers domestic violence by linking it to the structural transformations of the U.S. economy during recent years. It assesses domestic violence from the perspective of the daily life of men and women who …

Fair Use And The Fairer Sex: Gender, Feminism, And Copyright Law, Ann Bartow

Ann Bartow

Copyright laws are written and enforced to help certain groups of people assert and retain control over the resources generated by creative productivity. Because those people are predominantly male, the copyright infrastructure plays a role, largely unexamined by legal scholars, in helping to sustain the material and economic inequality between women and men. This essay considers some of the ways in which gender issues and copyright laws intersect, proposes a feminist critique of the copyright legal regime which advocates low levels of copyright protections, and asserts the importance of considering the social and economic disparities between women and men when …