Law Commons^™

Out Of The Shadows: Traversing The Imaginary Of Sameness, Difference, And Relationalism - A Human Rights Proposal, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

This work seeks to develop a methodology that serves a women's anti-subordination project. To achieve this goal, Part II sets out the theoretical background of feminist theory (II.A) and three waves of feminism (II.B). Part II.C articulates the feminist revelations about law these analytical frameworks have engendered.

This project sets out to craft a methodology that can assist the goal of full personhood for women. Women's full personhood is a substantive concept that, as detailed in Part III, I ground on international human rights notions of fundamental rights - rights that we have, or ought to have, because we are …

Derecho Civil Constitucional Y Violencia Familiar, Silvia Roxana Sotomarino

Silvia Roxana Sotomarino

This article refers to a case in which the alleged victim family is not the woman, being evidenced in the appeal N ° 2350 - 2012-LIMA how forced the system to establish a psychological abuse that is not based on fundamental tests, criticizing the author has extended this process even though it lacked of evidences, affecting other serious cases in which there is no doubt the physical and psychological abuse, and they tend to be resolved with more delay and faulty way.

The Sistren: Ranking The Top 10 Female Supreme Court Justices, Meg Penrose

Meg Penrose

Of all the “best” and “worst” Supreme Court lists published, there has never been a listing of the Top Ten female Justices. The reason for this scholarly void is simple: only four women have served on the Court. Indeed, only five women have been nominated. I am pleased to present the first, though admittedly incomplete, listing of the Top Ten female Justices.

Breast Implants As Beauty Ritual: Woman's Sceptre And Prison, Julie M. Spanbauer

Julie M. Spanbauer

In the past several years, various publications, including medical literature, television reports, newspaper articles, and even a book written by a physician and editor of a prestigious medical journal, have delivered roughly the same message to the public about silicone gel breast implants: they do not cause disease. According to these publications, the issue is all but closed. They claim that the earlier litigation documenting the dangers of silicone and the misdeeds of surgeons, as well as exposing greedy and fraudulent behavior of corporations such as Dow Coming, was apparently either in error or was itself a fraud perpetrated upon …

A New Law To "Save" Youth From Survival Sex Will Force Them Into State Custody, Brendan M. Conner Esq.

Brendan M. Conner

It’s not novel that minors in the US can, in very rare cases, be sentenced to reform programs or secure confinement for actions that wouldn’t be illegal if adults did them. But the system used to punish youth for the likes of skipping school or drinking has never been used systematically to address cases where minors engage in survival sex – meaning, youths who exchange sex for money, shelter, food, drugs or other needs.

That is about to change, even though treating juveniles charged with prostitution like truants will increase arrests and extend court-involvement and institutionalization of victims.

On 29 …

Work Wives, Laura A. Rosenbury

Laura A. Rosenbury

Traditional notions of male and female roles remain tenacious at home and work even in the face of gender-neutral family laws and robust employment discrimination laws. This Article analyzes the challenge of gender tenacity through the lens of the “work wife.” The continued use of the marriage metaphor at work reveals that the dynamics of marriage flow between home and work, creating a feedback loop that inserts gender into both domains in multiple ways. This phenomenon may reinforce gender stereotypes, hindering the potential of law to achieve gender equality. But such gender tenacity need not always lead to subordination. The …

Sex In And Out Of Intimacy, Laura A. Rosenbury, Jennifer E. Rothman

Laura A. Rosenbury

The state has long attempted to regulate sexual activity by channeling sex into various forms of state-supported intimacy. Although commentators and legal scholars of diverse political perspectives generally believe such regulation is declining, the freedom to engage in diverse sexual activities has not been established as a matter of law. Instead, courts have extended legal protection to consensual sexual acts only to the extent such acts support other state interests, most often marriage and procreation. Although Lawrence v. Texas altered some aspects of that vision, it reinscribed others by suggesting that sexual activity should be protected from state interference only …

Working Relationships, Laura A. Rosenbury

Laura A. Rosenbury

In this Essay written for the symposium on "For Love or Money? Defining Relationships in Law and Life," I extend my previous consideration of friendship to the specific context of the workplace, analyzing friendship through the lens of the ties that arise at work instead of those assumed to arise within the home. Many adults spend half or more of their waking hours at work, in the process forming relationships with supervisors, co-workers, subordinates, customers, and other third parties. Although such relationships are at times primarily transactional, at other times they take on intimate qualities similar to those of family …

Feminist Legal Scholarship: Charting Topics And Authors, 1978-2002, Laura A. Rosenbury

Laura A. Rosenbury

In their call for papers, the organizers of the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law’s Spring 2003 symposium “Why a Feminist Law Journal?” posed several questions, including: "Are feminist law journals a victim of their own success? Have they outlived their usefulness?" and "What is the state of feminist legal scholarship today? What constitutes feminist scholarship?" As a new member of the legal academy, my answers to their questions depend on answers to two more basic questions: What has been published in feminist law journals? And, how do those articles relate to feminist articles published in non-specialty, or flagship, law …

Two Ways To End A Marriage: Divorce Or Death, Laura A. Rosenbury

Laura A. Rosenbury

Default rules governing property distribution at divorce and death are often identified as one of the primary benefits of marriage. This Article examines these default rules in all fifty states, exposing the ways property distribution differs depending on whether the marriage ends by divorce or death. The result is often counter-intuitive: in most states, a spouse is likely to receive more property if her marriage ends by divorce than if the marriage lasts until "death do us part." This difference can be explained in part by the choices of feminist activists over the past thirty-five years: feminists played a large …

Friends With Benefits, Laura A. Rosenbury

Laura A. Rosenbury

Family law has long been intensely interested in certain adult intimate relationships, namely marriage and marriage-like relationships, and silent about other adult intimate relationships, namely friendship. This Article examines the effects of that focus, illustrating how it frustrates one of the goals embraced by most family law scholars over the past forty years: the achievement of gender equality, within the family and without. Part I examines the current scope of family law doctrine and scholarship, highlighting the ways that the home is still the organizing structure for family. Despite calls for increased legal recognition of diverse families, few scholars have …

Gender Injustice: System-Level Juvenile Justice Reforms For Girls, Francine Sherman, Annie Balck

Francine T. Sherman

Despite decades of attention, the proportion of girls in the juvenile justice system has increased and their challenges have remained remarkably consistent, resulting in deeply rooted systemic gender injustice. The literature is clear that girls in the justice system have experienced abuse, violence, adversity, and deprivation across many of the domains of their lives—family, peers, intimate partners, and community. There is also increasing understanding of the sorts of programs helpful to these girls. What is missing is a focus on how systems—and particularly juvenile justice systems—can be redesigned to protect public safety and support the healing and healthy development of …

Silent Partners: The Role Of Unpaid Market Labor In Families, Lisa Philipps

Lisa Philipps

The term 'unpaid market labor' refers to the direct contributions of unpaid family members to market work that officially belongs to another member of the household. Thus one individual may be construed legally as an owner or entrepreneur, but relatives may help out informally with business operations. Likewise, in corporate or public-service settings, certain employees rely on the unpaid help of an executive spouse or political wife. This paper argues that unpaid market labor is conceptually distinct from both paid work and unpaid domestic labor. Legal cases from Canada are used to illustrate the policy implications of this insight and …

The First Women Lawyers: "Piecemeal Progress And Circumscribed Success", Mary Jane Mossman

Mary Jane Mossman

This paper explores the context in which women gained admission to the bar at the end of the nineteenth century, discusses the stories of some of the first women lawyers in different parts of the world, and reflects on their challenges and choices as members of the legal professions.

Feminism And Legal Method: The Difference It Makes, Mary Jane Mossman

Mary Jane Mossman

Prompted by questions raised in A Feminist Perspective in the Academy: The Difference It Makes, Mossman questions whether or not feminist theory, namely as it concerns equality and the impact of women as key actors, could impact the structure of legal inquiry.

Law And Feminism: Foreword, Mary Jane Mossman

Mary Jane Mossman

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections Of Race And Class For Women In Academia, Sonia N. Lawrence

Sonia Lawrence

This is a book review of Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia Gabriella Gutierrez y Muhs, Yolanda Flores Niemann, Carmen G. Gonzalez, and Angela P. Harris, eds., Boulder, CO: Utah State University Press, 2012.

Social Control: Analytical Tool Or Analytical Quagmire?, Shelley A. M. Gavigan, Dorothy E. Chunn

Shelley A. M. Gavigan

There is probably no concept which is used more widely and with less precision than that of 'social control'. Given the lack of agreement about what 'social control' is, researchers usually employ the term in one of two ways. Either they assume that its meaning is obvious and requires no clarification, or, they begin with a perfunctory acknowledgment of the definitional problems associated with the concept and proceed to use it anyway. The eclecticism of the latter approach has stimulated attempts over the years to produce a universally applicable definition of 'social control' that could be empioyed both systematically and …

From Mothers' Allowance To Mothers Need Not Apply: Canadian Welfare Law As Liberal And Neo-Liberal Reforms, Shelley A. M. Gavigan, Dorothy E. Chunn

Shelley A. M. Gavigan

In this paper we examine changes in the form and content of Canadian welfare law through a historical, feminist lens using the exemplar of mother-headed families. Our analysis of how the state dealt with sole support mothers in several provinces throughout the twentieth century reveals important continuities, as well as discontinuities, between the past and the present that have shaped and reshaped the lives and experiences of poor women and their children. In doing so, it helps to illuminate how they have been rendered "undeserving" or "never deserving" with the neo-liberal (re)formation of the Keynesian state in Canada.

Gendered Risks Of Retirement: The Legal Governance Of Defined Contribution Pensions In Canada, Mary G. Condon

Mary G. Condon

This paper examines how the governance of new employer-sponsored pension arrangements in Canada mediates the relationship between gender and discourses of economic risk. It considers the role played by these pension regimes in maintaining gendered forms of financial self-governance and economic insecurity. It asks whether evolving precepts of pension regulation assist or hinder women who wish to resist the disciplinary reach of policy restructurings in the employer-based pension sector.

Gendering The Pension Promise In Canada: Risk, Financial Markets And Neoliberalism, Mary Condon

Mary G. Condon

This article argues that retirement income provision in Canada is built on gendered assumptions, which produce material disadvantage for women. These inequalities are being exacerbated by current neoliberal trends towards the 'marketization' and individualization of pension provision, supported by tax, securities and corporate legal norms. The argument is developed using recent legislative changes to the operation of the Canada Pension Plan and recent developments in the regulation of mutual funds in Ontario as case studies. The article concludes by sketching out some possible points of departure for feminist interventions in pension privatization debates.

Law And Feminism: Editor's Note, Jamie Cameron

Jamie Cameron

No abstract provided.

Equality And Singapore’S First Constitutional Challenges To The Criminalization Of Male Homosexual Conduct, Jack Tsen-Ta Lee

Jack Tsen-Ta LEE

In 2013, in Lim Meng Suang and Kenneth Chee Mun-Leon v Attorney-General and Tan Eng Hong v Attorney-General, the High Court of Singapore delivered the first judgments in the jurisdiction considering the constitutionality of section 377A of the Penal Code, which criminalizes acts of 'gross indecency' between two men, whether they occur in public or private. The Court ruled that the provision was not inconsistent with the guarantees of equality before the law and equal protection of the law stated in Article 12(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore. The result was upheld in 2014 by the Court …

The Gendered Dimensions Of Social Insurance For The "Non-Poor" In Canada, Stephanie Ben-Ishai

Stephanie Ben-Ishai

This article emerges from an exploration of the meanings of consumer bankruptcy in the current context of Canadian society, as well as the role consumer bankruptcy plays in shaping this context. Examining consumer bankruptcy through the lens of gender relations, the claim is made that Canadian consumer bankruptcy legislation, policies, practices, and accompanying discourses are implicated in the causation and perpetuation of the conditions of marginalization and subordination endured by women who experience long-term poverty. These women are affected not only in terms of access to the bankruptcy system, but also by the broader implications of the delivery of consumer …

Combating Acid Violence In Bangladesh, India, And Cambodia, Sital Kalantry, Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum

Sital Kalantry

This Report is the first comprehensive, comparative study of acid violence that examines the underlying causes, its consequences, and the multiple barriers to justice for its victims. Acid attacks, like other forms of violence against women, are not random or natural phenomena. Rather, they are social phenomena deeply embedded in a gender order that has historically privileged patriarchal control over women and justified the use of violence to “keep women in their places.” Through an in-depth study of three countries, the authors of the Report argue that the due diligence standard can be a powerful tool for state and non-state …

Replacing Myths With Facts: Sex-Selective Abortion Laws In The United States, Brian Citro, Jeff Gilson, Sital Kalantry, Kelsey Stricker

Sital Kalantry

Several countries in the world have sex ratios at birth that are as high or higher than China and India, including countries with predominantly white populations. Nonetheless, immigrant communities in the United States from China and India are consistently accused of harboring a preference for sons. It is supposedly this preference for sons that leads Asian Americans to abort female fetuses. In response, eight states have enacted bans on sex-selective abortion and 21 states and the United States Congress have considered such bans.

Proponents of sex-selective abortion bans claim that the United States is one of the few countries in …

Women In Robes, Sital Kalantry

Sital Kalantry

This article presents statistics on the number of women in the judiciary and argues for gender parity to further equality, enhance courts' legitimacy, and strengthen the rule of law.

Sex-Selective Abortion Bans: Anti-Immigration Or Anti-Abortion?, Sital Kalantry

Sital Kalantry

In the last five years, over half of the state legislatures in the United States have considered banning sex-selective abortion because of the (false) belief that Asian Americans are disproportionately giving birth to more boys than are European Americans. Supported by the data that applies to a very small subset of Asian Americans, proponents of the law stereotype Asian Americans by assuming that their birthing patterns are the same as those of people in India and China.

Because of the undue focus on Asian immigrants in the discussions of sex selection bans, the real conversation that should occur in the …

From Protection To Punishment: Post-Conviction Barriers To Justice For Domestic Violence Survivor-Defendants In New York State, Tamar Kraft-Stolar, Elizabeth Brundige, Sital Kalantry, Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum

Sital Kalantry

No abstract provided.

Sex Selection In The United States And India: A Contextualist Feminist Approach, Sital Kalantry

Sital Kalantry

Seven states in the United States have passed sex selection abortion bans, bills are pending in several other states, and a bill has been reintroduced in the U.S. Congress. In analyzing state legislative hearings, this article documents how the wide-spread practice of sex selection in other countries, particularly India and China, is being used by anti-abortion groups as a way to restrict women's right to autonomy in the United States. The dominant feminist paradigm in the United States takes a universal position on sex selection bans - these bans contravene women's right to autonomy and should not be permitted in …