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Articles 1 - 14 of 14

Full-Text Articles in Law

Bionormativity And The Construction Of Parenthood, Katharine K. Baker Jun 2008

Bionormativity And The Construction Of Parenthood, Katharine K. Baker

Katharine K. Baker

This piece explores the relationship between legal and biological parenthood. It examines how neither history, nor evolutionary biology nor moral philosophy dictate a legal regime in which parenthood must be based on biological connection, but that attraction to a biological (or “bionormative”) regime remains strong. In explaining why, it suggests that much of what attracts people to bionormativity is not biology itself, but the way in which a biological regime constructs parenthood as a private, exclusive and binary enterprise. It is these ancillary qualities of bionormativity that people may care the most about. Today, a variety of forces put pressure …


Supporting Children, Balancing Lives, Katharine K. Baker Feb 2007

Supporting Children, Balancing Lives, Katharine K. Baker

Katharine K. Baker

This paper examines how U.S. child support policy validates traditional divisions of labor and thereby hinders individual attempts to achieve an acceptable work/family balance. It argues that by using the household as the relevant unit of measurement for child support purposes, family law doctrine legitimates the specialization contracts that arise within households. These specialization contracts, used most extensively in wealthy, elite households, undermine attempts to distribute caretaking and provider roles more equally between parents. The article suggest that by dispensing with the household as the relevant unit of measurement and treating all parents individually, each with a responsibility to caretake …


The Charity In Bankruptcy And Ghosts Of Donors Past, Present, And Future (Symposium), Evelyn Brody Mar 2005

The Charity In Bankruptcy And Ghosts Of Donors Past, Present, And Future (Symposium), Evelyn Brody

Evelyn Brody

The bankruptcy of a charity represents the clash of two policy regimes: charity law's willingness to preserve assets for the public purpose determined by the donor as against bankruptcy law's desire to maximize assets for distribution to creditors. As a general rule, assets will be distributed to creditors; as the courts say, 'a man must be just before he is generous.' However, when a charitable donee goes out of existence or otherwise becomes unable to perform a charitable trust or restricted gift, the courts will try to identify those charitable assets that are restricted in such a manner that they …


Introduction To Symposium, Who Guards The Guardians?: Monitoring And Enforcement Of Charity Governance (With D. Reiser), Evelyn Brody Mar 2005

Introduction To Symposium, Who Guards The Guardians?: Monitoring And Enforcement Of Charity Governance (With D. Reiser), Evelyn Brody

Evelyn Brody

No abstract provided.


A Separate Crime Of Reckless Sex, Katharine K. Baker Feb 2005

A Separate Crime Of Reckless Sex, Katharine K. Baker

Katharine K. Baker

This article attempts to make progress on both the problems of sexually transmitted disease and acquaintance rape by proposing a new crime of reckless sexual conduct. A defendant would be guilty of reckless sexual conduct if, in a first sexual encounter with another particular person, the defendant had sexual intercourse without using a condom. Consent to unprotected intercourse would be an affirmative defense, to be established by the defendant with a preponderance of the evidence. As an empirical matter, first-encounter unprotected sex greatly increases the epidemiological force of sexually transmitted disease and a substantial proportion of acquaintance rape occurs in …


Whose Public?: Parochialism And Paternalism In State Charity Law Enforcement, Evelyn Brody Mar 2004

Whose Public?: Parochialism And Paternalism In State Charity Law Enforcement, Evelyn Brody

Evelyn Brody

This piece was inspired by the increasing tendency of State attorneys general – backed up by courts and legislatures – to effectively confiscate the assets of wealthy nonprofits through overreaching enforcement actions. The article develops a legal framework for ascertaining the proper State role. It reviews many case studies including, most notoriously, the thwarted diversification of the Milton Hershey School Trust out of Hershey Foods Corporation (an investment worth over $5 billion) – thereby preserving the local operations of a publicly traded company. While few state attorneys general have the funding and inclination to engage in aggressive charity enforcement, the …


Bargaining Or Biology? The History And Future Of Paternity Law And Parental Status, Katharine K. Baker Feb 2004

Bargaining Or Biology? The History And Future Of Paternity Law And Parental Status, Katharine K. Baker

Katharine K. Baker

In practice, paternity rulings are remarkably unimportant. With the exception of state welfare authorities pursuing mostly impoverished biological fathers, few paternity actions are brought, few mothers want to bring them and (even with state-sponsored pursuit) very few dollars get transferred to children as a result of them. In theory, however, paternity judgments are very and perniciously important because they keep alive the biological fatherhood ideal, an ideal that has never been reflected in law or fact and that is inconsistent with the emerging law of parental rights and responsibilities. This article challenges the biological fatherhood ideal and suggests that contract, …


Entrance, Voice And Exit: The Constitutional Bounds Of The Right Of Association, Evelyn Brody Mar 2002

Entrance, Voice And Exit: The Constitutional Bounds Of The Right Of Association, Evelyn Brody

Evelyn Brody

Despite the central role of organized groups as intermediary bodies in American society, the constitutional right of association is surprisingly recent and limited. As the Supreme Court struggles to define the bounds of 'the' freedom of association, it is time to take a critical look at a difficult set of questions. First, many private organizations engage in various types of selection criteria, but what subjects the Jaycees to State anti-discrimination laws but insulates the Boy Scouts of America? Second, the typical American nonprofit organization is a corporation that lacks both shareholders and members, so are there any 'associates' whose rights …


Biology For Feminists, Katharine K. Baker Feb 2000

Biology For Feminists, Katharine K. Baker

Katharine K. Baker

No abstract provided.


Text, Context And The Problem With Rape, Katharine K. Baker Feb 1999

Text, Context And The Problem With Rape, Katharine K. Baker

Katharine K. Baker

No abstract provided.


Property Rules Meet Feminist Needs: Respecting Autonomy By Valuing Connection, Katharine K. Baker Jan 1998

Property Rules Meet Feminist Needs: Respecting Autonomy By Valuing Connection, Katharine K. Baker

Katharine K. Baker

In this Article, Professor Baker analyzes how and why the law protects both horizontal (marital) and vertical (parent/child) relationships. In doing so, she suggests that, although the reasons to protect relationships are comparable in both the horizontal and vertical contexts, the law is much more willing to interfere with vertical relationships, at least when the parents are not married to each other. From the standpoint of women's needs, this inconsistent treatment of relationships is precisely backwards. Women benefit little from the law's deference to horizontal relationships, but they could benefit substantially if the law was more deferential to a single …


A Wigmorian Defense Of Feminist Methods, Katharine K. Baker Feb 1997

A Wigmorian Defense Of Feminist Methods, Katharine K. Baker

Katharine K. Baker

No abstract provided.


Once A Rapist? Motivational Evidence And Relevancy In Rape Law, Katharine K. Baker Jan 1997

Once A Rapist? Motivational Evidence And Relevancy In Rape Law, Katharine K. Baker

Katharine K. Baker

Feminist scholars and activists have long sought to reform rape laws and evidence rules in order to increase the number of successful rape prosecutions in the United States. In partial response to these efforts, and in an effort to decrease crime, the 104th Congress amended the Federal Rules of Evidence by adding Rule 413, which makes prior acts of sexual assault by alleged rapists admissible in criminal sexual assault cases. The new Rule 413 was meant to level the legal playing field between rapists and their accusers. Professor Baker argues that the new Rule is misguided because it fails to …


Taking Care Of Our Daughters, A Book Review Of Martha Fineman, The Neutered Mother, The Sexual Family And Other Twentieth Century Tragedies, Katharine K. Baker Jan 1997

Taking Care Of Our Daughters, A Book Review Of Martha Fineman, The Neutered Mother, The Sexual Family And Other Twentieth Century Tragedies, Katharine K. Baker

Katharine K. Baker

No abstract provided.