Law Commons^™

Judging Sex In War, Karen Engle

Michigan Law Review

Rape is often said to constitute a fate worse than death. It has long been deployed as an instrument of war and outlawed by international humanitarian law as a serious-sometimes even capital-crime. While disagreement exists over the meaning of rape and the proof that should be required to convict an individual of the crime, today the view that rape is harmful to women enjoys wide concurrence. Advocates for greater legal protection against rape often argue that rape brings shame upon raped women as well as upon their communities. Shame thus adds to rape's power as a war weapon. Sexual violence …

Rape At Rome: Feminist Interventions In The Criminalization Of Sex-Related Violence In Positive International Criminal Law, Janet Halley

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article examines the work of organized feminism in the formation of new international criminal tribunals over the course of the 1990s. It focuses on the statutes establishing the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), and the International Criminal Court (ICC). It offers a description of the evolving organizational style of feminists involved in the legislative processes leading to the establishment of these courts, and a description of their reform agenda read against the outcomes in each court-establishing statute. At each stage, the Article counts up the feminist victories and defeats, …

A Quest For Acceptance: The Real Id Act And The Need For Comprehensive Gender Recognition Legislation In The United States, Jason Allen

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This Article maintains that the Real ID Act highlights the need for U.S. federal gender recognition legislation in the mold of the GRA. Part II offers background into the psychology of transgender people, explaining how the medical community views and treats this "condition." Part III illustrates the fundamental value of gender recognition rights and examines the inadequacy of U.S. statutory and case law. This discussion then traces the evolution of the GRA in the United Kingdom as the culmination of a mandate from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Part IV argues that the United States should adopt a …

"Please Write 'E' In This Box" Toward Self-Identification And Recognition Of A Third Gender: Approaches In The United States And India, Jennifer Rellis

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Part I of this Article defines intersexuality and highlights the legal and societal complications that occur when the concept of the fixed male-female gender binary is challenged. Part II describes the unique role of the hijras in India, who are both revered and discriminated against, and suggests that India is beginning to legally recognize a third gender through the grassroots advocacy of the hijras. Part III contrasts the experience of intersexed individuals in the United States by describing the current protocol to deal with the "medical emergency" of the birth of an intersexed child. This section forecasts legal issues facing …

The Lactating Angel Or Activist? Public Breatsfeeding As Symbolic Speech, Elizabeth Hildebrand Matherne

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

The only way to combat this stigma against public breastfeeding is through the act of breastfeeding in public. The author proposes that breastfeeding is a powerful act of symbolic speech vital for discarding one of the lingering shackles of women's inequality that triggers first amendment protection. Breastfeeding in public addresses this stigma by treating two ills at once: 1) greater public exposure to the practice decreases the severity of society's reactions, and 2) the less stares and confrontation that publicly nursing mothers receive, the more likely they will be to breastfeed, whenever or wherever their baby is hungry. This will …

Unusual Suspects: Recognizing And Responding To Female Staff Perpetrators Of Sexual Misconduct In U.S. Prisons, Lauren A. Teichner

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Despite the general public's ignorance of this issue of sexual misconduct perpetrated by female prison staff against male inmates, such stories are remarkably familiar to those who study or work in the world of prisons. The Prison Rape Elimination Act ("PREA") of 2003 mandated that the Bureau of Justice Statistics ("the Bureau") undertake new studies of sexual violence in prisons. Accordingly, the Bureau released a report in July 2006 revealing some groundbreaking data. Of the 344 substantiated allegations of staff-on-inmate sexual violence made in federal, state, and private prisons in 2005, 67% of the overall victims were male inmates and …

Servitude, Liberté Et Citoyenneté Dans Le Monde Atlantique Des Xviiie Et Xixe Siècles: Rosalie De Nation Poulard…, Rebecca J. Scott, Jean Hebrard

Articles

On December 4, 1867, the ninth day of the convention to write a new post-Civil War constitution for the state of Louisiana, delegate Edouard Tinchant rose to propose that the convention should provide “for the legal protection in this State of all women” in their civil rights, “without distinction of race or color, or without reference to their previous condition.” Tinchant’s proposal plunged the convention into additional debates ranging from voting rights and equal protection to recognition of conjugal relationships not formalized by marriage.

This article explores the genesis of Tinchant’s conceptions of citizenship and women’s rights through three generations …