Law Commons^™

The Highly Political Supreme Court, Riley Lane Munks

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This paper investigates whether Republicans or Democrats support a strong Supreme Court and why. Furthermore, by analyzing data from the 2012 American National Election Survey, I will study support of the court based on gender, age, and race. Since the early 1980’s the court has taken a strong conservative direction, to the dismay of many liberals. Republicans feel comfortable sending a congressional dispute to the courts while Democrats may feel disenfranchised with the judicial process. I also believe that younger people believe the court is an outdated method of making laws and interpreting the constitution. Originally the Supreme Court was …

Paid Family Leave, Rachel-Lyn Longo, Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz

Senior Honors Projects

Paid Family Leave policies are rare in the United States. Around the world, one hundred and eighty-two countries provide some form of paid maternity leave, and seventy countries also offer paid paternity leave. It is estimated that only 36 percent of U.S. employees have access to paid leave if they get sick, a policy that is almost universal in other developed countries, and only 12 percent of employees have access to paid family leave. Presently, just three states have implemented Paid Family Leave (PFL) to help offset the cost of time taken off of work to care for a newborn …

Hidden In Plain Sight: Exploring The Vulnerabilities Of Street-Working Boys In Se Asia, Jarrett Davis, Glenn Miles

Sixth Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking 2014

The sexual exploitation of men and boys is often little understood and commonly goes ignored. Internationally, it is said that 1 in 6 boys are sexually abused before reaching adulthood and in some nations the exploitation and abuse of boys far outweighs that of girls. Social and cultural norms often assume men and boys to be inherently strong and/or invulnerable to sexual exploitation; however, research in this area continues to show these assumptions to be false. Because of this lack of awareness, the efforts of the organizations and individuals who work to provide for the needs of male victims are …

Analysis Of Human Trafficking Cases In Rhode Island, 2009-2013, Donna M. Hughes, Rachel Dunham, Faith Skodmin, Lucy Tillman, Jessica Wainfor

Sixth Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking 2014

This presentation is an analysis of seven state and federal cases of human trafficking, including forced labor and sex trafficking, in Rhode Island from 2009 until 2013. In 2009, Rhode Island passed a comprehensive human trafficking law. Since then there have been six cases of sex trafficking and one case of forced labor. Sources for information on the human trafficking cases were police reports, witness statements, court documents and media reports. This presentation will briefly summarize the cases and discuss the similarities and difference among the cases and discuss of some key findings from these cases, which include:
1) Victims …

The Problem Of State Intervention In Post-Abolition Slavery: A Critique Of Consensus, Anthony Talbott, David Watkins

Sixth Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking 2014

Slavery is now illegal by all states and under international law. Contrary to the hopes of abolitionists, this state of affairs has transformed rather than eradicated slavery as an institution. Furthermore, responses by states to post-abolition forms of slavery have often been less than ideal. This paper begins by comparing two state responses to slavery in the early 20th century: the federal peonage trials in Montgomery, Alabama from 1903-1905, and the federal response to an alleged epidemic of “white slavery” from 1909-1910, culminating in the passage of the White Slave-Traffic Act. Taken together, these responses engender pessimism about the state …

The Illusion Of Autonomy In Women's Medical Decision-Making, Jamie Abrams

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This article considers why there is not more conflict between women and their doctors in obstetric decision-making. While patients in every other medical context have complete autonomy to refuse treatment against medical advice, elect high-risk courses of action, and prioritize their own interests above any other decision-making metric, childbirth is viewed anomalously because of the duty to the fetus that the state and the doctor owe at birth. Many feminist scholars have analyzed the complex resolution of these conflicts when they arise, particularly when the state threatens to intervene to override the birthing woman’s autonomy. This article instead considers the …

Femicide In Bolivia After Law 348, Adán Martínez

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project explores the concept of femicide from a unique perspective, by analyzing the effect that Law #348: The Internal Law to Guarantee Women a Life Without Violence after a year that it passed during the Morales' administration. I examine two crucial questions to this study: 1) How do we explain the paradox that although this law has passed, today we see an increase in the number of femicides in Bolivia? 2) What are the obstacles that prevent that application of law 348 3) What can we do to put a stop to femicides? I demonstrate that several factors like …

Werc Newsletter, Fall 2014, Hina B. Shah

Women’s Employment Rights Clinic

No abstract provided.

Gender Diversity In The Patent Bar, Saurabh Vishnubhakat

Faculty Scholarship

This article describes the state of gender diversity across technology and geography within the U.S. patent bar. The findings rely on a new gender-matched dataset, the first public dataset of its kind, not only of all attorneys and agents registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, but also of attorneys and agents on patents granted by the USPTO. To enable follow-on research, the article describes all data and methodology and offers suggestions for refinement. This study is timely in view of renewed interest about the participation of women in the U.S. innovation ecosystem, notably the provision …

Human Trafficking To Northern America: The Balkan Connection, Natalya Timoshkina, Naser Miftari, Antonela Arhin

Sixth Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking 2014

This paper draws on the results of a large multi-method study, which examined human trafficking from the former Eastern Bloc to Northern America (Canada and the United States). The study was conducted in 2011-2013, and funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The analysis is grounded in the findings from 9 countries of the Balkan region included in the study: Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. The following data sources were used: (a) national and international reports, media and academic articles, and various documents (in English and official languages …

Human Trafficking, Education And Migration At Ngos In Cambodia And Thailand, Robert Spires, Xinyi Duan

Sixth Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking 2014

This presentation is based on in-progress collaborative research between researcher Dr. Bob Spires and Hong Kong-based NGO Liberty Asia. The research involves interviews and observations conducted at multiple NGOs in Cambodia and Thailand working to address human trafficking and incorporating educational components into their programs. The study uses comparative lenses to examine issues of education and migration in both the Cambodian and Thai context for human trafficking survivors and at-risk populations. The study is interdisciplinary, drawing on the work on human trafficking in several social science fields. The framework for the research is based on Frank Laczko and Elzbieta Gozdziak’s …

Bra’S For A Cause: A Service Learning Project In A Freshman Level Human Trafficking Course, Beth A. Wiersma

Sixth Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking 2014

Women and Children for Sale: The Global Problem of Human Trafficking is a General Studies Portal course for college freshman at a Midwestern university. The students in the course were surveyed the first day of class about why they chose the course, what they hoped to get out of the course, what they believed to be true about human trafficking, and how they learned about human trafficking. During the semester the students planned and carried out a service learning project “Bras for a Cause”. This project involved educating others about human trafficking and collecting bras. The bras are sent overseas …

Invisible No More: Domestic Workers Organizing In Massachusetts And Beyond, Natalicia Tracy, Tim Sieber, Susan Moir Scd

Labor Studies Faculty Publication Series

Domestic workers across the country are making it clear that, even in a difficult political environment, it is possible to make gains for low-wage workers. For the first time in many, many decades, domestic workers are finding ways to win. They are creat
ing policy change that will improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers in tangible and substantial ways. The 2014 Massachusetts Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights is the most expansive codification of rights for this long-overlooked part of the labor force ever to be enacted. In one sense, there is nothing new about domestic workers organizing …

Reconstructing A College Model For Countering Human Trafficking, Ron D. Petitte

Sixth Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking 2014

Assessment is a hallmark of 21st Century academia. Accordingly, the 2013 college model for countering human trafficking² was reviewed and assessed by the author, leading to a restructuring of the model, in order to present developments that have occurred since the October 2013 Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, as well as attempting to engineer a more practical and effective model: There are two areas of research that link directly to the spectre of human trafficking. The first is economics; and, the question that is raised: “Is human trafficking, today, the result of unjust economic …

A Content Analysis Of Backpage.Com Advertisements In Louisville, Kentucky, Theresa C. Hayden

Sixth Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking 2014

Backpage.com and Craigslist are replacing the street corner as a crime source for buying and selling of sex. “To reduce commercial sexual exploitation and enforce existing trafficking laws, communities must first recognize the extent of the problem within their local area (Janson, Mann, Marro, & Matvey, 2013, 99). In a population density study conducted in 15 major U. S. cities, it was found that males over 18 years of age who buy sex online ranged from 0.6% in San Francisco to 21.4% in Houston (Roe-Sepoqitz, Hickle, Gallagher, Smith, & Hedberg, 2013). Researchers in the Greater Cincinnati area found a high …

The Social And Economic Implications Of Human Trafficking In Nigeria: Naptip In Focus, Eunice I. Anuforom

Sixth Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking 2014

Human trafficking is globally recognized as a modern day slavery with multifarious negative socio-economic, legal and health implications. Besides drugs trafficking and gun running, human trafficking has become a lucrative business globally and yields an estimated US$32 million annually. Traffickers trade on human lives, subject them to gory and traumatic experiences in order to make profits. Human trafficking is therefore the worst form of human rights violations and a gender based violence against female who constitute the majority of the victims in the country. Regrettably, Nigeria occupies the ignoble position of a source, transit and destination country for trafficking. In …

A Content Analysis Of Backpage.Com Advertisements In Louisville, Kentucky, Theresa C. Hayden

Faculty Scholarship

Backpage.com and Craigslist are replacing the street corner as a crime source for buying and selling of sex. “To reduce commercial sexual exploitation and enforce existing trafficking laws, communities must first recognize the extent of the problem within their local area (Janson, Mann, Marro, & Matvey, 2013, 99). In a population density study conducted in 15 major U. S. cities, it was found that males over 18 years of age who buy sex online ranged from 0.6% in San Francisco to 21.4% in Houston (Roe-Sepoqitz, Hickle, Gallagher, Smith, & Hedberg, 2013). Researchers in the Greater Cincinnati area found a high …

Troublesome Women And The Nanny State: Drawing Boundaries And Legislating Bifurcated Belonging In Patriarchal Singapore, Eugene K. B. Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Singapore was and remains an immigrant society. The immigration of newcitizens and temporary workers has become the primary means by which thepopulation is replenished and right-sized for its economic and demographicrequirements. More than one in three persons (or 38.6 percent) living inSingapore are foreigners (non-citizens, including permanent residents) in2013.[2] Of the 3.45 million working population in Singapore, about 38 percent(or about 1,296,800 persons are foreigners.[3] The vast majority of theseforeigners are transient workers (migrant workers) on short-term work permits.Of these, about 211,000—all women—are employed as domestic help (or ‘maids’ inlocal parlance) as of June 2013.

Health Equity For All: Sexual And Reproductive Health Needs And Access To Health Services For Adolescents 10–17 Engaged In Selling Sex In Asia Pacific, Brendan M. Conner, Ayesha Mago, Sarah Middleton-Lee

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Exploration Of Sexual Victimization And Academic Performance Among College Women, Carol E. Jordan, Jessica L. Combs, Gregory T. Smith

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

The literature has documented the widespread nature of sexual assault victimization among college women. While the aftermath of violence against university women has also received focus, that is, documenting trauma-related sequelae; risk factors; reporting patterns; and legal interventions, the impact on academic performance has not received adequate attention in the literature. The primary purpose of this study was to explore the association of rape and sexual assault with academic performance among college women. Its specific aims included the following: to compare high school and college sexual assault experiences with collegiate grade point averages (GPAs) at key points in time; to …

Sentencing Inequality Versus Sentencing Injustice, Melanie D. Wilson

Scholarly Articles

Women lag behind men in pay for equal work and in positions of prestigious employment, such as chief executive officers at Fortune 500 companies and presidents of colleges and universities. Women also suffer conscious and subconscious negative bias from both men and women in positions to evaluate an applicant's capabilities and potential, making it less likely that an employer or mentor will choose a woman instead of a man. In contrast to these and many other contexts, our federal criminal justice system regularly favors women over men. Empirical studies show that this lenient treatment begins with prosecutors and law enforcement …

"Because Ladies Lie": Eliminating Vestiges Of The Corroboration And Resistance Requirements From Ohio's Sexual Offenses, Patricia J. Falk

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

In response to alarming statistics about the dearth of rape cases brought to successful fruition, feminist critiques of rape law, and changing attitudes about sexual autonomy, rape and sexual assault statutes in America have undergone enormous revision during the last few decades. The barriers to successful prosecution of rape cases-including the corroboration and resistance requirements-have been slowly eroding in modern statutory law. Despite rampant rape reform, these old-fashioned requirements have been remarkably persistent, and vestiges of them remain in twenty-first-century statutory enactments.

When Harvard Said No To Eugenics: The J. Ewing Mears Bequest, 1927, Paul A. Lombardo

Faculty Publications By Year

James Ewing Mears (1838-1919) was a founding member of the Philadelphia Academy of Surgery. His 1910 book, The Problem of Race Betterment, laid the groundwork for later authors to explore the uses of surgical sterilization as a eugenic measure. Mears left $60,000 in his will to Harvard University to support the teaching of eugenics. Although numerous eugenic activists were on the Harvard faculty, and who of its Presidents were also associated with the eugenics movement, Harvard refused the Mears gift. The bequest was eventually awarded to Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. This article explains why Harvard turned its back …

Not All Women Are Mothers: Addressing The Invisibility Of Women Under The Control Of The Criminal Justice System Who Do Not Have Children, Venezia Michalsen, Jeanne Flavin

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Research has consistently shown that most women under the control of the criminal justice system are mothers. The robustness of this finding has been accompanied by a failure to consider the characteristics and needs of women without children. In this study, we examine data on 1,334 formerly incarcerated women. Findings indicate that while mothers and non-mothers share some characteristics, they differ on several others, most notably demographic profile, mental health, and timing of contacts with the criminal justice system. These results suggest a need to recognize the diversity among women offender groups, particularly when developing policies and programs need.

Migrant Workers' Access To Justice At Home: Nepal, Sarah Paoletti, Eleanor Taylor-Nicholson, Bandita Sijapati, Bassina Farbenblum

All Faculty Scholarship

Nepal’s citizens engage in foreign employment at the highest per capita rate of any other country in Asia, and their remittances account for 25 percent of the country’s GDP. The Middle East is now the most popular destination for Nepalis--nearly 700,000 were working in the Middle East in 2011 on temporary labor contracts. For some Nepalis, working abroad provides much-needed household wealth. For others, their contributions to Nepal come at great personal cost. Migrant workers in the Gulf, for example, routinely report wage theft, lack of time off and unsafe and unhealthy working conditions. Some migrant workers report psychological and …

Gender In Asbestos Law: Cui Bono: Cui Pacat, Anita Bernstein

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Bottlenecks And Antidiscrimination Theory, Samuel R. Bagenstos

Reviews

In American antidiscrimination theory, two positions have competed for primacy. One, anticlassification, sees the proper goal of antidiscrimination law as being essentially individualistic. The problem with discrimination, in this view, is that it classifies individuals on the basis of an irrelevant or arbitrary characteristic—and that it, as a result, denies them opportunities for which they are otherwise individually qualified. The other position, antisubordination, sees the proper goal of antidiscrimination law as being more group oriented. The problem with discrimination, in this view, is that it helps constitute a social system in which particular groups are systematically subject to disadvantage and …

Replacing Myths With Facts: Sex-Selective Abortion Laws In The United States, Brian Citro, Jeff Gilson, Sital Kalantry, Kelsey Stricker, University Of Chicago Law School. International Human Rights Clinic, National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (U.S.), Advancing New Standards In Reproductive Health (Organization)

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

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 …

Gender And Armed Conflict, Christine Chinkin

Book Chapters

The construction of social sex and gender roles means that armed conflict is sexed and gendered. Men still make up the majority of the fighting forces, while women's generally unequal and subordinate social and economic position makes them vulnerable in particular ways during conflict. Women and men, girls and boys all suffer gender-based violence. Such violence is directed at a person because of his or her gender. For instance men sustain specific harms such as disappearances and deliberate killings in greater numbers than women, while women disproportionately experience sexual violence. The detention of Bosnian Muslims at Potocari on 12 July …

Abortion And The Constitutional Right (Not) To Procreate, Mary Ziegler

Scholarly Publications

With the growing use of assisted reproductive technology (“ART”), courts have to reconcile competing rights to seek and avoid procreation. Often, in imagining the boundaries of these rights, judges turn to abortion jurisprudence for guidance.

This move sparks controversy. On the one hand, abortion case law may provide the strongest constitutional foundation for scholars and advocates seeking rights to access ART or avoid un-wanted parenthood. On the other hand, abortion jurisprudence carries normative and political baggage: a privacy framework that disadvantages poor women and a history of intense polarization.

This article uses the legal history of struggle over spousal consent …