Law Commons^™

Prosecuting Rape Victims While Rapists Run Free: The Consequences Of Police Failure To Investigate Sex Crimes In Britain And The United States, Lisa Avalos

Lisa Avalos

In God We Trust, Andrew C. Nosti

SURGE

Almost everywhere I turn I can hear someone saying, “America is a Christian nation!” likely yelled or grumbled with impressive, and sometimes concerning, aggression. I can’t go through a week without this phrase popping up, usually closely accompanied by the notion that America’s founding has roots in Christian principles. [excerpt]

Domestic Disorders: Suffrage And New York's Constitutional Convention Of 1867, Felice Batlan

ConLawNOW

In this essay, Felice Batlan discusses New York State’s Constitutional Convention of 1867. She argues that it is (at least in part) the outcome of this convention and the antagonisms that it created that further propelled Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan Anthony to align with interests opposing African-American suffrage. It also shows the absolute mess of pursuing suffrage on a state by state basis and how legislators themselves equated the voting of African American men with women’s suffrage. The essay is part of a larger project in conversation with scholarship about Reconstruction in the North and a second body of …

Sexual Exploitation In The Rhetoric Of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lisa Shawn Hogan

ConLawNOW

In this essay, Lisa Hogan explores Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s attacks on marriage, including her critique of the institution of marriage and her support of liberal divorce laws. It reveals that Stanton’s most controversial writings addressed woman’s sexuality in a broader context, including discussions of sexual exploitation and infanticide.

The Origins Of Constitutional Gender Equality In The Nineteenth-Century Work Of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Tracy Thomas

ConLawNOW

This introduction to the symposium previews the colloquium held at the Center for Constitutional Law at Akron on the intellectual work of pioneering feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton. It highlights the talks from scholars in law, history, and women’s studies, published in this symposium issue, that explore Stanton’s philosophical and political work for gender equality in the political, domestic, and religious spheres.

The Lawyer's Obligation To Correct Social Injustice!, James F. Gill

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Origins Of Constitutional Gender Equality In The Nineteenth-Century Work Of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Tracy Thomas

Con Law Center Articles and Publications

This introduction to the symposium previews the colloquium held at the Center for Constitutional Law at Akron on the intellectual work of pioneering feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton. It highlights the talks from scholars in law, history, and women’s studies, published in this symposium issue, that explore Stanton’s philosophical and political work for gender equality in the political, domestic, and religious spheres.

The "Radical Conscience" Of Nineteenth-Century Feminism, Tracy Thomas

Con Law Center Articles and Publications

No abstract provided.

Subsidized Egg Freezing In Employment: Autonomy, Coercion, Or Discrimination?, Ann C. Mcginley

Scholarly Works

In 2014, Apple and Facebook announced that they would provide up to $20,000 for female employees to freeze their eggs as an employment benefit. These announcements raised mixed reviews. Some applauded the decision because they believe that egg freezing may offer to women more control over their reproductive choices. Others argued that the new benefit sends the wrong message to women and that encouraging good parenting by giving better parental leave and child care policies would be more beneficial to families. Others were concerned that this “benefit” applies only to professional or managerial-class women, but may not be helpful to …

The Unintended Consequences Of The International Women's Movement: Medicalizing Rape In The Democratic Republic Of Congo, Faye N. Forman

Senior Projects Spring 2016

The legal advancements made by western feminists from the 1960s continuing today mark a distinct shift for both the women's movement and mainstream radical feminist philosophy. This project examines the unintended consequences of the rise of the international women's movement as American feminists brought the law to bear as the primary instrument for reform to eradicate rape and violence against women. As contemporary political scholars demonstrate, legal remediation further codifies gender inequality and protective tropes that sexualize women's injury. Chapter 2 and 3 examines the intensified feminist efforts to criminalize domestic abuse at an international level, first at the United …

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 …

Law, Culture, And Equality - Human Rights' Influence On Domestic Norms: The Case Of Women In The Americas, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

This essay originated with a panel on Alternatives to the Regular Courts that took place during the first Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas conference sponsored by the University of Florida Levin College of Law. Some of the possible alternatives to the courts, in the trade field, that have been discussed include mediation, arbitration, constitutional courts and binational dispute panels. This essay reflects upon another alternative to domestic courts that progressively and increasingly is also being invoked in the trade context: international and regional human rights regimes. I specifically will review the Inter-American Human Rights System to ascertain the …

Professional Women Silenced By Men-Made Norms, Maritza I. Reyes

Akron Law Review

This Article proceeds in eight Parts. Part I narrates my path to “academic feminism” and the legal academy. In the tradition of feminist scholars before me, I set forth the personal to provide the background for the socio-legal-political views that inform this Article...Part II explains the need for broader perspectives and approaches to legal scholarship. It is important for the legal academy to recognize that, just like the legal market is calling for changes, we have to stop silencing the development of scholarship andperspectives that can bring forth the change we need. The academy has already benefited from the work …

"Horror Of A Woman": Myra Bradwell, The 14th Amendment, And The Gendered Origins Of Sociological Jurisprudence, Gwen Hoerr Jordan

Akron Law Review

On June 14, 1873, Myra Bradwell reprinted a short article from the St. Louis Republican in the Chicago Legal News announcing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in her case.

This short article reveals an important insight that challenges some contemporary interpretations of Bradwell v. Illinois. First, it points out what we know, but sometimes overlook, that the Supreme Court holding in Bradwell did not prevent women from becoming lawyers or practicing law.6 More importantly, however, it suggests that Justice Bradley’s oftcited concurrence – where he reveals his horror of a woman, writing that “[t]he harmony, not to say identity, of …

Anna Moscowitz Kross And The Home Term Part: A Second Look At The Nation's First Criminal Domestic Violence Court, Mae C. Quinn

Akron Law Review

This paper seeks to inform current conversations about dedicated domestic violence courts by shedding light on Kross’s remarkable early efforts to treat domestic violence prosecutions differently from other criminal matters and handle them in a designated court part. The story of Kross’s Home Term Part – the first specialized criminal domestic violence court in New York and perhaps the United States—is an important chapter in the history of intimate violence policies in this country. Recognition of Home Term is crucial to any complete account and understanding of our criminal justice system’s renewed efforts at judicial innovation through specialized “problem-solving” courts. …

Corporate Conscience And The Contraceptive Mandate: A Dworkinian Reading, Linda C. Mcclain

Faculty Scholarship

When a closely-divided U.S. Supreme Court decided Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (2014), upholding a challenge by three for-profit corporations to the contraceptive coverage provisions (“contraceptive mandate”) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (“ACA”), sadly missing in the flurry of commentary was the late Ronald Dworkin’s assessment. This essay asks, “What would Dworkin do?,” if evaluating that case as well as Wheaton College v. Burwell, in which, over a strong dissent by Justices Sotomayor, Ginsburg, and Kagan, the Court granted Wheaton College emergency relief from complying with ACA’s accommodation procedure for religious nonprofit organizations who object to …

Female Genital Mutilation And Designer Vaginas In Britain: Crafting An Effective Legal And Policy Framework, Lisa Avalos

Lisa Avalos

Ending Female Genital Mutilation And Child Marriage In Tanzania, Lisa Avalos, Naima Farrell, Rebecca Stellato, Marc Werner

Lisa Avalos

Shared Responsibility Regulation Model For Cross-Border Reproductive Transactions, Sharon Bassan

Sharon Bassan

The term “cross-border reproductive transactions” refers to the phenomenon of tens of thousands of people who travel from one country to another to purchase reproductive services, in order to have a child. The foci of this paper are the lion share of cross-border reproductive transactions, specifically between consumers, i.e., intended parents from affluent countries, and suppliers of reproductive services, egg sellers and surrogate mothers, the majority of whom are from lower middle-income countries. Strong concerns regarding the morality of consumers’ states’ policy arise when a country nationally restricts or bans commercial surrogacy, while accepting the results of cross-border reproductive transactions …

Texas Tightens Abortion Restrictions: Abbott, Physician Admittance Requirements, And What It Really Means For Texas Women, Rebecca Waddell

Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Professional Women Silenced By Men-Made Norms, Maritza I. Reyes

Journal Publications

The call of this symposium was for articles regarding women's rights and the movement toward equality. We are still wrestling with what equality should mean. In this Article, when I refer to equality I envision it as both a strategy and as the end goal. Equality as a strategy means assessing the inherent inequalities of particular situations and using the means necessary to remedy the inequalities and achieve equality as the end goal. The end goal is for women (with all our complexities and intersectionalities) to achieve the same rights and results as men (with all their complexities and intersectionalities) …

Uncovering Women In Taxation: The Gender Impact Of Detaxation, Tax Expenditures, And Joint Tax/Benefit Units, Kathleen A. Lahey

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

Women have made great progress in gaining individual civil and political rights since the 1800s. However, for nearly a century, the use of couple-based tax and benefit provisions has increased steadily, enshrouding women in new and extensive forms of fiscal coverture that run counter to democratic ideals of economic equality. While the pros and cons of joint taxation have been well-rehearsed, the reality is that between unequal distributions of new and old varieties of tax and benefit items to women and men and the continued expansion of joint tax and benefit items in recent decades, Canada’s tax and transfer system …

Hobby Lobby: The Crafty Case That Threatens Women's Rights And Religious Freedom, Leslie C. Griffin

Scholarly Works

Despite the pro-religion rhetoric surrounding it, Hobby Lobby marks a loss of religious freedom. Missing from the majority's opinion is the core concept that religious freedom is necessary to protect the rights of all Americans, and that a religious belief must not be imposed on citizens through the force of law. Any interpretation of the First Amendment or the Religious Freedom Restoration Act ("RFRA")' that imposes one citizen's religious faith upon another must be rejected. This Article defends this non-imposition model of religious freedom and describes why and how Hobby Lobby incorrectly departed from it.

Holistic Pregnancy: Rejecting The Theory Of The Adversarial Mother, Rona Kaufman Kitchen

Rona Kaufman Kitchen

In its zealous effort to protect the lives and health of unborn children, the law frequently views the expecting mother with suspicion. In its most extreme form, the law regards the potential mother as a potential murderess. This perspective does not reflect the nature of pregnancy, it undermines the autonomy of loving mothers, and it is detrimental to children. Regardless of whether there is any conflict between mother and fetus, the State presumes the mother to be a threat to her fetus and subjugates her rights as a result. The State interferes with the mother’s autonomy, bodily integrity, parental rights, …

Rights Inside Out: The Case Of The Women's Human Rights Campaign, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

This essay traces the relationship between activists and academics involved in the campaign for “women’s rights as human rights” as a case study of the relationship between different classes of what I call “knowledge professionals” self-consciously acting in a transnational domain. The puzzle that animates this essay is the following: how was it that at the very moment at which a critique of “rights” and a reimagination of rights as “rights talk” proved to be such fertile ground for academic scholarship did the same “rights” prove to be an equally fertile ground for activist networking and lobbying activities? The paper …

An Analysis Of Structural Weaknesses In The Convention On The Elimination Of All Forms Of Discrimination Against Women, Julie A. Minor

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Gender And Economic, Social, And Cultural Rights, Christine M. Chinkin

Book Chapters

At the time of adoption of the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) in 1966, the concept of gender had not entered the international arena. Relations between women and men in the allocation and enjoyment of rights were addressed through the concept of non-discrimination, inter alia on the basis of sex. The term ‘gender’ began to enter the international agenda in the 1980s, first through the global conferences on women. The World Conference on Human Rights at Vienna in 1993 continued this trend, referring to gender-based violence, gender bias, and gender-disaggregated statistics. It also called for ‘the …

The Challenge Of Strong Religion In The Liberal State, Gila Stopler

Gila Stopler

Liberal states are struggling to find ways to deal with strong religion in a manner that would enable them to give due respect to the religious beliefs of citizens while at the same time to adhere to core liberal values such as respect for human rights and avoidance of undue entanglement of religious and state authority. One type of solution that has been offered is granting authority and autonomy to private religious tribunals, for example in the area of religious family law. Another type of solution is creating a direct link between state law and some religious obligations, as was …

Anatomy Of An Uprising: Women, Democracy, And The Moroccan Feminist Spring, Karla M. Mckanders

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

During the Arab Spring, Moroccan men and women first took to the streets on February 20, 2011 to demand governmental reforms. Their movement became known as the Mouvement du 20-Février. In a series of protests, Moroccans called for democratic change, lower food prices, freedom for Islamist prisoners, and rights for the Berber people. Initially, King Mohammad VI attempted to suppress the movement. When this approach did not succeed, in a televised speech, the King agreed to reform the government. In June 2011, the constitutional committee proposed changes that would reduce the King’s absolute powers, implement democratic reforms, and create a …

Pursuing Justice For The Child: The Forgotten Women Of In Re Gault, David S. Tanenhaus

Scholarly Works

In this article, I first draw on my recent book The Constitutional Rights of Children to introduce the facts of the case and place the case in the larger context of the history of American juvenile justice. I then focus specifically on the role of four remarkable women in the history of this landmark decision: Marjorie Gault, Gerald's mother; Amelia Lewis, Gerald's lawyer; Lorna Lockwood, an Arizona lawyer who became the first woman to serve as the Chief Justice of a State Supreme Court; and Getrude "Traute" Mainzer, who assisted in the litigation of Gerald's case before the U.S. Supreme …