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Full-Text Articles in Comparative and Foreign Law
Getting To Equal: Resolving The Judicial Impasse On The Weight Of Non-Monetary Contribution In Kenya's Marital Asset Division, Benedeta Prudence Mutiso
Getting To Equal: Resolving The Judicial Impasse On The Weight Of Non-Monetary Contribution In Kenya's Marital Asset Division, Benedeta Prudence Mutiso
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
Marital property law reforms and changing international human rights standards in the late 20th and early 21st century prompted Kenya to end certain discriminatory practices against women, especially in the area of property rights. For 50 years, Kenya relied on England’s century-old law, the Married Women’s Property Act of 1882, to regulate property rights. In 2010, Kenya adopted a new Constitution that called for equality between men and women, and in 2013, Kenya enacted independent legislation in the form of the Matrimonial Property Act (MPA). The MPA provides a basis for trial courts to divide marital property upon divorce. Specifically, …
Exporting Subjects: Globalizing Family Law Progress Through International Human Rights, Cyra Akila Choudhury
Exporting Subjects: Globalizing Family Law Progress Through International Human Rights, Cyra Akila Choudhury
Michigan Journal of International Law
In our popular culture and social consciousness, women are no longer the second-class citizens they used to be. Magazines, television advertisements, and billboards featuring women show us how we have achieved independence, wealth, desirability, and our intelligence. We are no longer the supporting role in movies and entertainment but stars in our own right. For this, we can thank both changing society and the unrelenting work of many women who refused to bring the coffee for the boss. The women's movement in the United States has made large gains for women through the use of social activism and legal action. …
Can Equality Survive Exceptions?, Daphne Barak-Erez
Can Equality Survive Exceptions?, Daphne Barak-Erez
Michigan Law Review First Impressions
The meaning of the exception vis-à-vis the general rule is primarily discussed in the context of emergency powers (following Cart Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben). But the complicated relationship between the norm and its exceptions is also relevant to other legal contexts. This Commentary is dedicated to the following question: What are the implications of considering equality a fundamental legal principle while recognizing exceptions to its application? More concretely, how does the existence of exceptions influence the understanding and viability of equality as the norm?
An Agenda For The Obama Administration On Gender Equality: Lessons From Abroad, Adrien K. Wing, Samuel P. Nielson
An Agenda For The Obama Administration On Gender Equality: Lessons From Abroad, Adrien K. Wing, Samuel P. Nielson
Michigan Law Review First Impressions
President Barack Obama came into office with a wealth of good will after winning the historic 2008 presidential election to become the first African-American commander-in-chief. Among the many daunting issues we hope he will tackle is one that Abigail Adams mentioned to her husband John in 1776: remember the ladies. How should our President and his new administration affect social justice for women?
Instructions In Inequality: Development, Human Rights, Capabilities, And Gender Violence In School, Erika George
Instructions In Inequality: Development, Human Rights, Capabilities, And Gender Violence In School, Erika George
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Article argues that the international community's gender equality targets will not be realized by 2015 because the problems associated with sexual violence against girls in schools are situated at an intersection of contested conceptual divides between human rights (civil and political liberties) and development aims (social and economic needs). Cracks in the conceptual foundations of both the liberal and utilitarian theories of justice and equality, which support traditional human rights advocacy and economic development plans, respectively render each approach inadequate to fully identify and address the grave danger sexual violence and harassment in schools pose to educational equality. In …
The Marriage Dower: Essential Guarantor Of Women's Rights In The West Bank And Gaza Strip, Heather Jacobson
The Marriage Dower: Essential Guarantor Of Women's Rights In The West Bank And Gaza Strip, Heather Jacobson
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
This Article evaluates the impact that eliminating or reducing the marriage dower would have on the well-being of Muslim women in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Although Palestinian women's rights organizations seek to eliminate dower on the grounds that it is a "burdensome custom" that is "inconsistent with the intifada's stated goal of improving women's status," in fact, the interaction between dower and other laws relating to marriage and divorce is such that the majority of women would be materially harmed by its discontinuance. Therefore, while the movement to eliminate dower may benefit the financially secure upper class women …
Cultural Resistance To Global Governance, Joel Richard Paul
Cultural Resistance To Global Governance, Joel Richard Paul
Michigan Journal of International Law
This article maps out the terrain in which state actors and legal scholars make claims premised on a cultural exception to justify derogating from international legal norms. The author’s aim is to understand why some of these claimed cultural practices displace international legal norms, while other practices are dismissed as violating international legal norms. Part II will examine this discourse in relation to the rights of women and sexual minorities. This article will show that the international community generally regards gender norms as cultural and the international legal norm of gender equality usually defers to national cultural practices. Part III …