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Full-Text Articles in Law and Gender

The Legacy Of Colonialism: Law And Women's Rights In India, Varsha Chitnis, Danaya C. Wright Nov 2014

The Legacy Of Colonialism: Law And Women's Rights In India, Varsha Chitnis, Danaya C. Wright

Danaya C. Wright

The relationship between nineteenth century England and colonial India was complex in terms of negotiating the different constituencies that claimed an interest in the economic and moral development of the colonies. After India became subject to the sovereignty of the English Monarchy in 1858, its future became indelibly linked with that of England's, yet India's own unique history and culture meant that many of the reforms the colonialists set out to undertake worked out differently than they anticipated. In particular, the colonial ambition of civilizing the barbaric native Indian male underlay many of the legal reforms attempted in the nearly …


Abortion In South Africa And The United States: An Integrative, Contrastive Comparative Analysis Of The Effect Of Legal And Cultural Influences On Implementation Of Abortion Rights, Danielle Y. Blanks Apr 2014

Abortion In South Africa And The United States: An Integrative, Contrastive Comparative Analysis Of The Effect Of Legal And Cultural Influences On Implementation Of Abortion Rights, Danielle Y. Blanks

Danielle Y Blanks

Despite similarly progressive abortion rights laws, women in South Africa and the U.S. experience completely different levels of access to legal and safe abortions. In this paper, I will seek to explain the reasons for this disparity by describing the ways in which natural law has influenced the application of law in the U.S. and South Africa while examining the role of cultural values in the realization of abortion rights. I will take an integrative approach to explain ideological similarities and a contrastive approach to denote the cultural differences that have led to a de facto marginalization of South African …


Morning-After Decisions: Legal Mobilization Against Emergency Contraception In Chile, Fernando Muñoz León Jan 2014

Morning-After Decisions: Legal Mobilization Against Emergency Contraception In Chile, Fernando Muñoz León

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

In Chile, the Criminal Code bans all forms of abortion. Furthermore, the Constitution—drafted and enacted by the Military Junta led by General Augusto Pinochet—was inspired by a conservative version of Catholic natural law championed by prominent Chilean constitutional law scholars. This Article traces the emergence, development, and ultimately the defeat of a persistent legal mobilization driven by natural law-inspired litigants, politicians, and scholars against levonorgestrel-based emergency contraception, also known as the morning-after pill. In their decade-long efforts at legal mobilization, these natural law litigants used every tool of the Chilean legal system to challenge the legality and the constitutionality of …