Law and Gender Commons^™

Hiv And Aids In Africa: Compulsory Licensing Under Trips And Doha Declaration, Ufuoma Barbara Akpotaire

Ufuoma Barbara Akpotaire

In today’s world, there is a lot of focus on issues such as militancy, global warming, terrorism, racism and even politics. Unfortunately, there is a problem that has killed and is still killing far more people than any of the above issues. That problem is HIV/AIDS.

AIDS is a serious medical condition that predisposes patients towards opportunistic infecting tumors, dementia and death. HIV is the viral agent associated with AIDS. Africa is without doubt more heavily affected by HIV/AIDS than any other region of the world. Although Nigeria’s HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is still relatively low compared to some countries in …

Incrementalism, Civil Unions, And The Possibility Of Predicting Legal Recognition Of Same-Sex Marriage, Erez Aloni

Erez Aloni

Scholars who have examined the legal recognition of same-sex partnerships in European countries have concluded that the path to the legalization of same-sex marriage follows an incremental process involving specific stages. They suggest that it is possible to predict, based on certain visible social and legal processes or assessable parameters, which U.S. states will be the next to recognize same-sex marriage. These scholars argue that such small cumulative legal changes at the state level constitute the best means of legalizing same-sex marriage in the United States, and that civil unions are a necessary step in this process. This article shows …

Transnational Dimensions Of Women's Empowerment: Refocusing On Economic, Social, And Cultural Rights, Hope Lewis

Hope Lewis

These remarks on the economic, social, and cultural human rights of women were delivered at a conference on “The Protection of Women.” The conference was organized by the Italian Cultural Institute of New York, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy, the Consulate General of Italy in New York, and others as a side event during UN Week 2010. The focus of the conference was on progress toward completion of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as they impact the status of women. My talk centered on the wisdom and survival strategies of Afro-Caribbean and other transmigrant women in surviving the …

The Case For Repeal Of India's Sodomy Law, Yuvraj Joshi

Yuvraj Joshi

This Article surveys some of the arguments for and against the repeal of India’s sodomy law. The first part analyses s.377 of the Indian Penal Code and considers its consequences for India's gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, hijra and kothi persons. The second part provides an overview of the various theoretical and political positions taken in the sodomy law debate. The third part examines the rights-based arguments that have been made in support of repealing or reading down s.377, and the feminist and queer critiques of these arguments. The fourth part considers the arguments against the repeal that have been put …

Comment On James Boyd White's Book "Living Speech" (Princeton 2006), Yofi Tirosh

Yofi Tirosh

Professor White introduces a new way for thinking about speech; a new measure for assessing it. He invites us to use speech carefully and responsibly, in what he calls “living speech.” Caring about the value of speech is not merely an aesthetic endeavor. As meaning making creatures, as “centers of meaning,” we should know how to recognize the speech that is essential to our humanness. Because living speech is “what enables any of us to be a person in the first place” (16).

How can we recognize living speech? The short answer that White gives us, which is indeed poetic …

The High Cost Of Freedom: A Legal And Policy Analysis Of Shelter Detention For Victims Of Trafficking, Anne T. Gallagher, Elaine Pearson

Anne T Gallagher

In countries around the world it is common practice for victims of human trafficking who have been “rescued” or who have escaped from situations of exploitation to be placed and detained in public or private shelters. In the most egregious situations, victims can be effectively imprisoned in such shelters for months, even years. This article uses field-based research to document this largely unreported phenomenon. It then considers the international legal aspects of victim detention in shelters and weighs the common justifications for such detention from legal, policy, and practical perspectives.

False Imprisonment As A Tort In India, Hari Priya

Hari Priya

The tort of false imprisonment is one of the most severe forms of human rights violation, and this paper aims to define and to understand the concept of false imprisonment as a tort in India. It also seeks to know about the evolution of the notion of false imprisonment as a tort, with reference to Indian and foreign cases, and understand who and when can one be held liable for the tort of false imprisonment. It further deals with the remedies available for the said tort.

Women And Private Military And Security Companies, Ana Filipa Vrdoljak

Ana Filipa Vrdoljak

Lack of clarity about the application of international law norms and inadequacies of existing regulatory regimes covering private military and security companies have reinforced concerns about transparency and accountability in respect of gender-related violence, harassment and discrimination. This chapter focuses on the main issues and legal concerns raised by the impact of the privatisation of war on women, both as PMSC employees and civilians. Part I highlights how armed conflict, civil unrest, occupation and transition have a detrimental effect upon the lives of women with particular reference to safety, displacement, health and economic disadvantage. Part II provides a summary of …

Rights In Immigration: The Veil As A Test Case, Gila Stopler

Gila Stopler

Immigration often involves the migration of people of specific cultural and religious background to countries in which the predominant cultural and religious background is quite different. This may result in attempts by receiving countries to restrict the new immigrants' cultural and religious practices. The paper uses the debate surrounding the wearing of the veil in Europe as a test case for the way in which recognition rights may be affected by the process of immigration. First, the paper maintains that the balance of rights and interests involved in conflicts over immigrants' rights changes along the process of immigration, and divides …

A Name Of One's Own: Gender And Symbolic Legal Personhood In The European Court Of Human Rights, Yofi Tirosh

Yofi Tirosh

Legal regulation of surnames provides a fascinating venue for examining how women negotiate their interests of autonomy and of stable personhood vis a vis a patriarchal naming structure. This is a study of 25 years of adjudication of surnames and personal status at the European Court of Human Rights. It explores the intricate ways in which legal norms governing surnames (and their judicial interpretation) sustain, shape, and reify social institutions such as gender, family, and citizenship.

As a pan European court, the adjudication of the ECHR operates within the framework of human rights. The universal characteristics of human rights principles …

The Rise, Fall And Rise Again Of The Genetic Foundation For Legal Parentage Determination, Yehezkel Margalit

Hezi Margalit

Recently, we have witnessed dramatic changes in the formation of the family and parenthood. One of the results of those shifts is a growing number of children growing up outside of the traditional marriage framework. Therefore, the dilemma of determining a child's parentage, which was usually resolved by a legal fiction as to the child's legal parents, is becoming increasingly problematic. It is appropriate that any discussion of the establishment of legal parentage should start with a study of the rise of the most popular modern model, the genetic model.

It is relevant to point out that from the beginning …

Collaborative Community-Based Natural Resource Management, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

This article analyzes the importance of increasing civil society actor access to and influence in international legal and policy negotiations, drawing from academic scholarship on governance, conservation and environmental sustainability, natural resource management, observations of civil society actors, and the authors’ experiences as participants in international environmental negotiations.

Tribal Land Laws In Andhra Pradesh, Hari Priya

Hari Priya

No abstract provided.

Section 4 Of The Hindu Succession Act Of 1956, Hari Priya

Hari Priya

A brief write up in the form of a comprehensive article aiming to critically evaluate the Section 4 of the Hindu Succession Act of 1956. The law, as it stands amended, has not only brought about changes in the succession laws of Hindus, but has also paved the way for some positive modifications in the law of partition, alienation of property, inheritance and adoption, and the paper is an effort to evaluate this provision of the law.

Immigrant Workers And The Thirteenth Amendment, Maria Ontiveros

Maria L. Ontiveros

This chapter examines the treatment of immigrant workers through the lens of the Thirteenth Amendment. It examines how the intersection of labor and immigration laws impact immigrant workers in general, "guest workers" and undocumented immigrants. It argues that immigrant workers can be seen as a caste of nonwhite workers laboring beneath the floor for free labor in ways which violate the Thirteenth Amendment. Further, it suggests ways in which immigrant workers can use the Thirteenth Amendment to improve their situation and offers an analysis of how the Thirteenth Amendment can form a bridge for organizing between labor, civil rights, immigration …

Fitting The Formula For Judicial Review: The Law-Fact Distinction In Immigration Law, Rebecca Sharpless

Rebecca Sharpless

The ill-defined law-fact distinction often stands as the gatekeeper to judicial review of an agency deportation order, restricting non-citizens facing deportation to raising only questions of law when appearing before an appellate court. The restriction on review most affects cases whose dispositions typically turn on the resolution of factual issues, including claims under Article 3 of the Convention Against Torture and claims for discretionary relief from deportation like cancellation of removal. Convention Against Torture claims, for example, often involve extensive fact-finding on the part of the immigration judge regarding conditions in the applicant’s home country and the applicant’s personal circumstances. …

Perspectives On Fundamental Rights In South Asia, Anil Kalhan

Anil Kalhan

This symposium issue of the Drexel Law Review marks the anticipated launch of a proposed new section on Law and South Asian Studies of the Association of American Law Schools, including several contributions that were initially presented during a session of the proposed section at AALS Annual Meeting for 2010. The proposed AALS section comes at a moment of heightened interest in the region among lawyers, policymakers, and the public at large in the United States, and is part of a rapidly growing constellation of scholarly initiatives on law in South Asia that have emerged internationally in recent years. In …

Statutes Undermine The Progress Made: The Criminalisation Of Positive Women, Aziza Ahmed, Beri Hull, Alice Welbourn, Emma Bell, Heidi Nass

Aziza Ahmed

Criminalisation laws have a specific and nuanced impact on women living with HIV. An understanding of the consequences of such laws will help positive women and other advocates to combat negative uses of such laws, and to frame and advocate for effective alternatives for HIV prevention. This article helps tease out some of the ways that criminalisation can negatively impact the lives of positive women in particular: the explicit sex discrimination in the laws, the gender bias in courtrooms, the impact on marginalised women, and the increase in stigma and discrimination through criminalisation laws.

Welcoming Women: Recent Changes In U.S. Asylum Law, Jillian Blake

Jillian Blake

No abstract provided.