Law and Gender Commons^™

Banding Together: Reflections Of The Role Of The Women's Bar Association Of The District Of Columbia And The Washington College Of Law In Promoting Women's Rights, Jamie R. Abrams, Daniela Kraiem

Jamie R. Abrams

No abstract provided.

Improving Law School For Trans And Gender Nonconforming Students: Suggestions For Faculty, Gabriel Arkles

Gabriel Arkles

Creating accessible, nondiscriminatory, and effective law school experiences for trans and gender nonconforming students requires commitment and willingness to change. Many everyday classroom practices and longstanding university policies created with the best of intentions can harm trans and gender nonconforming students because they are based on inaccurate assumptions about gender. Partly because of these policies and practices, relatively few openly trans and gender nonconforming people hold positions — especially the most powerful and prestigious positions — as faculty, staff, or students in law schools. Fortunately, more and more trans and gender nonconforming people are entering law schools and many cisgender …

Aals As Creative Problem Solver: Implementing Bylaw 6-4(A) To Prohibit Discrimination On The Basis Of Sexual Orientation In Legal Education, Barbara Cox

Barbara Cox

I wrote this article because it is important for the legal education community to understand the important leadership that the AALS has provided in lessening the discrimination that sexual minorities encounter in legal education, and to know of the challenges and problems it encountered in making Bylaw 6-4(a) into more than a membership requirement in name only.

Female Law Students, Gendered Self-Evaluation, And The Promise Of Positive Psychology, Dara Purvis

Dara Purvis

For the last several decades, studies and surveys have shown that female law students perform worse and feel worse about their experiences in law school than do male students. Hidden in average figures, however, is a subgroup of female students who thrive. Positive psychology, focusing on what traits make people happy rather than how to alleviate depression, provides novel ideas of how to improve legal education for women without making accommodations specifically targeting gender.

Crisis And Trigger Warnings: Reflections On Legal Education And The Social Value Of The Law, 90 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 615 (2015), Kim D. Chanbonpin

Kim D. Chanbonpin

This Essay begins by understanding the law school crisis through the framework of disaster capitalism. This framing uncovers the ways in which reformers are taking advantage of the current crisis to restructure legal education. Under the circumstances, faculty may reasonably read the contemporaneous student-led movement to require trigger warnings in the classroom as an assault on academic freedom. This reading, however, clouds the water. Part II attempts to clear the confusion by decoupling the trigger-warning movement from the broader phenomenon of law school corporatization. Trigger-warning demands might alternatively be read as a student critique of traditional law school pedagogy. Especially …

A Trilogy Of Essays On Scholarship, David Barnhizer

David Barnhizer

At the beginning it is helpful to realize that the five versions of the scholarly ideal produce different forms of intellectual work with distinct goals and motivations. The scholar engaging in such activity can vary dramatically in terms of what the individual is seeking to achieve through his or her research output and actions that might be taken related to the findings reflected in that product. Similarly, there is a diverse set of targets at which the work is directed. These targets include communicating ideas and knowledge to other scholars who are invested in a specific sub-discipline. They also include …

Race And Gender In The Law Review, Cynthia Grant Bowman

Cynthia Grant Bowman

No abstract provided.

Women Of Color In Legal Education: Challenging The Presumption Of Incompetence, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Carmen G. Gonzalez

Female law professors of color have become the canaries in the academic mine whose plight is an early warning of the dangers that threaten legal education and the future of the legal profession. As legal education is restructured in response to declining enrollments, tenure itself is coming under fire, and downsizing and hiring freezes are becoming more common. Female law professors of color, who tend to be concentrated at middle- and lower-tier law schools, are particularly vulnerable. But this vulnerability may foreshadow the predicament of all but the most elite law faculty if academic employment becomes increasingly precarious. This article …

Presumed Incompetent: Continuing The Conversation (Part I), Carmen G. Gonzalez, Angela P. Harris

Carmen G. Gonzalez

On March 8, 2013, the Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice hosted an all-day symposium featuring more than forty speakers at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law to celebrate and invite responses to the book entitled, Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia (Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, Yolanda Flores Niemann, Carmen G. González & Angela P. Harris eds., 2012). Presumed Incompetent presents gripping first-hand accounts of the obstacles encountered by female faculty of color in the academic workplace, and provides specific recommendations to women of color, allies, and academic leaders on ways …

Making Way For A New Standard: Women Redefine The "Ideal Professor", Margaret F. Brinig

Margaret F Brinig

No abstract provided.

Gender And The Crisis In Legal Education: Remaking The Academy In Our Image, Paula A. Monopoli

Paula A Monopoli

American legal education is in the grip of what some have called an “existential crisis.” The New York Times proclaims the death of the current system of legal education. This is attributed, in part, to the incentivizing of faculty to produce increasingly abstract scholarship and the costs this imposes on pedagogy and the mentoring of students. At the same time, despite women graduating from law schools in significant numbers since the 1980s, they continue to lag behind in the most prestigious positions in academia—tenured, full professorships: From academic year 1998-99 to academic year 2007-08, the percentage of women full professors …

When Socrates Meets Confucius: Teaching Creative And Critical Thinking Across Cultures Through Multilevel Socratic Method, Erin Ryan

Erin Ryan

Collaboration And Coercion: Domestic Violence Meets Collaborative Law, Margaret B. Drew

Margaret B Drew

‘Collaboration and Coercion’ addresses the systemic and individual concerns that arise when family members that have experienced abuse enter into the collaborative law process. A form of alternative dispute resolution, collaborative law is a method of resolving disputes without engagement of the legal system. The author addresses the structural and cultural difficulties that survivors of abuse encounter throughout the process as well as the ethical concerns that are raised when collaborative practitioners accept cases where the parties have a history of coercion within the intimate relationship.

Roe V. Wade And The Dred Scott Decision: Justice Scalia's Peculiar Analogy In Planned Parenthood V. Casey, Jamin B. Raskin

Jamin Raskin

No abstract provided.

A Case Study On Burying Alive Of Two Women In Balochistan, Sohail Ahmed Ansari Advocate

Sohail Ahmed Ansari Advocate

Violence against women is present in a variety of forms in Pakistan. From domestic abuse & sexual harassment to child marriages and honour killing; a range of anti-women atrocities are carried out. Pakistani women face systematic discrimination from the day they are born. The patriarchal mindset of society refuses to recognize them as human beings deserving of equality, human rights and justice. Unfortunately in some parts of Balochistan a brutal custom of justice prevails; where the women are treated as trading objects. They are being tried without hearing their cause. They are not allowed to plea their case. They are …

From Whence We Came And Where We Might Go, Judith L. Maute

Judith L. Maute

No abstract provided.

More Than One Lane Wide: Against Hierarchies Of Helping In Progressive Legal Advocacy, Rebecca Sharpless

Rebecca Sharpless

Progressive legal scholars and practitioners have created a hierarchy within social justice lawyering. Direct service attorneys — nonprofit attorneys who focus on helping individuals in civil cases — sit at the bottom. In the 1960s, progressive theorists advanced a negative portrayal of direct service attorneys as a class. This discourse has continued through different phases in the development of progressive legal theory. Direct service work is done primarily by women in the service of women, has the aesthetic of traditional women’s work, and can be understood as embodying the thesis that women have a greater existential and psychological connection to …

Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections Of Race And Class For Women In Academia -- Introduction, Carmen G. Gonzalez, Angela P. Harris

Carmen G. Gonzalez

Presumed Incompetent is a pathbreaking account of the intersecting roles of race, gender, and class in the working lives of women faculty of color. Through personal narratives and qualitative empirical studies, more than 40 authors expose the daunting challenges faced by academic women of color as they navigate the often hostile terrain of higher education, including hiring, promotion, tenure, and relations with students, colleagues, and administrators. One of the topics addressed is the importance of forging supportive networks to transform the workplace and create a more hospitable environment for traditionally subordinated groups. The narratives are filled with wit, wisdom, and …

Unanswered Questions Of A Minority People In International Law: A Comparative Study Between Southern Cameroons & South Sudan, Bernard Sama Mr

Bernard Sama

The month July of 2011 marked the birth of another nation in the World. The distressful journey of a minority people under the watchful eyes of the international community finally paid off with a new nation called the South Sudan . As I watched the South Sudanese celebrate independence on 9 July 2011, I was filled with joy as though they have finally landed. On a promising note, I read the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon saying “[t]ogether, we welcome the Republic of South Sudan to the community of nations. Together, we affirm our commitment to helping it meet its …

Outsider Jurisprudence And The “Unthinkable” Tale: Spousal Abuse And The Doctrine Of Duress, Deborah Waire Post

Deborah W. Post

No abstract provided.

The Feminist Pervasion: How Gender-Based Scholarship Informs Law And Law Teaching, Deseriee Kennedy, Ann Bartow, F. Carolyn Graglia, Joan Hemingway

Deseriee A. Kennedy

This is an edited, annotated transcript of a conference panel discussion on feminism, sex, and gender in law, legal education, and legal scholarship. The transcript reflects widely divergent views of the place of feminism, sex, and gender in the law and legal scholarship. Moreover, the panelists differ as to the role feminism has played in the lives of women as law students and practicing attorneys. In the latter part of the transcript, the panelists' remarks focus in on hotly debated issues surrounding possible gender (or sex) and racial bias in LSAT testing and the innate abilities of women and men …

El Derecho De Sucesiones Se Debe Atemperar A Los Cambios De La Sociedad Del Siglo Xxi, Edward Ivan Cueva

Edward Ivan Cueva

No abstract provided.

Teaching Controversial Topics, Beth A. Burkstrand-Reid

Beth A. Burkstrand-Reid

At the 2009 Future of Family Law Education conference at the William Mitchell School of Law, the authors participated in a panel discussing strategies for teaching controversial topics, which focused on teaching reproductive rights and related gender issues. This essay collects some of the strategies discussed at the conference. First we address what constitutes a “controversial” legal topic, outlining the several different ways in which a topic might be or become controversial within the context of a particular class. Next, we discuss the importance of laying the groundwork, throughout the semester, for the anticipated—and unanticipated— discussions surrounding controversial topics and …

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.

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. …

Denying Choice Of Forum: An Interference By The Massachusetts Trial Court With Domestic Violence Victims' Rights, Margaret B. Drew, Marilu E. Gresens

Margaret B Drew

The article discusses the due process denials inherent in the Massachusetts scheme designed to defeat the victim's choice of forum for hearing on a civil protection order petition. The scheme would divert many protection orders to family court even though the statute in question permits filing and hearing of the petitions in district, superior and famiy courts. The diversion would be available whenever there is a related case filed in family court at the time that the petition for protection is filed. More alarmingly, the petition could be diverted to family court if a subsequent action was filed in the …

Legal Storytelling: The Theory And The Practice - Reflective Writing Across The Curriculum, Nancy Levit

Nancy Levit

This article concentrates on the theory of narrative or storytelling and addresses the reasons it is vital to encourage in law schools in non-clinical or primarily doctrinal courses. Section I traces the advent of storytelling in legal theory and practice: while lawyers have long recognized that part of their job is to tell their clients' stories, the legal academy was, for many years, resistant to narrative methodologies. Section II examines the current applications of Writing Across the Curriculum in law schools. Most exploratory writing tasks in law school come in clinical courses, although a few adventurous professors are adding reflective …

Theorizing And Litigating The Rights Of Sexual Minorities, Nancy Levit

Nancy Levit

One of the best measures of a society is how it treats its vulnerable groups. A central idea in Professor Martha Nussbaum's writings is that all humans "are of equal dignity and worth, no matter where they are situated in society." The strategic challenge in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) rights litigation is how to get courts to see sexual minorities as people worthy of equal dignity and respect. This article focuses on the roles of a positive emotion - love - and a procedural method of proof - science - in the shaping of laws defining the rights …

Not Our Mother's Law School?: A Third-Wave Feminist Study Of Women's Experiences In Law School (With Kelly Hradsky, Kristen Jeschke, Lavonne Meyer & Jill Roberts), Felice J. Batlan

Felice J Batlan

Gender Bias In The Classrom, Taunya Lovell Banks

Taunya Lovell Banks

No abstract provided.