Religion Law Commons^™

Women In Shareholder Activism, Sarah C. Haan

Seattle University Law Review

Even a cursory review of the history of American environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) shareholder activism reveals the presence of women leaders. This Article sketches some of this history and interrogates the role of women in the shareholder activism movement. That movement typically has involved claims by minority shareholders to corporate power; activists are nearly always on the margins of power, though minority shareholders may, collectively, represent a majority interest. This Article ascribes women’s leadership in shareholder activism to their longstanding position as outsiders to corporate organization. Women’s participation in shaping corporate policy—even from the margins—has provided women with …

Law Library Blog (September 2020): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Lifting The Veil: Women And Islamic Law, Christie S. Warren

Christie S. Warren

No abstract provided.

Introduction To Special Collection: Seminar Papers On Women And Islamic Law, Christie S. Warren

Christie S. Warren

No abstract provided.

The Case For American Muslim Arbitration, Rabea Benhalim

Publications

This Article advocates for the creation of Muslim arbitral tribunals in the United States. These tribunals would better meet the needs of American Muslims, who currently bring their religious disputes to informal forums that lack transparency. Particularly problematic, these existing forums often apply legal precedent developed in majority-Muslim nations, without taking into consideration the changed circumstances of Muslim living as minorities in the United States. These interpretations of Islamic law can have especially negative impacts on women. American Muslim arbitration tribunals offer the potential to correct these inadequacies. Furthermore, a new arbitral system could better meet the needs of sophisticated …

The Role Of Personal Laws In Creating A “Second Sex”, Rangita De Silva De Alwis, Indira Jaising

All Faculty Scholarship

The cultural construction of gender determines the role of women and girls within the family in many societies. Gendered notions of power in the family are often shrouded in religion and custom and find their deepest expression in Personal Laws. This essay examines the international law framework as it relates to personal laws and the commonality of narratives of litigators and plaintiffs in the cases from the three different personal law systems in India.

Definitions, Religion, And Free Exercise Guarantees, Mark Strasser

Mark Strasser

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the free exercise of religion. Non-religious practices do not receive those same protections, which makes the ability to distinguish between religious and non-religious practices important. Regrettably, members of the Court have been unable to agree about how to distinguish the religious from the non-religious—sometimes, the implicit criteria focus on the sincerity of the beliefs, sometimes the strength of the beliefs or the role that they play in an individual’s life, and sometimes the kind of beliefs. In short, the Court has virtually guaranteed an incoherent jurisprudence by sending contradictory signals with …

Coercive Assimilationism: The Perils Of Muslim Women's Identity Performance In The Workplace, Sahar F. Aziz

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Should employees have the legal right to “be themselves” at work? Most Americans would answer in the negative because work is a privilege, not an entitlement. But what if being oneself entails behaviors, mannerisms, and values integrally linked to the employee’s gender, race, or religion? And what if the basis for the employer’s workplace rules and professionalism standards rely on negative racial, ethnic or gender stereotypes that disparately impact some employees over others? Currently, Title VII fails to take into account such forms of second-generation discrimination, thereby limiting statutory protections to phenotypical or morphological bases. Drawing on social psychology and …

Veiled Discrimination, Sahar F. Aziz

Sahar F. Aziz

Should employees have the legal right to “be themselves” at work? Most Americans would answer in the negative because work is a privilege, not an entitlement. An employer’s workplace rules that define professionalism, therefore, are his prerogative and defined by the demands of the marketplace. Underlying this conclusion is the false premise that objective and neutral factors shape modern notions of professionalism. To the contrary, professionalism is a subjective concept dependent on the decision makers’ worldview, norms, values, and definitions of propriety. Employees who belong to the employer’s social group or fall within society’s majority are advantaged as minimal effort …

Religious Victory Over The Affordable Care Act? Possible Recourse For The Employee Of The Religious Employer, Jacqueline Prats

Jacqueline M Prats

In 2012, the Supreme Court upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Even as the Court deliberated, a number of for-profit employers prepared to challenge the law—not the Act as a whole, but a specific part: the requirement that insurance plans cover contraceptives for women, free of co-pay or other cost-sharing. Although their companies were secular, these business owners claimed that the “contraception mandate” violated not only their religious beliefs, but also those of their companies. They challenged the ACA under both the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and a federal statute called the Religious Freedom …

Nonprofit Organizations, For-Profit Corporations, And The Hhs Mandate: Why The Mandate Does Not Satisfy Rfra's Requirements, Jonathan T. Tan

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Substance And Method In The Year 2000, Akhil Reed Amar

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sex And Hiv Disclosure, Aziza Ahmed, Beri Hull

Aziza Ahmed

No abstract provided.

Veiled Women In The American Courtroom: Is The Niqab A Barrier To Justice?, Anita L. Allen

All Faculty Scholarship

U.S. courts and policy-makers have recently authorized laws and practices that interfere with the wearing of religious modesty attire that conceals the hair or face in contexts such as courtroom testimony or driver’s license issuance. For example, in response to a court’s dismissal of the case of a woman who refused to remove her niqab in the courtroom, the Michigan Supreme Court decided that judges can exercise “reasonable control” over the appearance of courtroom parties. But what degree of control over religious attire is reasonable? The Constitution will not allow a blanket niqab removal policy based on any of the …

Empowerment Or Estrangement: Liberal Feminism's Visions Of The “Progress” Of Muslim Women, Cyra Akila Choudhury

Faculty Publications

This paper presents some thoughts on the progress of Muslim women towards gender justice. It argues that Liberal Legal feminism shares a common understanding of history and progress with those Liberal political theories that justified the British Empire. Because of this genealogy, Liberal feminism seeks to reform cultures and societies that do not comport with a particular Liberal teleology that forecloses the expression of alternative ideas of history, progress, and human flourishing. It further argues that Muslim women's organizations that partner with Northern organizations sometimes seek to fulfill Liberal expectations of victimhood at the hands of their culture. The consequence …

Clitoridectomy And The Economics Of Islamic Marriage And Divorce Law - Ryan M Riegg - 2009, Ryan M. Riegg

Ryan M. Riegg

No abstract provided.

Behavioral Economic Issues In American & Islamic Marriage & Divorce Law, Ryan M. Riegg

Ryan M. Riegg

(Mis)Appropriated Liberty: Identity, Gender Justice And Muslim Personal Law Reform In India, Cyra Akila Choudhury

Faculty Publications

This article argues that in order to emancipate Indian-Muslim women from an outdated family legal code, their position at the intersection of gender and a minority religion must be taken seriously. Proposals for reform that have been suggested by Western liberal, secular feminists that ignore the importance of women's religious affiliation fail to do this. Moreover, by making assumptions about the strength of secularism in India, the willingness of the state to enact legal reforms driven by gender concerns, and by failing to acknowledge the limits of formal rights alone in changing norms, these scholars do not account for the …

Lifting The Veil: Women And Islamic Law, Christie S. Warren

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Tribal Customary Law In Jordan, Ann Furr, Muwafaq Al-Serhan

South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business

No abstract provided.

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

Legal Pluralism & Women's Rights: A Study In Post-Colonial Tanzania, Edward R. Fluet, Mark J. Calaguas, Cristina M. Drost

ExpressO

Recognizing a dearth of legal research on Zanzibar, the authors explore the complex legal and cultural landscape of this archipelago and its relationship to mainland Tanzania. The article discusses the problems that arise when multicultural societies adopt a pluralist system of justice in order to preserve the traditions of its diverse communities. Although the article focuses on Tanzania, the problems that arise from multicultural accommodations affect not only young, postcolonial nations in Africa and Asia, but also individuals in cosmopolitan, economically-developed countries such as Israel and the United States. As countries wrestle with ever diversifying ethnic and religious populations, such …

Motherhood And The Mission: What Catholic Law Schools Could Learn From Harvard About Women, Elizabeth R. Schiltz

ExpressO

This article argues that Catholic law schools have compelling reasons to pay close attention to a largely ignored part of the controversial speech given last year by the President of Harvard University, Lawrence H. Summers, about the persistent under-representation of women on university faculties. While the press accounts of this talk focused on his speculation that there might be innate differences in aptitudes of men and women in science and math, Summers argued that a more significant cause of the under-representation of women might be the clash between the demands of high-powered jobs and the demands of family life. This …

The Children Of Science: Property, People, Or Something In Between?, Star Q. Lopez

ExpressO

How should states classify embryos? The war has often waged between two classifications, people versus property. But what if a state assumed something in between, finding the embryo to be a potential person entitled to special respect? If a state adopted this position, how would the law affect medical research?

Presuming embryos constitute potential persons, the debate would continue with how to define “special respect.” The status of a potential person runs along a spectrum between property and personhood. How one defines “special respect” determines where the potential person falls along this spectrum. Special respect would create a spectrum of …

Breaking The Bank: Revisiting Central Bank Of Denver After Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley, Celia Taylor

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Rhetorical Holy War: Polygamy, Homosexuality, And The Paradox Of Community And Autonomy, Gregory C. Pingree

ExpressO

The article explores the rhetorical strategies deployed in both legal and cultural narratives of Mormon polygamy in nineteenth-century America. It demonstrates how an understanding of that unique communal experience, and the narratives by which it was represented, informs the classic paradox of community and autonomy – the tension between the collective and the individual. The article concludes by using the Mormon polygamy analysis to illuminate a contemporary social situation that underscores the paradox of community and autonomy – homosexuality and the so-called culture wars over family values and the meaning of marriage.

Introduction To Special Collection: Seminar Papers On Women And Islamic Law, Christie S. Warren

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

The Alley Behind First Street, Northeast: Criminal Abortion In The Nation's Capital 1873-1973, Douglas R. Miller

ExpressO

The thirtieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade found our country no less divided over abortion than it was during the era of its prohibition. As the bitter struggle over judicial nominations throughout the present administration suggests, abortion’s future remains at the forefront of American political debate.

In their push for increased limitations, abortion opponents generally overlook the historical consequences of prohibition. Abortion rights proponents often invoke history in their opposition to new restrictions, but tend to do so superficially, and only in a manner that supports their position.

This article attempts a more complex study of criminal abortion’s legal and …

International Child Abductions: The Challenges Facing America , Charles F. Hall

ExpressO

International child abductors often escape domestic law enforcement and disappear without consequence or resolution. International child abductions occur too frequently; in the United States alone, the number of children abducted abroad every year has risen to over 1,000. Currently, 11,000 American children live abroad with their abductors. These abductions occur despite international treaties and the Congressional resolutions that have significantly stiffened the penalties for those caught. Effectively combating international child abductions requires drafting resolutions that are acceptable across the diverse societies and cultures of the international community. Without such resolutions to fill the gaps of current treaties this problem will …

Domestic Violence And The Jewish Community, Stacey A. Guthartz

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

In Part I of this Article, Guthartz defines the problem of domestic violence as it relates to the Jewish community. Specifically, Jewish texts and history and community understanding and exposure, that contribute to Jewish domestic abuse are examined. In Part II, the author explores Jewish solutions to domestic violence by focusing on religious remedies, community pressure, and the use of civil law. In this Article, it is submitted that it is only through an understanding of the uniqueness of "Jewish" domestic violence by domestic violence and law enforcement organizations, coupled with an understanding about domestic violence within American society by …