Law Commons^™

Do Law Schools Mistreat Women Faculty? Or, Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, Dan Subotnik

Akron Law Review

How much fire, if any, is there to charges, first leveled more than fifteen years ago and continuing today, that a harsh law school culture oppresses women faculty? As Martha Chamallas, a well-known feminist law critic, writes,—and perhaps professes in class as well—“[f]or both new and senior women law professors, gender bias is still a major fact of life.”... After evaluating the complaints against law schools, which I spell out below—and renouncing any presumption in my favor—I conclude, unindignantly, that the charges are almost entirely unproven...The principal charges leveled against the male establishment in terms of hiring, retention and promotion …

"Horror Of A Woman": Myra Bradwell, The 14th Amendment, And The Gendered Origins Of Sociological Jurisprudence, Gwen Hoerr Jordan

Akron Law Review

On June 14, 1873, Myra Bradwell reprinted a short article from the St. Louis Republican in the Chicago Legal News announcing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in her case.

This short article reveals an important insight that challenges some contemporary interpretations of Bradwell v. Illinois. First, it points out what we know, but sometimes overlook, that the Supreme Court holding in Bradwell did not prevent women from becoming lawyers or practicing law.6 More importantly, however, it suggests that Justice Bradley’s oftcited concurrence – where he reveals his horror of a woman, writing that “[t]he harmony, not to say identity, of …

Dangerous Woman: Elizabeth Key's Freedom Suit - Subjecthood And Racialized Identity In Seventeenth Century Colonial Virginia, Taunya Lovell Banks

Akron Law Review

After a brief discussion of English subjecthood in seventeen century England and the American colonies I explore the legal theories advanced in Elizabeth Key’s freedom suit to determine whether the factors considered by the judging parties continue to have validity in contemporary America. I conclude that treating Elizabeth’s claim only as a challenge to slavery is problematic because seventeenth century English judges, unfamiliar with modern slavery, were uncertain about the applicable common law principles to apply. Villeinage – English serfdom – was an imperfect analogy to African slavery; and even if villeinage principles were applied to Elizabeth’s case the outcome …

Anna Moscowitz Kross And The Home Term Part: A Second Look At The Nation's First Criminal Domestic Violence Court, Mae C. Quinn

Akron Law Review

This paper seeks to inform current conversations about dedicated domestic violence courts by shedding light on Kross’s remarkable early efforts to treat domestic violence prosecutions differently from other criminal matters and handle them in a designated court part. The story of Kross’s Home Term Part – the first specialized criminal domestic violence court in New York and perhaps the United States—is an important chapter in the history of intimate violence policies in this country. Recognition of Home Term is crucial to any complete account and understanding of our criminal justice system’s renewed efforts at judicial innovation through specialized “problem-solving” courts. …

The Ladies' Health Protective Association: Lay Lawyers And Urban Cause Lawyering, Felice Batlan

Akron Law Review

By examining the LHPA, this Article seeks, however modestly, to extend the Hurstian project. The Article argues that the LHPA, composed of a group of middle-class women interacting with their environment, neighbors, the courts, private businesses, and city and state officials, on a deeply local and quotidian basis, had a significant impact in shaping a multitude of New York City laws and law had a profound affect in creating and molding the work and identity of the organization.

The New Face Of Women's Legal History: Introduction To The Symposium, Tracy A. Thomas

Akron Law Review

The University of Akron School of Law organized a conference in October 2007 entitled “The New Face of Women’s Legal History” to showcase many of the seasoned and emerging scholars in the field. The joining together of law and history scholars including eleven presenters, four moderators, one keynote, and one-hundred participants, provided a welcomed opportunity to trigger new scholarly and professional synergies...The articles included in this symposium edition of the Akron Law Review provide an excellent sampling of the promising work underway in this nascent field. They each explore women’s historical use of the law to advance feminist discourse. True …

Remarks: Neuroscience, Gender, And The Law, Stacey A. Tovino Jd, Phd

Akron Law Review

n my recent research, I have been exploring the legal impact of advances in the neuroscience of gender, such as whether and how stakeholders are using recent studies finding structural and functional differences between male and female brains in an attempt to influence the law. I also have been examining whether and how stakeholders are using the neuroscience of both gender-specific and gender-prevalent health conditions to influence the interpretation of civil and regulatory health law. Today, I am going to explore how stakeholders are using advances in the neuroscience of three gender-specific and genderprevalent conditions (the postpartum mood disorders, premenstrual …