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Commencement Address, Cuny School Of Law, Margaret E. Montoya May 2009

Commencement Address, Cuny School Of Law, Margaret E. Montoya

Faculty Scholarship

Who we are, how we see ourselves, how we want to be seen, what we value, how our memories connect us to specific histories in specific places — we communicate this information best through narratives. In Spanish we sometimes call such stories cuentos — an accounting. I encourage all of you to take time over the next few days to celebrate your graduation, this singular accomplishment of your lives, by accounting — by telling stories to those who have helped you, held you up, fed you, wiped your tears, paid your bills. Share your recollections.


Latina/Os' And Latina/O Legal Studies: A Critical And Self-Critical Review Of Latcrit Theory And Legal Models Of Knowledge Production, Margaret E. Montoya, Francisco Valdes Jan 2009

Latina/Os' And Latina/O Legal Studies: A Critical And Self-Critical Review Of Latcrit Theory And Legal Models Of Knowledge Production, Margaret E. Montoya, Francisco Valdes

Faculty Scholarship

For the twelfth time in as many years, the LatCrit community convened its annual conference to underscore the importance of location and locality in the work that we do. The conference theme's framing around Critical Localities: Epistemic Communities, Rooted Cosmopolitans and Knowledge Processes not only focused our collective attention on questions of epistemic community and intellectual (as well as physical) location, but also invited reflection on the meanings we inscribe onto the positions we elect to stake out for ourselves and our work in light of the options and traditions that serve as background. The "Critical Localities" theme invites an …


Death Penalty For Women In North Carolina, Elizabeth Rapaport, Victor Streib Jan 2009

Death Penalty For Women In North Carolina, Elizabeth Rapaport, Victor Streib

Faculty Scholarship

Is Justice Marshall right? Have women received "favored treatment" under our death penalty laws and procedures? The national data might lead to such a presumption, given that over 99% of the people executed in the United States are men, but the analyses and explanations are far from simple. The authors have written about this national phenomenon for the past two decades, sharing a strong interest in the issue but not always agreeing in their explanations. Now we examine the North Carolina experience within the national context. This article reports the results of that examination, beginning with North Carolina's history of …


Uniendo Comunidades By Learning Lessons And Mobilizing For Change, Margaret E. Montoya Jan 2008

Uniendo Comunidades By Learning Lessons And Mobilizing For Change, Margaret E. Montoya

Faculty Scholarship

Building community, that is, sustaining our connections to family and our ancestry is often hampered by going to law school. Law schools are highly adept at assimilating you into a profession and a worldview that can be at odds with who you were and how you saw the world before you began law school. Unfortunately, in order to fit in, it can seem advantageous to forget tus ralces, your roots. I began by talking about unigndo comunidades as a progressive objective and have been talking about the second part of your conference theme, learning lessons and mobilizing for change, as …


Latinas/Os' And The Politics Of Knowledge Production: Latcrit Scholarship And Academic Activism As Social Justice Action, Margaret E. Montoya, Francisco Valdes Jan 2008

Latinas/Os' And The Politics Of Knowledge Production: Latcrit Scholarship And Academic Activism As Social Justice Action, Margaret E. Montoya, Francisco Valdes

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, Professors Montoya and Valdes examine various ways of developing Latina/o legal studies in the United States. As background, they first outline and examine the three main models of knowledge-production established within legal academia during the past century or so: 1) the traditional or imperial model; 2) the safe-space or vanguard model, and; 3) the big-tent or democratic model. Using this historical template to contextualize current efforts in Latina/o legal studies both substantively and methodologically, they next review the record of LatCrit theorists over the past dozen years. With this analytical framework in place, they situate the LatCrit …


Leading Change In Legal Education - Educating Lawyers And Best Practices: Good News For Diversity, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez Jan 2008

Leading Change In Legal Education - Educating Lawyers And Best Practices: Good News For Diversity, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Culturally Effective Legal Interviewing And Counseling For The Mexican Immigrant - A Case Study, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez Jan 2008

Culturally Effective Legal Interviewing And Counseling For The Mexican Immigrant - A Case Study, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Making And Breaking Habits: Teaching (And Learning) Cultural Context, Self-Awareness, And Intercultural Communication Through Case Supervision In A Client-Service Legal Clinic, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez Jan 2008

Making And Breaking Habits: Teaching (And Learning) Cultural Context, Self-Awareness, And Intercultural Communication Through Case Supervision In A Client-Service Legal Clinic, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez

Faculty Scholarship

This Article begins by offering teaching objectives that can be used to focus supervision and education on effective representation of clients from different cultures as issues arise in the course of representation. The Article then discusses the context of student supervision and explains how case supervision sessions can be extremely effective moments during which to pursue those teaching goals. The Article next examines vignettes that grew out of cases handled by the University of New Mexico's Clinical Law Program.


Brief For Pb&J, Family Services, Inc. As Amicus Curiae, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez, Iris Augusten, Deana M. Bennett, Amber Chavez, Kimberly Halpain, Leigh K. Haynes, Cody Lujan Mar 2007

Brief For Pb&J, Family Services, Inc. As Amicus Curiae, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez, Iris Augusten, Deana M. Bennett, Amber Chavez, Kimberly Halpain, Leigh K. Haynes, Cody Lujan

Faculty Scholarship

PB&J, Family Services, Inc., through this brief as amicus curiae, has demonstrated that the decision rendered by the Court of Appeals was correct. The New Mexico Legislature did not draft NMSA 1978, § 36-6-1(D) (1973) to encompass the situation of a pregnant woman using drugs or alcohol during pregnancy. The Legislatures failure to pass legislation specifically criminalizing such conduct after careful consideration indicates that the Legislature did not intend for the statute to be so broadly construed. This is particularly true when considering the fiscal impact reports accompanying the proposed legislation. This decision by the Legislature is consistent with sound …


Antigona: A Voice Rebuking Power, Margaret E. Montoya Jan 2007

Antigona: A Voice Rebuking Power, Margaret E. Montoya

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Defending The Future Voices Of Critical Race Feminism, Margaret E. Montoya Jan 2006

Defending The Future Voices Of Critical Race Feminism, Margaret E. Montoya

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Latcrit At Ten Years, Margaret E. Montoya Jan 2006

Latcrit At Ten Years, Margaret E. Montoya

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Mad Women And Desperate Girls: Infanticide And Child Murder In Law And Myth, Elizabeth Rapaport Jan 2006

Mad Women And Desperate Girls: Infanticide And Child Murder In Law And Myth, Elizabeth Rapaport

Faculty Scholarship

This article first offers a comparison between the stereotype dominated understanding of infanticide and child homicide in the United States and the statistical landscape it obscures. It then turns to the history of the crime of infanticide, a history which confirms that a fascination with deviant women as long dominated the story of infanticide. The article concludes with the exploration of the "Good Mother Defense." That exploration reveals the extent to which the fate of a woman tried for child homicide hinges on whether the jury sees her as a good mother, rather than on the prosecutors' ability to prove …


Denial, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez Jan 2006

Denial, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Latinas In Legal Education- Through The Doors Of Opportunity: Assimilation, Marginalization, Cooptation Or Transformation?, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez Jan 2005

Latinas In Legal Education- Through The Doors Of Opportunity: Assimilation, Marginalization, Cooptation Or Transformation?, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Who Gets In? The Quest For Diversity After Grutter, Margaret E. Montoya, Athena Mutua, Sheldon Zedeck, Frank H. Wu, Charles E. Daye, David L. Chambers Jan 2004

Who Gets In? The Quest For Diversity After Grutter, Margaret E. Montoya, Athena Mutua, Sheldon Zedeck, Frank H. Wu, Charles E. Daye, David L. Chambers

Faculty Scholarship

Transcript of The 2004 James McCormick Mitchell Lecture. On March 8, 2004, the University at Buffalo Law School hosted its annual Mitchell Lecture,1 a panel discussion entitled, "Who Gets In? The Quest for Diversity After Grutter." The Mitchell Committee decided to focus this year's lecture on innovative proposals to ensure diversity in law school admissions in light of the Supreme Court's ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger, which confirmed that race and ethnicity could be taken into consideration in admission decisions for diversity purposes. Noting that much of the debate about Grutter thus far has emphasized the decision's constitutionality or its …


Un/Braiding Stories About Law, Sexuality And Morality, Margaret E. Montoya Jan 2003

Un/Braiding Stories About Law, Sexuality And Morality, Margaret E. Montoya

Faculty Scholarship

Traditional doctrine insists that we tame sexual desire by pretending that goodness and Godliness is defined by celibacy and abstinence, but the Church is simply wrong to insist that we accept a theology that negates and silences and suppresses a central part of our lives. To the extent that we believe in a life after death, many of us have won a chance at Heaven not by denying and suppressing our sexuality but by struggling to develop our capacity to experience joy through sexual desire and to honor the responsibility of not generating misery for ourselves and others through that …


A Brief History Of Chicana/O School Segregation: One Rationale For Affirmative Action, Margaret E. Montoya Jan 2002

A Brief History Of Chicana/O School Segregation: One Rationale For Affirmative Action, Margaret E. Montoya

Faculty Scholarship

This article uses Critical Race Theory methodologies, such as autobiographical narratives, and analytical approaches, such as revising the history of the civil rights struggle, especially as it applies to the Chicano-Latino communities. This paper represents a student-faculty collaboration in that the students organized the conference at which some of this analysis was first proposed. This was the conference at which now Justice Sonia Sotomayor made her now iconic comments about being a "wise Latina." People can't get to be judges without first going to law school, and Latinas/as can't get to law school, at least in significant numbers, without affirmative …


The Future Of Civil Rights: A Dialogue, Margaret E. Montoya Jan 2002

The Future Of Civil Rights: A Dialogue, Margaret E. Montoya

Faculty Scholarship

Eight social science, humanities, and legal scholars discuss a wide range of perspectives on civil rights (edited by John Paul Ryan). The conversation traverses civil rights stories in the U.S. and abroad since 1968, the relationships between immigration and civil rights, the enforcement of civil rights and the role of the courts, and the impact of September 11 on civil rights in the future. Co-authored with John Paul Ryan, Angelo Ancheta, Erik Bleich, Tim Borstelmann, Gloria Browne-Marshall, Chai Feldblum, Anita Hodgkiss, & John D. Skrentny


Teaching A Professional Responsibility Course: Lessons Learned From The Clinic, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez Jan 2002

Teaching A Professional Responsibility Course: Lessons Learned From The Clinic, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez

Faculty Scholarship

In teaching Ethics or Professional Responsibility, I want to do more than teach students the law of the course. While it is important that students become familiar with and able to navigate the rules of professional responsibility, my clinical teaching has helped me develop additional educational objectives that I believe will affect their lives as future lawyers. I categorize my objectives in a three-credit classroom professional responsibility course as three-fold: 1) teaching the law of lawyering; 2) exploring professionalism issues;20 and 3) critically examining the profession. I will discuss a few of my experiences teaching in the clinic and how …


Staying Alive: Executive Clemency, Equal Protection, And The Politics Of Gender In Women's Capital Cases, Elizabeth Rapaport Jan 2001

Staying Alive: Executive Clemency, Equal Protection, And The Politics Of Gender In Women's Capital Cases, Elizabeth Rapaport

Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, I will review the matrix in which executive decisions in women's capital clemency cases are made, a matrix supplied by modern equal protection law, the nature and scope of the clemency power, gender politics, and contemporary death row. I will then conduct two thought experiments. Each invented case tests the relevance of gender in legally and politically acceptable contemporary clemency decisions. The goal is to understand the politics and law of granting or denying that very rare boon-commutation of sentence - to a female death row prisoner. The exercise offers support for two conclusions. In the age …


Learning Through Service In A Clinical Setting: The Effect Of Specialization On Social Justice & Skills Training, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez Jan 2001

Learning Through Service In A Clinical Setting: The Effect Of Specialization On Social Justice & Skills Training, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez

Faculty Scholarship

Arguing against the trend toward specialization in clinical legal education, this essay addresses potential limitations of specialized legal clinics in furthering the dual mission of clinical legal education: social justice and skills training. It points out that specialized clinics limit access to justice by leaving the myriad needs of clients partially unmet. They limit students' learning about the complex needs of clients and students' ability to discover broad inequities in the legal system. Specialization makes it more difficult to train students to be creative problem solvers, and affects their professional socialization


Class In Latcrit: Theory And Praxis In A World Of Economic Inequality (Foreword), Margaret E. Montoya Jan 2001

Class In Latcrit: Theory And Praxis In A World Of Economic Inequality (Foreword), Margaret E. Montoya

Faculty Scholarship

The fifth annual Latina/o critical legal theory ("LatCrit") conference was held on May 4-7, 2000 in Breckenridge, Colorado. The mountain resorts of Colorado present an almost metaphorical location for a critical theory meeting. The majesty and apparent harmony of the natural environment contrast so vividly with the cotidian conflicts in the human environment, and the elites exhibit a banal oblivion to the vicious racial and class-based violence that provide the grist for critical theorists. These resort locations dedicated to a lifestyle of money, recreation and pampering and infused with the invisible oxygen of privilege offer a space for theoretical work …


Ethnocentrism And Feminism: Using A Contextual Methodology In International Women's Rights Advocacy And Education, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez Jan 2001

Ethnocentrism And Feminism: Using A Contextual Methodology In International Women's Rights Advocacy And Education, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez

Faculty Scholarship

I have proposed a method of comparative analysis that respects culture by contextualizing analysis of women's issues. I believe that we can help women around the world improve their lives while retaining their cultural values and identity. We can use comparative law as a tool to help identify laws that successfully address women's needs and those that do not. Comparative theory does not posit an evaluation of the law determining which law or legal system is "better." Rather, comparative theory can illuminate differences based on systemic and cultural diversity. Understanding these differences can help us understand how best to use …


Silence And Silencing: Their Centripetal And Centrifugal Forces In Cultural Expression, Pedagogy And Legal Discourse, Margaret E. Montoya Jan 2000

Silence And Silencing: Their Centripetal And Centrifugal Forces In Cultural Expression, Pedagogy And Legal Discourse, Margaret E. Montoya

Faculty Scholarship

This article uses Critical Race Theory and LatCrit Theory in its analysis, methodologies, and purpose. I seek to disrupt silences around race and to provide the knowledge and skills for effective work on racial equity and justice. Language and voice have been subjects of great interest to scholars working in the areas of Critical Race Theory and Latina/o Critical Legal Theory. Silence, a counterpart of voice, has not, however, been well theorized. This Article is an invitation to attend to silence and silencing. The first part of the Article argues that one's use of silence is an aspect of communication …


Equality Of The Damned: The Execution Of Women On The Cusp Of The 21st Century, Elizabeth Rapaport Jan 2000

Equality Of The Damned: The Execution Of Women On The Cusp Of The 21st Century, Elizabeth Rapaport

Faculty Scholarship

This article explores why women are rarely executed and examines the execution of four women in the Post-Furman Era, focusing on the execution of Karla Faye Tucker.


Evolving Indigenous Law: Navajo Marriage--Cultural Traditions And Modern Challenges, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez Jan 2000

Evolving Indigenous Law: Navajo Marriage--Cultural Traditions And Modern Challenges, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez

Faculty Scholarship

Tribal regulation of marriage is an example of tribal government and tribal court using the legal system to reclaim traditional values and to resist (at least in part) the dominant values imposed on the Navajo Nation. Identity as Dine (the Navajos term to refer to themselves) is based on clan affiliations, which are determined by blood and marriage. Marriage has been an important and sacred institution in Navajo tradition. The Navajo Supreme Court and the Tribal Council have attempted to find a substantive law of marriage that respects traditional Navajo culture while meeting contemporary needs of Navajo people. The Navajo …


Brief Of Intervenor, Women’S Legal Education And Action Fund (Leaf), M.V.H., Laura Spitz May 1999

Brief Of Intervenor, Women’S Legal Education And Action Fund (Leaf), M.V.H., Laura Spitz

Faculty Scholarship

LEAF submits that the heterosexual definition of spouse ins. 29 of the Family Law Act R. S.O. 1990 c. F .3 completely denies lesbians who otherwise meet the tl:1reshoid criteria to apply for a support award. The effect of this denial violates lesbians' right to equal benefit and protection of the law contrary to s. 15(1) of the Charter, and cannot be justified under s.1 of the Charter.


Translating Legal Terms In Context, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez Jan 1999

Translating Legal Terms In Context, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez

Faculty Scholarship

This article reviews a number of Spanish/English legal dictionaries, evaluating the relative merits and features of each. Translating legal terms requires an understanding of both the legal context in which the term is used and the legal context in which the translation is intended. Thus, this review of legal dictionaries concentrates on evaluating the authors'/editors' understanding of how the terms are used in the two legal cultures, as well as in two different languages.


Introduction: Latcrit Theory: Mapping It's Intellectual And Political Foundations And Future Self-Critical Directions, Margaret E. Montoya Jan 1999

Introduction: Latcrit Theory: Mapping It's Intellectual And Political Foundations And Future Self-Critical Directions, Margaret E. Montoya

Faculty Scholarship

The third annual gathering of LatCrit scholars has resulted in this cluster of essays and articles that continue the work of defining the foundations and the future directions of this legal scholarship movement. As described in some of the articles within this cluster, LatCrit has had the benefit of learning valuable lessons from other slightly older schools of critical legal theory, most particularly from the Critical Race Theory ("CRT") Workshop. The LatCrit movement has been strengthened because scholars identified primarily with CRT working with and alongside scholars identified primarily with LatCrit have struggled to recognize, name and address the hetero-normativity …