Law Commons^™

Peer Sexual Harassment In California After Davis, John F. Walsh

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

This article discusses, from a practice standpoint, the significance Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education will have for California schools and colleges. The article first discusses Ninth Circuit interpretations of peer harassment prior to Davis, then analyzes Davis from a practice standpoint, raising issues left open by the Davis decision. The article then discusses the interrelationship between Title IX and California law. Finally, the article addresses institutional and personal liability and immunity defense issues.

The Deterrent Effect Of Arrest In Domestic Violence: Differentiating Between Victim And Perpetrator Response, Johanna Niemi-Kiesilainen

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

The effects of arrest in domestic violence have been debated since Professor Lawrence Sherman et al. published their widely cited empirical studies in the 1980s and early 1990s. These studies, however, focused on the perpetrator and did not consider the effects of arrest on the victim's willingness to report repeat violence to the police. In this article, Professor Niemi-Kiesiliinen argues that the effect of arresting the perpetrator on the behavior of the victim is a crucial factor in determining the overall effectiveness of arrest. It is likely that the arrest of the perpetrator deters violence, but it is equally possible …

A Cultural Rite Of Passage Or A Form Of Torture: Female Genital Mutilation From An International Law Perspective, Alexi Nicole Wood

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

Female genital mutilation (FGM) has been performed on approximately 135 million girls and women worldwide. It is estimated that two million girls and women undergo FGM each year approximately 6,000 a day. Often the procedure is performed clandestinely by local, unskilled practitioners in unsafe conditions. As many as fifteen to thirty percent of all girls and women who undergo FGM die as a result of bleeding or infection. In addition to short-term complications such as extreme pain, shock and hemorrhaging, FGM can cause severe long-term complications that can include sterility due to infection, complications during childbirth, as well as extreme …

United States Asylum Law In The Context Of Sexual Orientation And Gender Identity: Justice For The Transgendered, Fatima Mohyuddin

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

This article examines the recognition given to sexual minorities through United States asylum law. This article begins with a general explanation of the evolution of asylum law and an overview of the different categories of persons eligible to apply for asylum, particularly persons facing persecution as a social group. Then the article discusses the traditional construction of gender and sexuality in lieu of persons who do not fit into the dimorphic, male/female, gender and sexual categories. These sexual minorities often face extreme hardship, government persecution and death in their home countries for stepping outside of culturally imposed sexual and gender …

Amicus Curiae Brief Of Now Legal Defense And Education Fund And Equal Rights Advocates In Support Of Plaintiff-Appellant And In Support Of Reversal, Katherine M. Franke

Faculty Scholarship

NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund ("NOW LDEF") is a leading national non-profit civil rights organization that performs abroad range of legal and educational services in support of efforts to eliminate sex-based discrimination" and secure equal rights. NOW LDEF was founded in 1970 by leaders of the National Organization for Women as a separate organization. NOW LDEF has appeared as amicus in numerous cases involving sex stereotyping as a form of sex discrimination, including Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, and Fisher v. Vassar College.

Equal Rights Advocates ("ERA") is one of the oldest public interest law firms specializing in …

Lucas Rosa V. Park West Bank And Trust Company, Katherine M. Franke

Faculty Scholarship

In July of 1998 something rather mundane happened: Lucas Rosa walked into Park West Bank in Holyoke, Massachusetts and asked for a loan application. Since it was a warm summer day, and because she wanted to look credit-worthy, Rosa wore a blousey top over stockings. Suddenly, the mundane transformed into the exceptional: When asked for some identification, Rosa was told that no application would be forthcoming until and unless she went home, changed her clothes and returned attired in more traditionally masculine/male clothing. Rosa, a biological male who identifies herself as female was, it seems, denied a loan application on …

Theorizing Yes: An Essay On Feminism, Law, And Desire, Katherine M. Franke

Faculty Scholarship

In this Essay, Professor Franke observes that, unlike feminists from other disciplines, feminist legal theorists have neglected to formulate a positive theory of female sexuality. Instead, discussions of female sexuality have been framed as either a matter of dependency or danger. Professor Franke begins her challenge to this scheme by asking why legal feminism has accepted unquestionably the fact that most women reproduce in their lifetimes. Why have not social forces that incentivize motherhood – a dynamic she terms repronormativity – been exposed to as exacting a feminist critique as have heteronormative forces that normalize heterosexuality? Furthermore, she continues by …

Foreword, Heather Kirlin, Dominique Tauzin

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

No abstract provided.

School Liability For Peer Sexual Harassment After Davis: Shifting From Intent To Causation In Discrimination Law, Deborah L. Brake

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

In this article, Professor Brake discusses the Supreme Court's decision in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, which recognized student-on-student sexual harassment as a form of actionable discrimination under Title IX, as part of a larger tension in discrimination law between intent and causation as the guiding principle for defining unlawful discrimination. She argues that the liability standard adopted by the Davis Court properly focused on the question of whether schools cause sex-based harm, rather than inquiring into the bias or subjective intent of school officials. Although the deliberate indifference requirement the Court adopted sets a tougher liability standard …

Boys Will Be Boys: Peer Sexual Harassment In Schools And The Implications Of Davis V. Monroe County Board Of Education, Tianna Mcclure

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

The recent Supreme Court decision finding that the failure of schools to address and remedy peer sexual harassment in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, appears to be a victory for students and feminists alike. However, the Davis decision does not go far enough to insure the emotional and physical well-being of America's school children. While as a result of this decision schools must begin to recognize the true nature and severity of peer sexual harassment or face the possibility of monetary damages, Davis is, nevertheless, flawed. The Supreme Court operates under the assumption that actual knowledge is the …

Foreword, Heather Kirlin, Dominique Tauzin

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

No abstract provided.

Keeping Feminism In Its Place: Sex Segregation And The Domestication Of Female Academics, Nancy Levit

Nancy Levit

The thesis of Keeping Feminism in Its Place is that women are being "domesticated" in the legal academy. This occurs in two ways, one theoretical and one very practical: denigration of feminism on the theoretical level and sex segregation of men and women on the experiential level intertwine to disadvantage women in academia in complex and subtle ways.

The article examines occupational sex segregation and role differentiation between male and female law professors, demonstrating statistically that in legal academia, women are congregated in lower-ranking, lower-paying, lower-prestige positions. It also traces how segregation by sex persists in substantive course teaching assignments. …