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Full-Text Articles in Law

Rape Trauma, The State, And The Art Of Tracey Emin, Yxta M. Murray Feb 2012

Rape Trauma, The State, And The Art Of Tracey Emin, Yxta M. Murray

Yxta M. Murray

Prosecutors use “rape trauma syndrome” evidence at rape trials to explain victims’ “counterintuitive” behaviors and demeanors, such as their late reporting, rape denials, returning to the scenes of their attacks, and lack of emotional affect. Courts and experts, in instructions and testimony, usually describe victim reticence as a product of “shame” or “trauma.” Feminist critics of R.T.S. evidence posit that the syndrome’s profile is based on incomplete evidence, because most rapes are unreported. Furthermore, they object to its condescending, sexist, and colonial construction of rape victims and their emotions. In this Article, I respond to feminist critics by studying the …


Rape Trauma, The State, And The Art Of Tracey Emin, Yxta M. Murray Jan 2012

Rape Trauma, The State, And The Art Of Tracey Emin, Yxta M. Murray

Yxta M. Murray

Prosecutors use “rape trauma syndrome” evidence at rape trials to explain victims’ “counterintuitive” behaviors and demeanors, such as late reporting, denying their rapes, returning to the scenes of their attacks, and lack of emotional affect. Courts and experts, in instructions and testimony, usually describe victim reticence as a product of “shame” or “trauma.” Feminist critics of R.T.S. evidence posit that it is based on incomplete evidence, because most rapes are unreported. Furthermore, they object to its condescending, sexist, and colonial construction of rape victims and their emotions. In this Article, I respond to feminist critics by studying the work of …


“You’Re Creating New Categories:” Anglo-American Radical Feminism’S Constitutionalism In The Streets, Yxta M. Murray Aug 2011

“You’Re Creating New Categories:” Anglo-American Radical Feminism’S Constitutionalism In The Streets, Yxta M. Murray

Yxta M. Murray

In this paper, I examine the constitutional meaning of two political protests: The 1968 Miss America protest by New York Radical Women and the 1970 British radical feminist protest of the Miss World competition in London. Using the work of Reva Siegel, Jack Balkin, and Lynda G. Dodd as a foundation for my inquiry into how these social movement protests influenced constitutional culture concerning women's rights, I first engage in historical and social analyses of the protests themselves. In particular, I study the different approaches the U.S. and British feminists had to using lawbreaking, violence, and other outrageous acts in …


“You’Re Creating New Categories:” Anglo-American Radical Feminism’S Constitutionalism In The Streets, Yxta M. Murray Aug 2011

“You’Re Creating New Categories:” Anglo-American Radical Feminism’S Constitutionalism In The Streets, Yxta M. Murray

Yxta M. Murray

In "You’re Creating New Categories:" Anglo-American Radical Feminism’s Constitutionalism in the Streets, I examine the constitutional meaning of two political protests: The 1968 Miss America protest by New York Radical Women and the 1970 British radical feminist protest of the Miss World competition in London. Using the work of Reva Siegel, Jack Balkin, and Lynda G. Dodd as a foundation for my inquiry into how these social movement protests influenced constitutional culture concerning women's rights, I first engage in historical and social analyses of the protests themselves. In particular, I study the different approaches the U.S. and British feminists had …


The Pedagogy Of Violence, Yxta M. Murray Aug 2010

The Pedagogy Of Violence, Yxta M. Murray

Yxta M. Murray

In The Pedagogy of Violence, I develop a legal theory of the ways in which human beings teach each other to be violent. I am responding to the “contagion of violence” theory advocated by legal theorists such as Colin Loftin and Dr. Jeffrey Fagan, who argue that violence is akin to a contagious disease. Using disease as their paradigm, Loftin and Fagan contend that courts and political institutions should address the problem of violence through what they call the “epidemiological” approach; that is, they say that violence should be addressed as a public health problem. Though I do not take …


A Jurisprudence Of Nonviolence, Yxta M. Murray Mar 2009

A Jurisprudence Of Nonviolence, Yxta M. Murray

Yxta M. Murray

In "A Jurisprudence of Nonviolence," Loyola Law School Professor Yxta Maya Murray develops a legal theory of nonviolence, using the work of cultural feminists, Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, critical race theorists, and queer legal theorists. Professor Murray essays a definition of “violence” and posits standards for determining when violence is “avoidable,” and thus wrong. Upon merging this theory with a constitutional due process analysis, Professor Murray then proposes a constitutional right of nonviolence. Thereafter, she uses Gonzales v. Carhart, the 2007 Supreme Court “partial-birth” abortion opinion, as a case study. Professor Murray determines that the decision was wrongly decided …