Law Commons^™

Barriers To Women's Access To Justice In Haiti, Meena Jagannath

City University of New York Law Review

While gender-based violence is not a new phenomenon in Haiti, the aftermath of the January 12, 2010 earthquake further exposed the vulnerability of Haitian women and girls to gender-based violence and the limited possibilities for women to evince a judicial response to gender-specific violations of the law. Drawing from the experiences of Haitian lawyers and women’s rights advocates, this paper will examine women’s barriers to accessing justice in Haiti by drawing on actual examples of gender-based violence at each step of the investigatory process under the Haitian justice system. It will provide, by way of background, an overview of the …

Viewpoint: Post-Feminist Legal Profession? Not So Fast, Drucilla S. Ramey

Publications

Just the other day I had occasion to dine with a group of remarkable women of a certain age who had recently been featured by this newspaper as "Women Leaders in the Law: Blazing the trail for 35-plus years." Right there you knew, of course, that these were women who had stayed the course, who had early and often resisted the siren call of a more conventional path, and who collectively called to mind the rallying cry of an earlier time: "This is what a feminist looks like."

Having individually and together fought their way to the top of their …

Consensual Amorous Relationships Between Faculty And Students: The Constitutional Right To Privacy, Elisabeth A. Keller

Elisabeth Keller

Surveys of college students in the United States revealed that a significant number of students thought they had been victims of some form of sexual harassment. Growing awareness of the magnitude, dimensions, and effects of sexual harassment at educational institutions and the potential for institutional liability have prompted educators to adopt policies to avert such problems. The policies typically prohibit sexual harassment of employees and students and alert the university community to the serious effects of sexual harassment and the potential for student exploitation. Some universities have gone beyond establishing regulations directed at widely litigated problems of sexual harassment and …

Consensual Amorous Relationships Between Faculty And Students: The Constitutional Right To Privacy, Elisabeth A. Keller

Elisabeth Keller

Surveys of college students in the United States revealed that a significant number of students thought they had been victims of some form of sexual harassment. Growing awareness of the magnitude, dimensions, and effects of sexual harassment at educational institutions and the potential for institutional liability have prompted educators to adopt policies to avert such problems. The policies typically prohibit sexual harassment of employees and students and alert the university community to the serious effects of sexual harassment and the potential for student exploitation. Some universities have gone beyond establishing regulations directed at widely litigated problems of sexual harassment and …

Hidden In Plain Sight: Achieving More Just Results In Hostile Work Environment Sexual Harassment Cases By Re-Examining Supreme Court Precedent, Elisabeth A. Keller, Judith B. Tracy

Elisabeth Keller

Lower federal courts often fail to provide plaintiffs in sexual harassment cases the relief intended by Title VII of the Civil Rights of 1964 and mandated by the Supreme Court when it recognized the cause of action twenty years ago. There is little doubt that sexual harassment in the workplace persists. However, lower courts misapply or ignore Supreme Court reasoning that would result in fairer and more consistent dispositions in hostile work environment sexual harassment cases. This article draws directly on reasoning from the Supreme Court cases to explain the sources of the confusion in the lower courts and offers …

Hidden In Plain Sight: Achieving More Just Results In Hostile Work Environment Sexual Harassment Cases By Re-Examining Supreme Court Precedent, Elisabeth A. Keller, Judith B. Tracy

Elisabeth Keller

Lower federal courts often fail to provide plaintiffs in sexual harassment cases the relief intended by Title VII of the Civil Rights of 1964 and mandated by the Supreme Court when it recognized the cause of action twenty years ago. There is little doubt that sexual harassment in the workplace persists. However, lower courts misapply or ignore Supreme Court reasoning that would result in fairer and more consistent dispositions in hostile work environment sexual harassment cases. This article draws directly on reasoning from the Supreme Court cases to explain the sources of the confusion in the lower courts and offers …

Normal For Whom? Gender Acculturation In Native American Communities, Elizabeth C. Lyons

DePaul Journal of Women, Gender and the Law

No abstract provided.

Let Women Choose What Is Best For Their Bodies And Babies: Why Illinois Should Legalize Direct-Entry Midwifery, Theresa Kleinhaus

DePaul Journal of Women, Gender and the Law

No abstract provided.

Sheltering Victims: The Need For Regulations In Domestic Violence Asylum Law, Angel Marie Graf

DePaul Journal of Women, Gender and the Law

No abstract provided.

Clark Memorandum: Fall 2011, J. Reuben Clark Law Society, Byu Law School Alumni Association, J. Reuben Clark Law School

The Clark Memorandum

• Two Cheers for Thinking Like a Lawyer (Michael W. Mosman)
• The Struggle for Gender Equality (Sherril A. Elsworth)
• Predicting Violence (Shima Baradaran and Frank McIntyre)
• Women of Influence (Jane H. Wise)
• Wheels to Keep Us Moving (Sara Nielson)

Marriage As Partnership, Sanford N. Katz

Sanford N. Katz

In this essay honoring Professor Mary Ann Glendon, the author discusses the contract of partnerships concept of marriage as it applies to antenuptial agreements, cohabitation contracts, and property settlement agreements, the three contexts about which Professor Glendon has written in her books The New Family and the New Property (1981) and The Transformation of Family Law (1996).

Hidden In Plain Sight: Achieving More Just Results In Hostile Work Environment Sexual Harassment Cases By Re-Examining Supreme Court Precedent, Elisabeth A. Keller, Judith B. Tracy

Judith B. Tracy

Lower federal courts often fail to provide plaintiffs in sexual harassment cases the relief intended by Title VII of the Civil Rights of 1964 and mandated by the Supreme Court when it recognized the cause of action twenty years ago. There is little doubt that sexual harassment in the workplace persists. However, lower courts misapply or ignore Supreme Court reasoning that would result in fairer and more consistent dispositions in hostile work environment sexual harassment cases. This article draws directly on reasoning from the Supreme Court cases to explain the sources of the confusion in the lower courts and offers …

Agency Cost Problems In Executive Compensation: An Evaluation Of Dividend Equivalent Rights On Restricted Stocks, Ufuoma Barbara Akpotaire

Ufuoma Barbara Akpotaire

Some authors argue that the integration of stock options as well as restricted stocks into executive compensation may reduce the conflicts between shareholders and management but may at the same time give rise to other agency problems connected to debt. While this line of argument may hold some merit, the structure of executive compensation packages, has over the years, focused less on stock options and more on restricted stocks. A classic example of this trend is Microsoft, who in 2003, switched from using stock options to restricted stock.

Compensating executives through restricted stocks has recently come under scrutiny due to …

Reconsidering Spousal Privileges After Crawford, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

In this article the author explores how domestic violence prevention efforts have been adversely impacted by the Supreme Court’s new “testimonial” approach to the confrontation clause. Examining the Court’s trilogy of cases from Crawford to Davis and Hammon, the author argues that the introduction of certain forms of hearsay in criminal cases has been drastically limited by the court’s new originalist approach to the Sixth Amendment. The author explains how state spousal privilege statutes often present a significant barrier to obtaining live testimony from victims of domestic violence. The author then argues that state legislatures should reconsider their spousal privilege …

Trafficking In Europe: An Analysis Of The Effectiveness Of European Law, Saadiya Chaudary

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Essay looks at the manifestation of various forms of human trafficking within Europe and analyzes the effectiveness of current European law provisions in combating trafficking and protecting victims. The Essay will accomplish this by examining recent and current cases before the European Court of Human Rights and the comparative gap between European standards and domestic procedures in the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom is a well-known destination state for trafficking victims' and consequently is required to meet obligations under international law toward a significant number of individuals who have been forced into exploitation in the United Kingdom.

Coalition, Cross-Cultural Lawyering, And Intersectionality: Immigrant Identity As A Barrier To Effective Legal Counseling For Domestic Violence Victims, Jessica H. Stein

Connecticut Public Interest Law Journal

Vol. 11, No. 1

Unanswered Questions Of A Minority People In International Law: A Comparative Study Between Southern Cameroons & South Sudan, Bernard Sama Mr

Bernard Sama

The month July of 2011 marked the birth of another nation in the World. The distressful journey of a minority people under the watchful eyes of the international community finally paid off with a new nation called the South Sudan . As I watched the South Sudanese celebrate independence on 9 July 2011, I was filled with joy as though they have finally landed. On a promising note, I read the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon saying “[t]ogether, we welcome the Republic of South Sudan to the community of nations. Together, we affirm our commitment to helping it meet its …

Beyond Equality? Against The Universal Turn In Workplace Protection, Jessica A. Clarke

Indiana Law Journal

Sexual harassment law and family leave policy originated as feminist reform projects designed to protect women in the workplace. But many academics now ask whether harassment and leave policies have outgrown their gendered roots. The anti-bullying movement advocates taking the “sexual” out of harassment law to prohibit all forms of on-the-job mistreatment. Likewise, the work-life balance movement advocates taking the “family” out of leave policy to require employers to accommodate all types of life pursuits. These proposals are in line with recent cases and scholarship on civil rights that reframe problems once seen as issues of inequality as deprivations of …

From 'Barbarity' To Regularity: A Case Study Of 'Unnecesarean' Malpractice Claims, Jamie Abrams

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This paper is a case study from “barbarity” to “regularity” examining comparatively the first ever “unnecesarean” lawsuit arising out of an 1858 cesarean section malpractice case next to a modern forced cesarean section malpractice suit. It positions the modern “unnecessarean” epidemic, in which 30% of births today are by cesarean section, in a historical medical malpractice context. This case study primarily examines a controversial 1858 lawsuit arising out of the first documented cesarean section performed by the revered Dr. Elias Cooper in California. The surgery left Mary Hodges’s bladder, womb, and intestines permanently fused together and left her permanently disfigured. …

Law On The Books Vs. Law In Action: Under-Enforcement Of Morocco's Reformed 2004 Family Law, The Moudawana, Ann Marie Eisenberg

Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research Papers

This Note focuses on women’s family law rights in Morocco, a country located in northwestern Africa, and often regarded as the western boundary of the Muslim-Arab world. Significantly, despite Morocco’s shared roots with nations such as Saudi Arabia in culture, religion, and language, the Moroccan government has interpreted similar traditions to yield a starkly different stance: gender equality is desirable. Morocco’s new Moudawana, the 2004 legislation on family law with provisions largely derived from Islamic sources, confers unprecedented rights on Moroccan women.

Part I of this Note evaluates the Moudawana in light of its break with traditional Shari’a, alongside its …

Hiring Teams, Firms, And Lawyers: Evidence Of The Evolving Relationship In The Corporate Legal Market, Michele M. Destefano, John C. Coates, Ashish Nanda, David B. Wilkins

Articles

How are relationships between corporate clients and law firms evolving? Drawing on interview and survey data from 166 chief legal officers of S&P 500 companies from 2006-2007, we find that-contrary to standard depictions of corporate client-provider relationships-(1) large companies have relationships with ten to twenty preferred providers; (2) these relationships continue to be enduring, and (3) clients focus not only on law firm platforms and lead partners, but also on teams and departments within preferred providers, allocating work to these subunits at rival firms over time and following "star" lawyers, especially if they move as part of a team. The …

Maine's Women Offenders: What Do We Know?, Erica King Msw, Jillian Foley Mppm, Mark Rubin

Justice Policy

Although Maine has one of the lowest incarceration rates of any state for both men and women, between 1999 and 2004 the state experienced an increase of 114 percent in incarceration of women, the largest increase in the nation. This study provides a descriptive analysis of the characteristics of women entering Maine's probation system in 2004, 2005 and 2006, and examines the factors contributing to recidivism, defined as an arrest for a new crime (misdemeanor or felony) while under probation supervision. The study finds that recidivism rates of Maine's women offenders vary considerably by county and by offense type. The …

Between Victim And Agent: A Third-Way Feminist Account Of Trafficking For Sex Work, Shelley Cavalieri

Indiana Law Journal

Feminist legal theorists have devoted enormous attention to conceptualizing the issues of sex work and trafficking for sexual purposes. While these theories vary, they typically fall into one of two camps. The abolitionist perspective, having grown out of dominance feminist theory, perceives sex work as inherently exploitative. In contrast, a second group of theorists adopts a liberal notion of individual choice and draws on the poststructuralist rejection of gender essentialism to envision a theoretical model of sex-worker rights. The legal and public policies that grow from these two models are similarly polarized. Radical feminist abolitionists are often strange bedfellows with …

The Bonds That Tie: The Politics Of Motherhood And The Future Of Abortion Rights, Mary Ziegler

Scholarly Publications

What is the relationship between women’s still predominant share of caretaking work and the constitutional recognition of a right to choose abortion? Caretaking-based rationales for abortion rights have become increasingly prominent in the Supreme Court's abortion jurisprudence, as well as in abortion-rights litigation. These justifications propose that women tend overwhelmingly to raise their own children. Consequently, as the argument goes, the decision to give birth creates a lifetime commitment for most women, and in some cases, may cost women valuable career or educational opportunities.

When care taking-based rationales first appeared in the early 1970s in debate about rights to both …

Human Rights Legislation In The Arab World: The Case Of Human Trafficking, Mohamed Y. Mattar

Michigan Journal of International Law

In the Arab World, human rights legislation has not always enhanced human rights. In fact, many national laws have been adopted that restrict human rights. Some countries' laws regulating nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) do not allow NGOs to receive funding from foreign entities. Media laws impose various limitations on the press. Jordan is the only Arab nation to enforce a comprehensive law on combating violence against women. Jordan is also the only country that has a law on access to information. Despite these gaps in human rights legislation, many Arab countries have passed comprehensive laws to combat human trafficking since the …

Prohibiting Sex Purchasing And Ending Trafficking: The Swedish Prostitution Law, Max Waltman

Michigan Journal of International Law

At the symposium on "Successes and Failures in International Human Trafficking Law" at the University of Michigan Law School in February 2011, I addressed the topic of international sex trafficking law, particularly the Swedish law that prohibits the purchase of sex while simultaneously decriminalizing the prostituted person. Being asked to address trafficking, I was surprised by the name given to my panel: "Kidnapped at Home, Sold Abroad: Sex Trafficking in the International Community." This surprise was owing to the fact that in the most current international instrument defining trafficking, the United Nation's so-called Palermo Protocol, nowhere is the term "kidnapping" …

Review Of Sex, Murder, And The Unwritten Law: Courting Judicial Mayhem, Texas Style. By Bill Neal., Paul N. Spellman

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

"If, as has often been contended, truth is the first casualty of traditional warfare, then logic, it appears, is the first casualty of sexual warfare." And with that thematic statement in hand, author Bill Neal is off to the proverbial races with an often delightful, sometimes troubling, and generally entertaining legal discourse on the so-called "unwritten law": that a cuckolded husband or a woman wronged has the God-given right to avenge or be avenged, even to redress by murder. With a curiously dispassionate, or at least overly serious, foreword by Cal State-Fullerton professor Gordon Morris Bakken, Neal's tales of adultery, …

Female Genital Mutilation And Female Genital Cutting, Hope Lewis

Hope Lewis

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) or Female Genital Cutting (FGC) refers to a range of harmful traditional practices performed on infants, girls, and women in certain ethnic groups. This article, published in The Encyclopedia of Human Rights (David Forsythe, et al, ed., Oxford University Press, 2009) discusses the practices in the context of international human rights law. FGM-FGC, violates a number of international human rights standards, including the right to bodily integrity, the right to life, the right to the highest attainable standard of health, the rights of children, and the rights of women and girls to equality and non-discrimination. Nevertheless, …

Women (Under)Development : The Relevance Of The "Right To Development" To Poor Women Of Color In The United States, Hope Lewis

Hope Lewis

This essay, written during a time of Clinton-era welfare reform, was an attempt to reimagine South-North roles. What if "right to development" analysis were applied to poor women of color living in the United States? Some see the right to development as an anachronism in the face of the apparent globalization of market-based economic development. However, “development” in the narrow form of a thriving industrial sector, reliable infrastructure, and steady economic growth, remains beyond the reach of many nations - particularly the poorest African nations. More important, the broader goals of human development - access to basic needs and an …

Carter's Groundbreaking Appointment Of Women To The Federal Bench: His Other "Human Rights" Record, Mary L. Clark

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.