Law Commons^™

Race, Sex And Genes At Work: Uncovering The Lessons Of Norman-Bloodsaw, Elizabeth Pendo

All Faculty Scholarship

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (“GINA”) is the first federal, uniform protection against the use of genetic information in both the workplace and health insurance. Signed into law on May 21, 2008, GINA prohibits an employer or health insurer from acquiring or using an individual’s genetic information, with some exceptions. One of the goals of GINA is to eradicate actual, or perceived, discrimination based on genetic information in the workplace and in health insurance. Although the threat of genetic discrimination is often discussed in universal terms - as something that could happen to any of us - the …

The Basic Law At 60 - Equality And Difference: A Proposal For The Guest List To The Birthday Party, Susanne Baer

Articles

The German constitution, named "Basic Law", has proven to work although many did not believe in it when it was framed. Others emphasize desiderata. Sabine Berghahn commented at the 50th birthday that it has developed "far too slowly and [some] has even gone completely wrong." ' Jutta Limbach, former President of the Federal Constitutional Court, observed that constitutional history was "anything but regal, but very difficult and full of obstacles. '' 2 Former Chancellor Willy Brandt famously called the constitution "a snail on thin ice." So what is missing when we analyze the Basic Law, and what should be finally …

The Changing Professional Landscape Of Large Law Firms, Glass Ceilings And Dead Ends: Professional Ideologies, Gender Stereotypes, And The Future Of Women Lawyers At Large Law Firms, Eli Wald

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Her Last Words: Dying Declarations And Modern Confrontation Jurisprudence, Aviva A. Orenstein

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Dying declarations have taken on increased importance since the Supreme Court indicated that even if testimonial, they may present a unique exception to its new confrontation jurisprudence. Starting with Crawford v. Washington in 2004, the Court has developed strict rules concerning the use of testimonial statements made by unavailable declarants. Generally, testimonial statements (those made with the expectation that they will be used to prosecute the accused) may be admitted only if they were previously subject to cross examination. The only exceptions appear to be dying declarations and forfeiture by wrongdoing if the accused intentionally rendered the declarant unavailable.

This …

The Struggling Class: Replacing An Insider White Female Middle Class Dream With A Struggling Black Female Reality, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

“What is the appropriate role of former outsiders who are now on the inside?” I propose that the appropriate role for an outsider who is now an insider, is not to sprawl out on plush, white, crushed velvet sofas, sipping vintage wines or imported teas and nibbling at aged cheese and delicate crackers while enjoying being one among a quota or token few that made it to the inside. Rather, the role of a former outsider is to go to work from the inside to dismantle the house, shrewdly using available tools to remove the nails from the walls, loosening …

It's The Hard Luck Life: Women's Moral Luck And Eucatastrophe In Child Custody Allocation, Lolita Buckner Inniss

Publications

No abstract provided.

Negotiating The Situation: The Reasonable Person In Context, Lu-In Wang

Articles

This Essay argues that our understanding of the reasonable person in economic transactions should take into account an individual’s race, gender, or other group-based identity characteristics - not necessarily because persons differ on account of those characteristics, but because of how those characteristics influence the situations a person must negotiate. That is, individuals’ social identities constitute features not just of themselves, but also of the situations they inhabit. In economic transactions that involve social interaction, such as face-to-face negotiations, the actor’s race, gender, or other social identity can affect both an individual actor and those who interact with him or …

Do Ugly Criminals Receive Harsher Sentences? An Analysis Of Lookism In The Criminal Justice System, Kelly Beck

Business and Economics Honors Papers

For many years, researchers have attempted to find a link between beauty and labor market outcomes. Although many important findings have been noted in these studies, the beauty analysis utilized was a subjective measurement. This subjective method, while important, may have external factors creating bias in the rating itself. In this study, the impact of beauty is applied to criminals and their sentences. Using a computer based symmetry measurement tool, an objective beauty measurement will be utilized. This study will seek to uncover whether or not criminals who are less attractive, measured through facial symmetry, receive harsher prison sentences than …

Sex In And Out Of Intimacy, Laura A. Rosenbury, Jennifer E. Rothman

UF Law Faculty Publications

The state has long attempted to regulate sexual activity by channeling sex into various forms of state-supported intimacy. Although commentators and legal scholars of diverse political perspectives generally believe such regulation is declining, the freedom to engage in diverse sexual activities has not been established as a matter of law. Instead, courts have extended legal protection to consensual sexual acts only to the extent such acts support other state interests, most often marriage and procreation. Although Lawrence v. Texas altered some aspects of that vision, it reinscribed others by suggesting that sexual activity should be protected from state interference only …

Ricci V. Destefano: A Masculinities Theory Analysis, Ann C. Mcginley

Scholarly Works

This Article applies masculinity theory to explore the aspects Ricci v. Destefano and its political reverberations. Empirical evidence showed that virtually all written tests have a disparate impact on minorities, that a neighboring city had reached less discriminatory results using a different weighting system, and that other fire departments used assessment centers to judge firefighters' qualifications for promotions. While the black male and all female firefighters were made invisible by the case and the testimony, the fact that Ricci's and Vargas' testimony lionized a particularly traditional form of heterosexual masculinity was also invisible. While the command presence required of a …

Promoting Distributional Equality For Women: Some Thoughts On Gender And Global Corporate Citizenship In Foreign Direct Investment, Rachel J. Anderson

Scholarly Works

This essay applies a legal theory of global corporate citizenship to the question of women’s distributional equality in foreign direct investment. It proposes ways that a legal theory of mandatory global corporate citizenship can expand the ways we think about regulating transnational corporations and promoting gender equality.

In Search Of The Reasonable Woman: Anti-Discrimination Rhetoric In The United States, Francis J. Mootz Iii

Scholarly Works

This article emerged from my participation in a Symposium addressing global perspectives on the topic, "Anti-Discrimination Discourse and Practices," sponsored by The Jean Monnet Chair of European Law at Cagliari University, Sardinia. The article examines the rhetorical development of the "reasonable woman" standard of hostile work environment sexual harassment under Title VII. I argue that the rhetorical framing of the standard has unnecessarily limited its impact, perhaps to the point of undermining its potential to radically revise our understanding of gender discrimination. I suggest how the rhetorical power of the standard might be recovered.

Decentralizing Family: An Inclusive Proposal For Individual Tax Filing In The United States, Anthony C. Infanti

Articles

The debate in the United States over individual versus joint federal income tax filing is at something of a crossroads. For decades, progressive - and, particularly, feminist - scholars have urged us to abolish the joint return in favor of individual filing. On the rare occasion when scholars have described what such an individual filing system might look like, the focus has been on the ways in which the traditional family must be accommodated in an individual filing system. These descriptions generally do not take into account - let alone remedy - the tax system’s ongoing failure to address the …

Sex In And Out Of Intimacy, Laura Rosenbury, Jennifer Rothman

All Faculty Scholarship

The state has long attempted to regulate sexual activity by channeling sex into various forms of state-supported intimacy. Although commentators and legal scholars of diverse political perspectives generally believe such regulation is declining, the freedom to engage in diverse sexual activities has not been established as a matter of law. Instead, courts have extended legal protection to consensual sexual acts only to the extent such acts support other state interests, most often marriage and procreation. Although Lawrence v. Texas altered some aspects of that vision, it reinscribed others by suggesting that sexual activity should be protected from state interference only …

Gender, Masculinities And Transition In Conflicted Societies, Naomi R. Cahn, Fionnuala D. Ni Aolain

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This article uses a gender lens to explore how conflict affects men and women differently. It examines issues related to the emergence of certain kinds of “hyper” masculinity in situations of conflict and how such masculinities continue to function in subsequent peace-building attempts. The article argues that a failure to account for and be cognizant of these specific masculinities has a significant effect for women in particular, and, more generally, on the success of the conflict transition process. Finally, we show how using a gender lens could make a difference by considering the specific example of the impact of violent …

Returning Home: Women In Post-Conflict Societies, Naomi R. Cahn, Dina Francesca Haynes, Fionnuala D. Ni Aolain

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This paper explores the situation of women returning to their homes and communities after their countries have experienced major conflicts. In that context, it assesses the range of barriers and challenges that women face and offers some thinking to addresses and remedy these complex issues. As countries face the transition process, they can begin to measure the conflict’s impact on the population and the civil infrastructure. Not only have people been displaced from their homes, but, typically, health clinics, schools, roads, businesses, and markets have deteriorated substantially. While the focus is on humanitarian aid in the midst of and during …

Pregnant Man: A Conversation, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Darren Rosenblum, Noa Ben-Asher, Mary Anne Case, Elizabeth Emens, Berta E. Hernandez-Truyol,, Vivian M. Gutierrez, Lisa C. Ikemoto, Jacob Willig-Onwuachi, Kimberly Mutcherson, Peter Siegelman, Beth Jones

Faculty Scholarship

I'm a law professor who works on gender, sexuality, and culture in the international and comparative context. That's my head working. In "real" life, my partner, Howard, and I have been engaged in having a baby together for several years, a project that came to fruition with the birth of our daughter Melina. Of course, such a project evokes intensely complex feelings and thoughts. Beyond a simple transposition of the personal onto the political, I feel so fortunate to have engaged in myriad conversations with a variety of friends and colleagues who think much more carefully about the family and …

Pregnant Man?: A Conversation, Darren Rosenblum, Noa Ben-Asher, Mary Anne Case, Elizabeth F. Emens, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol, Vivian M. Gutierrez, Lisa C. Ikemoto, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Jacob Willig-Onwuachi, Kimberly Mutcherson, Peter Siegelman, Beth Jones

Faculty Scholarship

I'm a law professor who works on gender, sexuality, and culture in the international and comparative context. That's my head working. In "real" life, my partner, Howard, and I have been engaged in having a baby together for several years, a project that came to fruition with the birth of our daughter Melina. Of course, such a project evokes intensely complex feelings and thoughts. Beyond a simple transposition of the personal onto the political, I feel so fortunate to have engaged in myriad conversations with a variety of friends and colleagues who think much more carefully about the family and …

All In The Family, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Jacob Willig-Onwuachi

Faculty Scholarship

Your essay “Pregnant Man?” highlights many significant issues concerning the intersection of law, gender, sexuality, race, class, and family. In an earlier article A House Divided: The Invisibility of the Multiracial Family, we explored many of these issues as they relate to multiracial families, including our own. Specifically, we, a black female-white male married couple, analyzed the language in housing discrimination statutes to demonstrate how law and society function together to frame the normative ideal of family as heterosexual and monoracial. Our article examined the daily social privileges of monoracial, heterosexual couples as a means of revealing the invisibility of …

Situation, Frames, And Stereotypes: Cognitive Barriers On The Road To Nondiscrimination, Marybeth Herald

Marybeth Herald

The psychological literature enhances our understanding of discrimination. This essay discusses three examples of how that literature can contribute to limiting destructive gender bias in the workplace, in private interactions, and in the courtroom. First, situational pressures have a powerful influence on our actions and must be taken into account in combating employment discrimination. A workplace designed for traditional male needs (limited parenting and home responsibilities) will continue to pressure females out of the workplace or childbearing despite formal equality rules. Second, the use of the term “disorder” as a frame for describing persons with an intersex condition may not …

Book Review: What Comes Naturally: Miscegenation Law And The Making Of Race In America, Taunya Banks

Taunya Lovell Banks

No abstract provided.

Disrupting Sexual Categories Of Intimate Preference, Luke A. Boso

Luke A. Boso

Society tends to treat a person's sexual orientation and intimate preferences as if those concepts are static and immutable. People regularly divide themselves into binary gay and straight categories, and similarly seek masculine or feminine qualities in an appropriately sexed person. These intimate preferences occupy a uniquely private position in society, and the characteristics to which people claim attraction are thought so personal as to be sacred. In turn, we resist characterizing our intimate preferences as discrimination despite the tangible harms that befall those who are disproportionately excluded from romantic opportunities. But individual discriminatory intimate practices do not necessarily imply …

Beyond The Binary: What Can Feminists Learn From Intersex And Transgender Jurisprudence?, Marybeth Herald

Marybeth Herald

This panel discussion focuses on recent developments in the intersex and transsexual communities. Recently, both movements have undergone profound changes and each has provided new and unique theoretical and practical perspectives that can potentially benefit other social justice groups. This dialogue describes these developments. It also emphasizes the importance of feminist, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersex activists becoming aware of the goals that they share and areas where their interests may diverge. As each of these movements develops their legal strategies, they need to be conscious of the potentially positive and negative ramifications that their approaches may have on …

The Gender Pay Gap In Europe From A Legal Perspective, Ann Numhauser-Henning

Ann Numhauser-Henning

No abstract provided.

Keeping Men Men And Women Down: Sex Segregation, Anti-Essentialism, And Masculinity, David S. Cohen

David S Cohen

Current-day sex segregation is one of the central ways that law and society define and construct who is a man and what it means to be a man. When law or society tells people that a place or activity is reserved for men alone, or in the converse, that men are excluded from a particular place or activity, two important messages are sent: one, that there are distinct categories of people based on reproductive anatomy and that these anatomical distinctions are a legitimate way of organizing and sorting people; and two, that people with the reproductive anatomy labeled “male” are …

The Stubborn Persistence Of Sex Segregation, David S. Cohen

David S Cohen

Almost fifty years ago, Congress began protecting against sex discrimination in federal statutory law. Almost forty years ago, the Supreme Court expanded constitutional law to include protection from discrimination based on sex. Since then, guarantees against sex discrimination have proliferated in federal and state law, and societal norms of sex equality have become entrenched. Yet, in 2010, we still live in a society that is highly segregated by sex.

This article is the first part of a multi-part project that will analyze sex segregation as a systemic issue by exploring the contours of modern American sex segregation and what this …

How You Gonna’ Keep Her Down On The Farm, Lisa R. Pruitt

Lisa R Pruitt

The Moral Politics Of Social Control: Political Culture And Ordinary Crime In Cuba, Deborah M. Weissman, Marsha R. Weissman

Deborah M. Weissman

The Cuban revolution has been described as “the longest running social experiment” in history, and one not well-received in the United States. The U.S. government responded to the revolution first with suspicion, and then hostility. Even while the current administration has acknowledged the failure of U.S. policy, few substantive changes have been announced and the narrative of Cuba in the United States continues to dwell almost exclusively on political repression and economic failure. The Cuban revolution, however, is a complex process, one that defies facile explanations. This article subscribes to the perspective offered by social scientists who urge “a more …

Human Rights, Anti-Discrimination And Social Security Benefits: Recent Uk Case Law, Mel Cousins

Mel Cousins

Since the adoption of the Human Rights Act 1998, challenges to UK social security law on the basis of the European Convention on Human Rights have become common - especially under the anti-discrimination provisions of Article 14. However, few of these challenges have been successful and, in general, the English courts have shown a poor understanding of the principles of human rights law. The recent decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in Stec (2005) 41 EHRR SE 295 and the House of Lords in RJM (2008) UKHL 63 have clarified important issues including the material scope of the …