Law and Gender Commons^™

Bypassing Her Constitutional Rights: How The Nebraska Supreme Court Set A Damaging Precedent For Pregnant Minors Seeking Abortion Care, Carlie J. Armstrong

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Avenging Revenge Porn, Samantha Kopf

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Legal Inconsistencies After Astrue V. Caputo: When Children Are Conceived Postmortem, Does Society Have An Obligation To Support Those Children?, 47 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1101 (2014), Catherine Durkin Stewart

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fighting The Establishment: The Need For Procedural Reform Of Our Paternity Laws, Caroline Rogus

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Every state and the District of Columbia use voluntary acknowledgments of paternity. Created pursuant to federal law, the acknowledgment is signed by the purported biological parents and establishes paternity without requiring court involvement. Intended to be a “simple civil process” to establish paternity where the parents are unmarried, the acknowledgment is used by state governments to expedite child support litigation. But federal policy and state laws governing the acknowledgments do not sufficiently protect the interests of those men who have signed acknowledgments and who subsequently discover that they lack genetic ties to the children in question. A signatory who learns …

Morning-After Decisions: Legal Mobilization Against Emergency Contraception In Chile, Fernando Muñoz León

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

In Chile, the Criminal Code bans all forms of abortion. Furthermore, the Constitution—drafted and enacted by the Military Junta led by General Augusto Pinochet—was inspired by a conservative version of Catholic natural law championed by prominent Chilean constitutional law scholars. This Article traces the emergence, development, and ultimately the defeat of a persistent legal mobilization driven by natural law-inspired litigants, politicians, and scholars against levonorgestrel-based emergency contraception, also known as the morning-after pill. In their decade-long efforts at legal mobilization, these natural law litigants used every tool of the Chilean legal system to challenge the legality and the constitutionality of …

Emerging Issues: Overthrowing The Government: What Boko Haram Means For Women, Kimberly R. Frazier

University of Baltimore Journal of International Law

Boko Haram has been active since 2002, however, most of the world became familiar with the Islamic terrorist group in April of 2014 after they kidnapped approximately 276 girls from a boarding school in northeastern Nigeria.1 The group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, announced in a video that the kidnapping was an act of retaliation after Nigerian security forces kidnapped the wives and children of Boko Haram leaders.2 He also stated that the girls would be forced to convert to Islam and sold into the slave market to begin their new lives as “servants.”3 The kidnapping was not the first act of …

Student Comment: “Love Is Patient, Love Is Kind”: A Comparative Study Helping The United States Reach Marriage Equality, Nicole Rush

University of Baltimore Journal of International Law

This paper evaluates same-sex marriage policies in three industrialized countries: the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Canada. In assessing the legislative and judicial history of same-sex marriage policies in each country, as well as other influential factors leading to these policies, this research helps to create a roadmap to reach a nationwide policy for the United States. By comparing the current history of the United States’ same-sex marriage policies to that of the aforementioned countries, it is possible to develop a plan to achieve marriage equality in the U.S.

Females On The Fringe: Considering Gender In Payday Lending Policy, Amy J. Schmitz

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Payday lending may provide a much-needed safety net for some consumers in need of quick cash for emergencies. However, data suggest that most payday loan borrowers become repeat users caught in a cycle of high-cost debt. Furthermore, empirical evidence indicates consistent overrepresentation of women, including many single mothers, among payday loan borrowers. This takes a toll not only on these women and their families, but also on society as a whole. Indeed, context matters in payday lending debates. It is thus time to think creatively and consider contextualized programs that aim to increase women’s and all consumers’ safe borrowing options, …

Nys High Court Sets Aside Hate Crime Conviction But Allows Retrial, Arthur S. Leonard

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Quotas And The Transatlantic Divergence Of Corporate Governance, Darren Rosenblum

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The French adoption of a corporate board quota for women reflects Europe's increasingly stakeholder-oriented approach to corporate governance, one that stands in marked contrast with that of the United States. This Article discusses how the corporate board quota will shift French and European corporate governance. The change accentuates an already established stakeholder corporate culture widespread in Europe, most notably evidenced by the presence of worker representation on boards. In contrast, the United States' corporate governance structure increasingly places the shareholder at its center. The proliferation of quotas for women on corporate boards in the national and transnational European contexts is …

Aborted Emotions: Regret, Relationality, And Regulation, Jody Lyneé Madeira

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Regret is a deeply contested emotion within abortion discourse. It is present in ways that we are both afraid of and afraid to talk about. Conventional pro-life and pro-choice narratives link regret to defective decision making. Both sides assert that the existence of regret reveals abortion’s harmfulness or harmlessness, generating a narrow focus on the maternal-fetal relationship and women’s “rights.” These incomplete, deeply flawed constructions mire discourse in a clash between regret and relief and exclude myriad relevant relationships. Moreover, they distort popular understandings of abortion that in turn influence women, creating cognitive dissonance and perhaps distress for those with …

Gender-Conscious Confrontation: The Accuser-Obligation Approach Revisited, Michael El-Zein

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

The Supreme Court’s recent Confrontation Clause decisions have had a dramatic effect on domestic violence prosecution throughout the United States, sparking debate about possible solutions to an increasingly difficult trial process for prosecutors and the survivors they represent. In this Note, I revisit and reinterpret the suggestion by Professor Sherman J. Clark in his article, An Accuser-Obligation Approach to the Confrontation Clause,1 that we should view the Confrontation Clause primarily as an obligation of the accuser rather than a right of the accused. Specifically, I reevaluate Clark’s proposition using a gendered lens, ultimately suggesting a novel solution to the problem …

To Count And Be Counted: A Response To Professor Levinson, Marcia L. Mccormick

All Faculty Scholarship

This Essay deepens the discussion Professor Levinson began in his lecture for the Richard J. Childress Memorial Lecture at SLU Law, Who Counts?. Professor Levinson explored the question of who counts as a member of the US community, and who gets to decide who counts. Inevitably, given our history of exclusion on the basis of race and sex, questions about belonging and race and sex form a central part of the current debate. Labeling a person with a race and sex presupposes the questions of what makes a person a certain race or sex? This essay explores what identity …

Criminalizing Revenge Porn, Danielle Citron, Mary Anne Franks

Articles

No abstract provided.

What Can Comparative Legal Studies Learn From Feminist Legal Theories In The Era Of Globalization, Dana Raigrodski

University of Baltimore Law Review

This article re-examines the field of comparative law and comparative legal studies through the lens of feminist legal theories/studies (FLT). It suggests that lessons learned from the development of FLT and insights from shared epistemology and methodology within FLT can inform the ongoing controversies within comparative legal studies and provide comparative legal scholars and practitioners with the tools to maximize the benefits of comparative legal studies in the era of increasing global interdependence.

Title Vii At 50: Contemporary Challenges For U.S. Employment Discrimination Law, Trina Jones

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Kamakahi V. Asrm: The Egg Donor Price Fixing Litigation, Kimberly D. Krawiec

Faculty Scholarship

In April 2011, Lindsay Kamakahi caused an international stir by suing the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART), SART-member fertility clinics, and a number of egg donor agencies on behalf of herself and other oocyte donors. The suit challenged the ASRM-SART oocyte donor compensation guidelines, which limit payments to egg donors to $5,000 ($10,000 under special circumstances), as an illegal price-fixing agreement in violation of United States antitrust laws.

Ensuing discussion of the case has touched on familiar debates surrounding coercion, commodification, and exploitation. It has also revealed many misconceptions about oocyte donation, …

Objectivity: A Feminist Revisit, Katharine T. Bartlett

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Is There A Federal Definitions Power?, Ernest A. Young

Faculty Scholarship

Although the Supreme Court decided United States v. Windsor on equal protection grounds, that case also raised important and recurring questions about federal power. In particular, defenders of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) argued that Congress may always define the terms used in federal statutes, even if its definition concerns a matter reserved to the States. As the DOMA illustrates, federal definitions concerning reserved matters that depart from state law may impose significant burdens on state governments and private citizens alike. This Article argues that there is no general, freestanding federal definitions power and that sometimes—as with marriage—federal law …

Trafficking In Child Labor In Ghana And Senegal, Steven Brandt

Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking: 6th (2014)

The goal of this paper is to determine the efficacy of anti-trafficking governance in Senegal and Ghana and what social, political, legal and economic factors work for or against those policies such as: - social policies for and against the growth of the NGO community - enforcement of anti-trafficking laws - economic policies for impoverished urban and rural communities - government rehabilitation policies for minors - federal, state and local corruption - border security/immigration - religious and political freedom This research comprises a comprehensive literature analysis as to the current state of trafficking of minors in Ghana and Senegal. First …

From Turkey Trot To Twitter: Policing Puberty, Purity, And Sex-Positivity, Mae C. Quinn

Journal Articles

For over one hundred years, American social structures have largely embraced two central principles—the innocence of children and the omniscience of adults. But as we now know from behavioral and development experts, adolescents—neither children nor adults—challenge such simplistic categories. In resisting binaries, adolescents represent a threat to the standard world order. But rather than simply accepting the fluid nature of adolescents and adolescence, American adults continually try to manage, regulate and control teens in ways that deny their agency, encroach upon their personhood, and impede social change. From outward appearance, to physical presence, to intimate communications and engagements, young people …

Foreword – Institutional Responsibility For Sex And Gender Exploitation, Nancy Levit

Faculty Works

Organizations are increasingly being held accountable for sex and gender exploitation perpetrated by individuals who are associated with them. The idea of litigating toward gender justice by making institutional actors responsible for various forms of sex and gender discrimination unites the articles in this Symposium.

This Foreword begins by tracking the evolution of tort law from its early vindication of isolated individual claims to its much more recent incarnation as an instrument of social reform for collective interests. The second part addresses legal impediments that prevent redress of certain types of gendered harms — ranging from areas that are virtually …

Using Egg Freezing To Extend The Biological Clock: Fertility Insurance Or False Hope?, Seema Mohapatra

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Tiaras, Queen Bees, Imposters And The Board Room: Lean In & Women In Corporate Governance, Christyne J. Vachon

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Narrowing The Gender Pay Gap By Providing Equal Opportunities: The Need For Tenured Female Professors In Higher Stem Institutions In An Effort To Recast Gender Norms, Claire R. Rollor

Student Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

Who Are The Mothers Who Need Safe Haven Laws? An Empirical Investigation Of Mothers Who Kill, Abandon, Or Safely Surrender Their Newborns, 29 Wis. J.L. Gender & Soc'y 213 (2014), Diane S. Kaplan

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

Who are the Mothers who kill their infants at birth? Why do they kill? How do they kill? Once the infant is disposed of, what becomes of the Mother? Neonaticide is the killing of a newborn within the first twenty-four hours of birth. In response to the discovery of thirteen abandoned newborns, Texas passed the first Safe Haven law in 1999. Within nine years, all states enacted similar laws. The purpose of Safe Haven Laws is to deter neonaticidal behaviors by allowing Mothers who are bearing unwanted pregnancies to legally surrender their newborns with anonymity and immunity from prosecution. The …

Twilight: The Unveiling Of Victims, Stalking, And Domestic Violence, 21 Cardozo J. L. & Gender 39 (2014), Susan L. Brody

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Critical Research Agenda For Wills, Trusts And Estates, Bridget J. Crawford

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The law of wills, trusts, and estates could benefit from consideration of its development and impact on people of color; women of all colors; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals; low-income and poor individuals; the disabled; and nontraditional families. One can measure the law's commitment to justice and equality by understanding the impact on these historically disempowered groups of the laws of intestacy, spousal rights, child protection, will formalities, will contests, and will construction; the creation, operation and construction of trusts; fiduciary administration; creditors' rights; asset protection; nonprobate transfers; planning for incapacity and death; and wealth transfer taxation. This Article …

Females On The Fringe: Considering Gender In Payday Lending Policy, Amy J. Schmitz

Faculty Publications

Payday lending may provide a much-needed safety net for some consumers in need of quick cash for emergencies. However, data suggest that most payday loan borrowers become repeat users caught in a cycle of high-cost debt. Furthermore, empirical evidence indicates consistent overrepresentation of women, including many single mothers, among payday loan borrowers. This takes a toll not only on these women and their families, but also on society as a whole. Indeed, context matters in payday lending debates. It is thus time to think creatively and consider contextualized programs that aim to increase women’s and all consumers’ safe borrowing options, …

Gender Diversity In The Patent Bar, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 67 (2014), Saurabh Vishnubhakat

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

This article describes the state of gender diversity across technology and geography within the U.S. patent bar. The findings rely on a new gender-matched dataset, the first public dataset of its kind, not only of all attorneys and agents registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, but also of attorneys and agents on patents granted by the USPTO. To enable follow-on research, the article describes all data and methodology and offers suggestions for refinement. This study is timely in view of renewed interest about the participation of women in the U.S. innovation ecosystem, notably the provision …