Law and Gender Commons^™

7th Annual Stonewall Lecture Series - The Battle For Pride: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow 2023, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Willard Mwiinga V The People Appeal No/167/2022 (24 August, 2023), Mwami Kabwabwa

SAIPAR Case Review

This case calls upon judges to move beyond a rigid application and recognition of gender based violence (GBV) laws thoughtfully to cases involving domestic violence, to protect women and girls. In this pivotal Judgement, the Court of Appeal missed a crucial chance to fulfill its duty to construe the law with an acute awareness of gender issues and the prevalent problem of Gender-Based Violence (GBV). Acknowledging such issues in legal decisions is vital as it embeds gender sensitivity into the consciousness of both the legal framework and society at large, as seen through the judiciary’s lens. This acknowledgment is instrumental …

Affect Theory, The Perceived Impact Of Judicial Diversity, And The Gender Pay Gap In The Irish Legal Profession, Caoimhe Kiernan

Books/Book Chapters

This chapter investigates how affect theory can be used as a framework when examining judicial diversity, along with how affect theory can be used to help explore the impact of increasing gender diversity on the Irish bench. This chapter will first examine the current gender pay gap in the Irish legal profession, the status of women in Ireland throughout the 20th Century, recount the women’s movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s and discuss the appointment of the first women judges to Irish courts. Affect theory will then be explored, including how affect theory can be applied as a framework when …

Submission To Justice Canada On The Criminalization Of Coercive Control, Janet Mosher, Shushanna Harris, Jennifer Koshan, Wanda Wiegers

Commissioned Reports, Studies and Public Policy Documents

Justice Canada has been holding an engagement process on the issue of whether an offence of coercive control should be added to the Criminal Code. This offence has been proposed in a series of private members bills, most recently, Bill C-332. This submission argues that it is imperative that actors in all legal domains acquire a nuanced and contextual understanding of coercive control derived from an intersectional analysis that attends to how multiple systems of oppression interact to shape the tactics of coercion and control. However, we do not support the criminalization of coercive control, either as a standalone offence …

Episode 3: Tarnished Gold, Sara Gras

Season 01

To better understand how and why sports are a part of education, this episode goes back to where they started. Although the culture of youth sports has certainly evolved, the purpose of interscholastic athletics really has not. Today, just like 100 years ago, educators value the role of sport in preparing kids for success in life. But the structures governing competition have always limited who can participate and how they are recognized. Many thanks to all the guests who contributed their thoughts.

This episode features clips from conversations with:

Kim Yuracko (Faculty Profile)
Judd and Mary Morris Leighton …

Same-Sex Marriage Judgment Asks Queer Citizens To Wait For True Equality At A Future Time That May Never Arrive, Kunal Ambasta

Popular Media

Excerpt:

"For about the last 15 years, the queer rights movement has enriched the constitutional law of this country. Some of the most cherished constitutional values and rights have been fleshed out with the movement as its springboards at the Supreme Court.... The Court fully acknowledges, in abstract, the rights of queer couples to equal treatment before the law, dignity, and of the numerous tangible and intangible benefits of the institution of marriage, but refuses to ensure any of these rights to a clear case of legal discrimination or to craft a suitable remedy."

What Do We Do With You: How The United States Uses Racial-Gendered Immigrant Labor To Inform Its Immigrant Inclusion-Exclusion Cycle, Tori Delaney

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Federal Judge Denies Preliminary Injunction Against Idaho’S Bathroom Law, But Refuses To Dismiss Challenge, Arthur S. Leonard

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Episode 2: State Of The Union, Sara Gras

Season 01

Episode 2 looks at the recent legislative push to ban transgender kids from scholastic sports across the country in the context of the anti-trans bathroom bans that preceded it. I also dive into the Soule v. Connecticut case that is so frequently referenced as an example of trans athlete exceptionalism despite the actual facts. There will be more later in the season on the organizations encouraging the passage of sports bans and supporting their defense in court, but my guests in this episode start to shed some light on who they are and what motivates their actions. I extend my …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Breast Ironing: Analyzing The Rights Of The Girl-Child In The Context Of Cameroon’S Obligation Under International Human Rights Law, Olusola Babatunde Adegbite, Olaitan Oluwaseyi Olusegun

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

Among the various forms of sexual violence perpetrated against the girl-child, breast ironing remains largely obscured due to its underreporting. Yet thousands of girls, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa where it is most prevalent, continue to suffer in silence. These girls are not just exposed to the immediate violence of this act, but they also carry the scar of this human rights violation for life. With the scholarly focus on the practice rather scant, the necessary legal response has also been checkmated. The goal of this article is to bring international focus to this problem by examining the practice in the …

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter, Fall 2023

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter

No abstract provided.

La Significancia De La Instalación De Oficinas De Género Para Estudiantes Universitarias Lgbtq+ En Chile, Lori Hashasian

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This investigation explores the significance that offices of gender have for queer university students in Chile. It is based on the historical Mayo Feminista protests and the resulting passage of Ley 21.369, which aims to regulate sexual assault, gender violence, and gender discrimination in higher education. This law mandates Chilean universities to have offices of gender specifically dedicated to meeting these goals. This study draws on interviews to learn from the lived experiences of queer university students and directors of the offices of gender. It concentrates on two universities in Valparaíso, Chile: la Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María and la …

Exploring The African Regional Human Rights Standards As The Basis For An Enabling Environment For Self-Managed Abortion, Lucia Berro Pizzarossa, Michelle Maziwisa, Ebenezer Durojaye

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Self-managed abortion holds great promise to save lives and promote reproductive autonomy, particularly in Africa. Indeed, the African region records very high numbers of unsafe abortions, and the burden of abortion-related mortality is the highest globally. Abortion remains generally criminalized in violation of numerous internationally and regionally recognized human rights standards. The advent of abortion medicines and the increased grassroots energy geared towards curbing the harms of unsafe abortion evince medical abortion holds great promise for revolutionizing people’s access to high-quality reproductive care. This study discusses regional human rights frameworks, policy, case law, and a few representative domestic legislative frameworks …

A Miscarriage Of Justice: How Femtech Apps And Fog Data Evade Fourth Amendment Privacy Protections, Rachel Silver

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

After the fall of Roe v. Wade, states across the country have enacted extreme abortion bans. Anti-abortion states, emboldened by their new, unrestricted power to regulate women’s bodies, are only broadening the scope of abortion prosecutions. And modern technology provides law enforcement with unprecedented access to women’s most intimate information, including, for example, their menstrual cycle, weight, body temperature, sexual activity, mood, medications, and pregnancy details. Fourth Amendment law fails to protect this sensitive information stored on femtech apps from government searches. In a largely unregulated private market, femtech apps sell health and location data to third parties like Fog …

Dobbs' Sex Equality Troubles, Marc Spindelman

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

This article takes up what Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Org. may mean for sex equality rights beyond the abortion setting. It details how Dobbs lays the foundation for rolling back and even eliminating Fourteenth Amendment sex equality protections. The work scales these possibilities against a different dimension of the ruling that’s yet to receive the attention that it merits. An important footnote in Dobbs, Footnote 22, sketches a new history-and-tradition-based approach to unenumerated rights under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Privileges or Immunities Clause. The jurisprudence that this Footnote capacitates could transform the constitutional landscape via new economic and social …

Connecting Nuclear Security To International Frameworks On Gender And Security, Kathleen A. Doty, Jessica S. Burniske

International Journal of Nuclear Security

The international community is slowly beginning to recognize the intersections between law and policy as it relates to international security—particularly arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament—and the body of human rights law that addresses gender equality. Notably absent from this discussion is the field of nuclear security. Despite its historical underpinnings as an inherently domestic activity, nuclear security is thoroughly grounded in international treaty law. However, nuclear security is often overlooked in the international security context and has not been well-situated in international instruments that address gender equality. We argue that gender equality in nuclear security should be understood as an …

Suffering In Search Of A Methodological Frame: Interdisciplinarity In The Context Of The Gendered Impact Of Climate Migration, Becky Jacobs

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

In this essay, the author places the gendered impact of climate migration within the methodological frame of scholars such as geographers Sylvia Winters and Doreen Massey, historian Achille Mbembe, philosopher Gilles Deleuze, philosopher and psychoanalyst Félix Guattari, and anthropologist Tim Ingold. The author discusses the importance of interdisciplinarity and describes the gender-specific risks related to climate displacement before delving into theory.

Country-Of-Origin Information Reports: The Political And Legal Geographies Of Central American Migrants, Elise Dosch

Senior Theses

Country-of-origin information reports provide purportedly objective information on the political, economic, security, and humanitarian situation of a certain country. Within the context of asylum adjudication, country-of-origin information reports provide contextual information on the country-of-origin of the person seeking asylum. Academic literature on the legal use and application of these reports is limited, with the majority of research being contained within the European context. This thesis uses interviews with legal practitioners from the United States to investigate the use of country-of-origin information reports in the asylum adjudication process. These interviews revealed the uses of country-of-origin information reports by 3 key actors …

Continuous Reproductive Surveillance, Michael Ulrich, Leah R. Fowler

Faculty Scholarship

The Dobbs opinion emphasizes that the state’s interest in the fetus extends to “all stages of development.” This essay briefly explores whether state legislators, agencies, and courts could use the “all stages of development” language to expand reproductive surveillance by using novel developments in consumer health technologies to augment those efforts.

(Re)Criminalizing Abortion: Returning To The Political With Stories, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

Abortion stories have always played a powerful role in advancing women’s rights. In the abortion sphere particularly, the personal is political. Following the Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, abortion politics, and abortion storytelling, take on an even deeper political role in challenging the bloodless judicial language of Dobbs with the lived experience of women.

Twenty Years After Krieger V Law Society Of Alberta: Law Society Discipline Of Crown Prosecutors And Government Lawyers, Andrew Flavelle Martin

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Krieger v. Law Society of Alberta held that provincial and territorial law societies have disciplinary jurisdiction over Crown prosecutors for conduct outside of prosecutorial discretion. The reasoning in Krieger would also apply to government lawyers. The apparent consensus is that law societies rarely exercise that jurisdiction. But in those rare instances, what conduct do Canadian law societies discipline Crown prosecutors and government lawyers for? In this article, I canvass reported disciplinary decisions to demonstrate that, while law societies sometimes discipline Crown prosecutors for violations unique to those lawyers, they often do so for violations applicable to all lawyers — particularly …

Protecting Abortion As State Health Care Freedom Of Choice, Tracy Thomas

Akron Law Faculty Publications

This essay examines the right of health care freedom of choice contained in some state constitutions. It explores how courts have, and could, use this constitutional health care right as a basis for recognizing or reinforcing a fundamental right to choose an abortion.

Episode 1: More Than A Game, Sara Gras

Season 01

In Episode 1, I start to introduce you to some of the legal scholars and advocates I interviewed in my research. Their remarks all come from recorded interviews that are available in full via provided links. I excerpted these specific portions to frame my approach to discussing the significance of excluding transgender youth from playing sports with their peers. In addition to causing direct harm to individuals, participation bans create broader social harms that we should find extremely concerning. If we value the provision of a well-rounded and robust primary educational experience to all children, then it strikes me as …

Four Pathbreaking Women Judges To Participate In Iu Conference And Public Discussion Monday, Sept. 25, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

Four distinguished women judges from the Middle East and North Africa—including the first female judge in Jordanian history—will visit the Indiana University Bloomington campus Sept. 25-26 for a conference titled “Women Judges in Dialogue,” where they will discuss their own experience as women in the judiciary as well as issues surrounding constitutional adjudication in the region. They will be joined by faculty from the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies and the Maurer School of Law.

Sponsored by the Center for the Study of the Middle East (CSME) at HLS and the Center for Constitutional Democracy (CCD) …

Season 1 Prologue, Sara Gras

Season 01

This brief prologue explains a bit about who I am as host and creator of Season 1 of Hearsay from the Sidelines. You can learn more about me as a professional via my Seton Hall Law faculty profile. My interest in creating a podcast focused on the issue of transgender youth inclusion in scholastic sports grew out of a forthcoming article I wrote on podcasting as a medium for legal scholarship (draft available on SSRN). As I explain, I am not a civil rights, gender, or sports law scholar and I have not previously written about …

Care Work, Gender Equality, And Abortion: Lessons From Comparative Feminist Constitutionalism, Linda C. Mcclain

Faculty Scholarship

Julie Suk, After Misogyny: How the Law Fails Women and What to Do About It (2023).

Julie Suk’s ambitious book, After Misogyny: How the Law Fails Women and What to Do About It, contributes to a feminist literature on equality and care spanning centuries and national boundaries, yet offers timely diagnoses and prescriptions for the United States at a very particular moment. That “moment” includes being four years into the COVID-19 pandemic and over one year into the post-Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey world wrought by Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. That moment …

Title Seven Ate Nine? Extending Bostock's Meaning Of "Sex" From Title Vii To Title Ix, Julia L. Shea

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

When JayCee Cooper walked out onto the platform at a women’s powerlifting competition for the first time, “everything else fell away: her years-long internal struggle over her gender identity, her decision to leave men’s sports when she began transitioning, her doubts that she would ever feel safe if she returned to competitions.” Powerlifting was JayCee’s way of feeling empowered in her own life, but after signing up for more competitions, she was told she could no longer compete because of a discriminatory policy that barred transgender women. Transgender athletes play sports for the same reasons as anyone else, including …

The Future Of Intersectionality In Employment Law, Suzette Malveaux

Scholarly Articles

Recent social justice movements—such as #MeToo and Black Lives Matter—have pushed mainstream American society to reckon with the ubiquity and persistence of systemic sex-based and racial inequities. At the heart of the firestorm are Black women, whose identity at the intersection of sex and race often exposes them to pervasive, but also unique employment discrimination and sexual harassment. Jamillah Bowman Williams’s Beyond Sex-Plus: Acknowledging Black Women in Employment Law and Policy stands out as an exceptional examination of the how courts deal with such “intersectional” claims.

Staff Matters: Supporting Employees After A Maternity Leave, Jodi Schafer Sphr, Shrm-Scp

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

This article reviews federal law regarding employer obligations to new mothers, including the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act. The article contains suggestions for ways to support new mothers returning to work in a practice. This article is an installment of the MDA Journal’s monthly Staff Matters^® department.