Law and Gender Commons^™

Intuition And Feminist Constitutionalism, Suzanne B. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

In any constitutional system, we must ask, as a foundational inquiry, when and why a government may distinguish between groups of constituents for purposes of allocating benefits or imposing penalties. For feminists and others with a stake in challenging inequalities, the rationales that a society deems acceptable for justifying these classifications are centrally important. Heightened scrutiny jurisprudence for sex-based and other distinctions may help capture some of the rationales that rest on stereotypes and outmoded biases. However, at the end of the day, whatever level of scrutiny is applied, the critical question at any level of review is whether, according …

Comparative Pragmatism, Rachel Rebouché

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Factions For The Rest Of Us, John D. Inazu

Scholarship@WashULaw

This essay responds to essays by Professors Ashutosh Bhagwat, Susan Appleton, and Robert Vischer on my book Liberty’s Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly. The essays were presented at a March 2012 discussion hosted by Washington University School of Law that included additional presentations from Gregory Magarian, Bernadette Meyler, Ian MacMullen, and Neil Richards.

I had three objectives in writing Liberty’s Refuge, one diagnostic, one historical, and one normative. The diagnosis highlights difficulties with the current doctrine of intimate and expressive association. The history excavates the prominent role that the right of assembly occupies in our constitutional and popular past. …

Introduction, Katherine M. Franke

Faculty Scholarship

Each year Columbia Law School’s Center for Gender Sexuality Law selects a scholar whose work has made an important impact on the study and practice of gender and/or sexuality law. For 2010 we selected Judith Butler, the Maxine Elliot Professor in the Departments of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. In March of 2010, we held a Symposium recognizing the multiple domains of theory and activism in which Butler’s mark has been profound, and oft times paradigm shifting.

Columbia Law School has the great fortune of having developed one of the deepest and most diverse faculties …

Redefining The Black Face Of Affirmative Action: The Impact On Ascendant Black Women, Kevin D. Brown, Renee E. Turner

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The racial and ethnic ancestries of blacks benefiting from affirmative action is changing, as foreign-born blacks and blacks with a non-black parent constitute disproportionately large percentages of blacks attending many selective higher education institutions. Coupled with the challenges arising from the educational achievement levels of black males during the past two decades, Brown and Turner examine the implication of these developments and the likelihood that they are creating further disadvantages for black women lawyers.

Fatherhood By Conscription: Nonconsensual Insemination And The Duty Of Child Support, Michael J. Higdon

Georgia Law Review

Much of the law relating to child support is based on the
fact that it is typically in a child's best interest to receive
financial support from mothers as well as fathers. In fact,
child support is essentially a form of strict liability with
the justification being that the child is an innocent party,
and thus, even those men who never consented to the
sexual act that caused the pregnancy are nonetheless

liable for the support of the resulting child. These men
include males who become fathers as a result of statutory
rape and also adult males who became fathers …

Peacemaking & Provocation: A Response To Professor Tracey Jean Boisseau, Dan Subotnik

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

"The Good Mother": Mothering, Feminism, And Incarceration, Deseriee A. Kennedy

Scholarly Works

As the rates of incarceration continue to rise, women are increasingly subject to draconian criminal justice and child welfare policies that frequently result in the loss of their parental rights. The intersection of an increasingly carceral state and federally imposed timelines for achieving permanency for children in state care has had a negative effect on women, their children, and their communities. Women, and their ability to parent, are more adversely affected by the intersection of these gender-neutral provisions because they are more likely than men to be the primary caretaker of their children. In addition, incarcerated women have higher rates …

Gender Equality Rights And Trade Regimes: Coordinating Compliance, Pitman B. Potter

All Faculty Publications

Taken together, the symposium papers and presentations illustrate the rich diversity of perspectives and issues emerging from the discourse of Coordinated Compliance with regard to specific issues on gender equality and trade, revealing a fundamental concern over human well-being along with an abiding commitment to scholarly rigor.

Mère, Régine Tremblay

All Faculty Publications

Qu'est-ce qu'une mère en droit? Cette entrée encyclopédique explore de manière critique et transsystémique la notion de mère en droit, à la lumière des deux grandes traditions juridiques canadiennes.

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 …

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.

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)

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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

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

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & 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. …

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 (through 2013)

"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, …

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 …

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.

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 …

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" …

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 …

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 …

Stateless, Jay Milbrandt

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The article argues that statelessness, affecting 12 million people globally, is a critical issue that international law inadequately addresses. It highlights the limitations of current legal frameworks and proposes a modern, technology-driven identification system to mitigate this crisis, drawing inspiration from historical solutions like the Nansen Passport.

Have Truth And Reconciliation Commissions Helped Remediate Human Rights Violations Against Women? A Feminist Analysis Of The Past And Formula For The Future, Margaret (Peggy) Maisel

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The article argues that Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs) have largely failed to adequately address human rights violations against women due to their male-centered frameworks, which prioritize public sphere violations over private sphere abuses. While some TRCs, such as those in Sierra Leone and Peru, have made strides in incorporating gender considerations, others, like the South African TRC, have excluded women's experiences, perpetuating gender inequality. The article advocates for a gender-inclusive approach to ensure women's voices and violations are integral to reconciliation processes, emphasizing the need to address both civil-political and economic-social rights.

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

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

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 …