Law and Gender Commons^™

Kicking The Ina Out Of Bed: Abolishing The Consummation Requirement For Proxy Marriages, Karthryn Rae Edwards

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

The Immigration and Nationality Act's requirement that proxy marriages be consummated in order to be valid is intrusive, inflexible, and outdated. The case of Hotaru Ferschke illustrates how the consummation requirement creates inequitable results. One month after she married United States Marine Sergeant Ferschke in a proxy wedding ceremony, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services summarily denied her application for legal permanent residency because she did not consummate her proxy marriage, even though she was pregnant when she got married. This Note argues the government has no reasonable interest in dictating whether and when a couple becomes intimate. The consummation …

Polarized Circuits: Party Affiliation Of Appointing Presidents, Ideology, And Circuit Court Voting In Race And Gender Civil Rights Cases, Christopher Smith

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

The legitimacy of the American federal judiciary stems from its role as the non-political branch of government. Federal judges must decide cases independent of political leanings. However, Federal judges receive lifetime appointments from Presidents of different parties, and different political eras. This Article explores whether the ideology of the appointing president affects the decision making of judges within the United States Circuit Courts of Appeals. An analysis of the decisions by Republican- and Democrat-appointed judges in gender discrimination and race discrimination cases shows politics does creep into judicial decision making. Furthermore, this Article reveals the changing landscape of judicial ideology …

Foreign Wives, Domestic Violence: U.S. Law Stigmatizes And Fails To Protect Mail-Order Bridges, Olga Grosh

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

Despite the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) that allows immigrant victims of battery and extreme cruelty to self-petition for changes to their immigration status, the protection that VAWA offers is severely hindered by conflict with immigration law. The assumption underlying immigration law that foreign bride marriages are fraudulent stigmatizes the immigrant wives or fiancees as women less deserving of independent relationship decisions. This reduces their autonomy and increases their vulnerability to domestic violence. This Note proposes that Congress could prevent tragic deaths by removing from battered immigrant brides the burden of overcoming the negative presumption that they entered into marriage …

Dying For The Bonds Of Marriage: Forced Marriages As A Weapon Of Genocide, Carmel O'Sullivan

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

For centuries, women have been "spoils of war." In some corners of the world, forced marriage remains a method of extermination, and rape and sexual violence against women are still the inevitable consequences of armed conflict. Amidst significant recent advances in protecting women during war, forced marriages have been recognized as a crime against humanity. However, this recognition is limited and does not address the gravity of forced marriages. This Article seeks to draw attention to the practice of forced marriages as an instrument of genocide and, thus, a "heinous reality that calls for a historic response." As the landmark …

The M Word: From Partial Coverture To Skills-Based Fiduciary Duties In Marriage, Jo Carrillo

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

Fiscal realities and duties play a larger role in defining the nature of marriage today than they did in the past. This Article sketches out the transition in California community property law from partial coverture-a system in which married women could own, but not manage or control, separate property in marriage-to skills-based fiduciary duties-an equal management system in which either spouse has the authority to manage and control marital property subject to statutorily enumerated fiduciary duties. Skills-based fiduciary duties create interspousal causes of action if breached; hence this Article offers prospective spouses a brief overview of the legal dimensions of …

Dainty Hands: Perceptions Of Women And Crime In Sherlock Holmes Stories, Hadar Aviram

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

For the last 150 years, conventional wisdom among criminologists saw crime as a predominantly male phenomenon. Recent socio-historical research has challenged this premise, showing a decline in the presence of women in the process as criminal defendants. Cultural studies have attributed this decline to a shift in perception of female deviance, from autonomy and enterprise to passivity and predetermination. This Article follows this transition in the cultural image of women and crime through the lens of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. The women in the stories are not clearly distinguished by their role in the criminal enterprise (perpetrators, accomplices, …

Mentoring For A Public Good, George Kawamoto

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

Even into the 1970s, Asian American attorneys faced significant discrimination and difficulty finding work in law firms. Because of these injustices and a desire to right them, social justice lawyering became a hallmark of that generation of Asian American lawyers. Litigating civil rights violations in cases such as Korematsu v. United States allowed senior Asian American attorneys to mentor a younger generation of lawyers. Although more minority attorneys now are offered work in firms and the appearance of racism has diminished, social justice mentoring remains vital to today's Asian American legal community. Teaming minority law students and young attorneys with …

Taking (Live)Stock Of Animal Welfare In Agriculture: Comparing Two Ballot Initiatives, Neil Thapar

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

Current federal regulation of livestock welfare is inadequate to address the increasing abuses inflicted upon animals in agriculture today. In order to fill this enforcement gap, citizens and organizations have turned to the state ballot initiative. In 2008, Californians passed Proposition 2, banning intensive confinement practices for livestock. Other states have passed similar measures. In a preemptive response to this growing movement for stricter livestock welfare standards, the agricultural lobby in Ohio passed Issue 2 in 2009, creating a constitutionally-mandated board with authority over livestock welfare. This Note analyzes each of these ballot initiatives in the context of promoting animal …

Examining Entrenched Masculinities Within The Republican Government Tradition, Jamie Abrams

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

“May all our citizens be soldiers, and all our soldiers citizens,” Sarah Livingston Jay toasted to revelers celebrating the Revolutionary War in 1789. She expressly conveyed what this article describes as the “foundational fusion” of republican government traditions coupling the military service of citizens-soldiers with male political citizenship. While the core of this fusion is deep, long-standing, and well-documented, this article explores the implicit tensions conveyed in her toast – the dominant masculinity dimensions of this foundational fusion. How do women and black men historically gain full political citizenship and effectuate republican government guarantees given its anchoring in entrenched dominant …

Domestic Violence And State Intervention In The American West And Australia, 1860-1930, Carolyn B. Ramsey

Indiana Law Journal

This Article calls into question stereotypical assumptions about the presumed lack of state intervention in the family and the patriarchal violence of Anglo- American frontier societies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By analyzing previously unexamined cases of domestic assault and homicide in the American West and Australia, Professor Ramsey reveals a sustained (but largely ineffectual) effort to civilize men by punishing violence against women. Husbands in both the American West and Australia were routinely arrested or summoned to court for beating their wives in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Judges, police officers, journalists, and others expressed …

New Professional Opportunities For Women: Nursing, Teaching, Clerical, Sara L. Kimble

School of Continuing and Professional Studies Faculty and Staff Works

No abstract provided.

Academic War Strategies For Nonviolent Armies Of One, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

To engage the legal system in necessary critical action, critical actors are required. The law cannot be uprooted, re-sowed, and re-cultivated, unless future legal professionals engage in such action. And for future legal professionals to engage in such action, generally, they must first be engaged in critical thought during their legal educations. Moreover, for such thought to occur, the legal academy must include a diverse group of voices, minds, and experiences to engage with those seeking such a critical education. These critical voices may be in short supply in the academy for multiple reasons. One specific reason, though, is that …

Widening Our Lens: Incorporating Essential Perspectives In The Fight Against Human Trafficking, Jonathan Todres

Michigan Journal of International Law

In 2000, the international community formally launched the modern movement to combat human trafficking with the United Nations' adoption of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (Trafficking Protocol). With the Trafficking Protocol, the international community created a new cornerstone upon which to build a global initiative to combat this modem form of slavery. As the first major international treaty on human trafficking in half a century, the Trafficking Protocol represented a significant step forward. One hundred forty-seven countries are now party to the …

Working Relationships, Laura A. Rosenbury

UF Law Faculty Publications

In this Essay written for the symposium on "For Love or Money? Defining Relationships in Law and Life," I extend my previous consideration of friendship to the specific context of the workplace, analyzing friendship through the lens of the ties that arise at work instead of those assumed to arise within the home. Many adults spend half or more of their waking hours at work, in the process forming relationships with supervisors, co-workers, subordinates, customers, and other third parties. Although such relationships are at times primarily transactional, at other times they take on intimate qualities similar to those of family …

Parental Involvement Laws And New Governance, Rachel Rebouché

UF Law Faculty Publications

The stated objectives of parental involvement laws are to protect the health and well-being of minors and to encourage dialogue between parents and adolescents about pregnancy options. Yet decades of studies urge that parental involvement laws do not meet these purposes. Adding to this research, a new ethnography of professionals who implement parental involvement statutes seeks to demonstrate how notice and consent laws and the judicial bypass work in practice. Over the last two years, a non-profit organization, the National Partnership for Women & Families, interviewed 155 lawyers, advocates, judges, health care providers, and court clerks who assist minors in …

White Male Heterosexist Norms In The Confirmation Process, Theresa M. Beiner

Law Faculty Scholarship

Justice Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing took a controversial turn when commentators picked up on a reference in the New York Times to a portion of a speech she gave in 2001. In that speech, then Judge Sotomayor opined that, "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." That statement, along with her participation in the per curiam decision in Ricci v. DeStefano, caused a minor storm during her confirmation. More recently, former Harvard Dean and former …

Some Thoughts On The State Of Women Lawyers And Why Title Vii Has Not Worked For Them, Theresa M. Beiner

Law Faculty Scholarship

This essay discusses why women lawyers have not been as successful in large firms in spite of graduating from law school in large numbers over the last twenty years. It begins by giving a snapshot of the state of women lawyers, including women lawyers of color. It includes stories and studies of women’s struggles at these firms. It also describes why Title VII has not worked to solve the problems associated with being a successful woman in a law firm. Finally, it suggests some potential solutions that may help women be more successful in these environments.

The Emperor's New Scanner: Muslim Women At The Intersection Of The First Amendment And Full-Body Scanners, Rohen Peterson

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

This Note focuses on the intersection of religious freedom and the need for public safety at airport security checkpoints. The main text of Islam, the Qur'an, instructs women to express their faith through modesty. This religiously prescribed practice gives rise to an important privacy interest for Muslim women, protected by the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause. Faced with a growing public concern about airport security, the Transportation Security Administration has chosen to expand the use fullbody scanners at airport security checkpoints. The state has established a strong interest in the use of such devices in order to maintain public safety. …

State Power, Religion, And Women's Rights: A Comparative Analysis Of Family Law, Mala Htun, S. Laurel Weldon

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Examining cross-national variation in family law, we find that many countries have reformed to promote sex equality. Yet a significant group retains older laws that discriminate against women. These variations reflect the diverse institutional legacies of these societies, conforming closely-but not entirely-to inherited legal traditions: civil law, common law, and postsocialist countries are the most egalitarian, while countries applying religious law are the least. Yet change is possible, even in unlikely contexts. Political conjunctures that disarm religious, nationalist, and fundamentalist opponents can open windows of opportunity for liberalizing reform.

Human Rights and Legal Systems Across the Global South, Symposium, Indiana …

African Customary Law, Customs, And Women's Rights, Muna Ndulo

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The sources of law in most African countries are customary law, the common law and legislation both colonial and post-independence. In a typical African country, the great majority of the people conduct their personal activities in accordance with and subject to customary law. Customary law has great impact in the area of personal law in regard to matters such as marriage, inheritance and traditional authority, and because it developed in an era dominated by patriarchy some of its norms conflict with human rights norms guaranteeing equality between men and women. While recognizing the role of legislation in reform, it is …

The Maria Da Penha Case And The Inter-American Commission On Human Rights: Contributions To The Debate On Domestic Violence Against Women In Brazil, Paula Spieler

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This article aims to demonstrate the contributions of the Maria da Penha case and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) Report of 2001 to the debate on domestic violence against women in Brazil, with special emphasis to the adoption of the Maria da Penha Law. The IACHR was the first international human rights organ to bring to light the problem. Beside contributing to internal changes, this case has great relevance as it was the first one of domestic violence analyzed by the Inter-American Commission. It revealed the systematic pattern of violence against women in the country.

Human Rights and …

The Limits Of Reproductive Rights In Improving Women's Health, Rachel Rebouché

UF Law Faculty Publications

South Africa's Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act (CTOPA) is heralded as one of the most progressive abortion laws in the world. The law permits unfettered access to government-funded abortion services for all women through the twelfth week of gestation, stating in its preamble that "every woman [has] the right to choose whether to have an early, safe and legal termination of pregnancy according to her individual beliefs." Despite increased availability of legal abortions' (and the inclusion of rights to reproductive health care and decision-making in South Africa's Constitution), the number of illegal terminations in South Africa does not appear …

Unveiling The Complexities Surrounding The Right To Take Part In Cultural Life: The Effect Of General Comment No. 21 On The Legality Of The French Burqa Ban Under The Icescr, Alison Dean

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Introduction To Symposium Issue, Uncovered: The Policing Of Sex Work, Hannah Haksgaard

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Gender And Invention: Mapping The Connections, Victoria Phillips

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Aryans, Gender, And American Politics, Robert Tsai

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This short essay discusses some of the ways in which the Aryan movement in America activates gendered beliefs for the goal of legal, political, and cultural transformation. In recent years, the community has moved from common law theories of white sovereignty to more robust forms of racial constitutionalism. The piece is drawn from "America's Forgotten Constitutions: Defiant Visions of Power and Community"

African Customary Law, Customs, And Women's Rights, Muna Ndulo

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The sources of law in most African countries are customary law, the common law and legislation both colonial and post-independence. In a typical African country, the great majority of the people conduct their personal activities in accordance with and subject to customary law. Customary law has great impact in the area of personal law in regard to matters such as marriage, inheritance and traditional authority, and because it developed in an era dominated by patriarchy some of its norms conflict with human rights norms guaranteeing equality between men and women. While recognizing the role of legislation in reform, it is …

An Equal Rights Amendment To Make Women Human, Ann Bartow

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Though the Fourteenth Amendment' provides women with partial legal armament (a dull sword, a small shield), equal protection requires something twice as powerful in the form of a Twenty-Eighth Amendment that would expressly vest women with equal rights under the law. The Fourteenth Amendment has completed only half of the job.

Procuring Meaningful Land Rights For The Women Of Rwanda, Aparna Polavarapu

Scholarly Works

Land reform and gender equality are important development issues in post-Genocide Rwanda. Beginning in 1999, the government of Rwanda passed and implemented reforms which granted women rights to own and use land on an equal status with men. However, as is expected with widespread social reform, obstacles continue to inhibit widespread gender equality in practice. In Rwanda, major social obstacles manifest in the form of (1) resistance to allowing daughters to inherit land from their parents, (2) adherence to assumptions of female inferiority, and (3) the persistence of informal marriages, in which wives remain unprotected by the new laws. Interested …

Hyper-Incarceration As A Multidimensional Attack: Replying To Angela Harris Through The Wire, Frank Rudy Cooper

Scholarly Works

In this article, Professor Frank Rudy Cooper responds to a symposium article by Angela Harris, arguing "mass incarceration" should be understood as "hyper-incarceration" because it is targeted based on multiple dimensions of identities. He extends Harris's analysis of the multidimensionality of identities by means of a case study of how class operates during the drug war era, as depicted in the critically acclaimed HBO drama The Wire.