Law and Gender Commons^™

Rethinking Addiction: Drugs, Deterrence, And The Neuroscience Revolution, Linda C. Fentiman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article connects the debate about addiction with the fundamental criminal law principle of deterrence. It seeks to bridge the gap between the competing medical and criminal justice approaches by exploring addiction in light of recent research about the brain, gender differences, and what works best from both a treatment and justice perspective. To sharpen the issues, the article deliberately focuses on the emotionally freighted subject of pregnant drug users. This approach will illuminate prevailing assumptions about how biological, genetic, cultural, and other environmental factors shape human behavior and challenge conventional understandings of deterrence in light of new research on …

Who Cares About The Rights Of Indigenous Children - Infanticide In Brazilian Indian Tribes, Aquila Mazzinghy Alvarenga

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

In some parts of this world, children are abandoned or even buried alive when their tribes-their own families-consider them dangerous to the well-being of the group. Scholars and advocates have largely framed the discourse on infanticide in indigenous tribes as a conflict between the rights of indigenous peoples to preserve and practice their cultures, and internationally-recognized individual rights that forbid infanticide. This Article examines infanticide in indigenous tribes in Brazil and argues that cultural diversity cannot be invoked to justify indigenous infanticide because life is the sine qua non condition for the existence of culture. Rather, the right to life …

Evil Women And Innocent Victims: The Effect Of Gender On California Sentences For Domestic Homicide, Ryan Elias Newby

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

A quantitative and qualitative examination of seventy-three domestic homicide cases in California suggests that, to the extent women and men commit domestic homicide in different ways and for different reasons, their outcomes at trial are different. Women were more likely to receive weapons enhancements because of their constrained options vis-a-vis weapon choice. However, women who are able to show prior aggression by their male partners may receive lesser sentences than their male and female counterparts even though they are still convicted of an unlawful killing, i.e., when they are unable to prove perfect self-defense. This Note argues that the extent …

The Origin And Civil Law Foundation Of The Community Property System, Why California Adopted It And Why Community Property Principles Benefit Women, Caroline Bermeo Newcombe

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

Unsex Cedaw, Or What’S Wrong With Women’S Rights, Darren Rosenblum

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

CEDAW, signed on July 17, 1980 by sixty-four countries, has as its principal goals the protection and promotion of women's rights and the elimination of discrimination against women. As of March 7, 2011, 186 countries—more than ninety­ percent of the United Nations' member states—are parties to the Convention. The most notable non-party to the Convention is the United States. In addition, as of May 15, 2010, there are seventy-nine Signatories and ninety-nine Parties to the Optional Protocol, a supplement io CEDAW designed to remedy some of the treaty's shortcomings. Although challenges have hobbled implementation of CEDAW, it remains the …

After Gender?: Examining International Justice Enterprises: An Introduction, Darren Rosenblum

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Pace Law School founded its Women's Justice Center nearly two decades ago, and since then the school has built a reputation for work on sex, gender, and women's rights. Continuing its commitment to these critical issues, the school hosted Pace Law Review's Symposium, After Gender?: Examining International Justice Enterprises, on November 12, 2010.

When I first proposed this Symposium, I had been writing on international legal regimes related to sex, gender, and sexuality. My work engaged the preeminent international convention concerning these issues, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), a critique …

Teaching Gender As A Core Value In Business Organizations Class, Cheryl L. Wade

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

I teach a business organizations course that is typically a large class with up to ninety students. At some point in the first week of each semester, I talk about public companies and the men who lead them. I point out to my students that while it is appropriate in most contexts to use gender-neutral language, it would be inaccurate to do so when talking about big business. Only fifteen percent of the board seats at Fortune 500 companies are held by women, and only sixteen percent of Fortune 500 corporate officers are women. I let my students know …

Witchcraft Accusations And Human Rights: Case Studies From Malawi, Chi Adanna Mgbako, Katherine Glenn

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores potential community-based interventions to assist victims of witchcraft accusations, based on forty-five case studies from an experimental mobile legal-aid clinic in Malawi, a country in southeastern Africa where witchcraft accusations are widespread and often irreparably harm those accused. In Malawi, the accused are mainly older women who are often blamed for bewitching young children.

International Advocate For Peace Award Acceptance Speech, Abigail E. Disney

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

In a few weeks, we will all be gathering around our mothers to celebrate one of the most shamelessly trumped-up, commercialized and corny-and I might add, one of my very favorite-holidays on the American calendar: Mother's Day. I do not want to sound cynical; it is truly a wonderful thing for us to stop and honor those women in our lives who have shaped us, for better or for worse. And who does not love a little tribute made out of glitter and doilies and Elmer's glue?

Forcing Life On The Dead: Why The Pregnancy Exemption Clause Of The Kentucky Living Will Directive Act Is Unconstitutional, Kristeena L. Johnson

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Gender Violence And Work In The United States And South America: The Parallel Processes Of Legal And Cultural Change, Julie Goldscheid

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Pregnancy Leave And Seniority Systems Under Title Vii: A Critique Of At&T; V. Hulteen, Polina Zhong

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Un Women: Jumping The Hurdles To Overcoming Gender Inequality, Or Falling Short Of Expectations?, Kerry Boyne

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note examines the challenges faced by UN Women in addressing the interconnected issues of the feminization of poverty and HIV/AIDS, particularly in developing countries. It argues that while UN Women represents a significant step forward with its consolidated structure and increased resources, its success in eradicating these issues depends on overcoming deeply entrenched gender inequalities, inadequate funding, and the effectiveness of its implementation strategies. The analysis highlights the need for UN Women to not only formulate norms but also ensure their proper incorporation and implementation at national and local levels.

Sex Work By Law: Bedford's Impact On The Municipal Regulation Of Sex Work, Elaine Craig

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The recent Ontario trial decision in Bedford suggests three interrelated principles that municipal law makers should consider when formulating bylaws aimed at regulating sex work. These principles, if upheld on appeal, will inform the constitutionality of both current and prospective bylaws regulating sex work in Canadian cities.

In Bedford, Justice Himel concluded that the constitutionality of laws regulating the sex trade must be determined in a legal context which recognizes the violence faced by sex workers. She confirmed that laws that indirectly make sex work more dangerous and harmful must be consistent with those principles that our legal system, through …

Sex Work By Law: Bedford's Impact On The Municipal Regulation Of Sex Work, Elaine Craig

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The recent Ontario trial decision in Bedford suggests three interrelated principles that municipal law makers should consider when formulating bylaws aimed at regulating sex work. These principles, if upheld on appeal, will inform the constitutionality of both current and prospective bylaws regulating sex work in Canadian cities. In Bedford, Justice Himel concluded that the constitutionality of laws regulating the sex trade must be determined in a legal context which recognizes the violence faced by sex workers. She confirmed that laws that indirectly make sex work more dangerous and harmful must be consistent with those principles that our legal system, through …

Gender Inequality In The Law: Deficiencies Of Battered Woman Syndrome And A New Solution To Closing The Gender Gap In Self-Defense Law, Meredith C. Doyle

CMC Senior Theses

Dr. Lenore Walker developed battered woman syndrome to address the issue of domestic violence and to give battered women a defense in situations in which they kill their abusive partners when they are not overtly threatening them. Self-defense law is based on male on male combat. Women are less able to protect themselves in an attack by a man, and so they may preemptively attack their sleeping partners to avoid a situation in which they cannot adequately protect themselves. Battered woman syndrome explains why these battered women act in a way that is irrational to a non-battered person. Walker's theory …

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

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

African-American Grandmothers: Does The Gender-Entrapment Theory Apply? Essay Response To Professor Beth Richie, Jessica Dixon Weaver

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Many African-American grandmothers are entrapped by the cycle of incarceration in poor black communities. This Essay explores whether the social and economic conditions that compel battered women to commit crimes also impact their mothers - who end up raising the children they leave behind. Professor Beth Richie's theory of gender entrapment as described in her book, “Compelled to Crime,” is not limited to incarcerated women who have been victims of domestic violence. African-American grandmothers who take on the role of kinship caregivers for their grandchildren are also entrapped by a complex interplay of race, gender, and class, making them vulnerable …

An Analysis Of The History And Hardship Experienced By Girls In The Las Vegas Juvenile Justice System, Ana Zuniga

McNair Poster Presentations

Previous research has defined several factors as predictors to juvenile delinquency. Characteristics among the youth involved in criminal behavior include various home placements, running away, mental health problems, physical and sexual abuse, delinquency history, and family members with a delinquent background. These factors were analyzed in the current to observe whether the predictors were relevant to girls detained in the Las Vgeas juvenile justice system. While observing the data in this study, it appeared that predictors described in previous research were in fact present among this population. However, Further research should take an in depth look at these factors in …

Embracing Caregiving And Respecting Choice: An Essay On The Debate Over Changing Gender Norms, Nicole Buonocore Porter

Faculty Publications

This Essay is the third piece of my project to resolve what I call the "caregiver conundrum" for working caregivers. I define the "caregiver conundrum" broadly, to include all of the workplace norms, rules and practices that make it difficult for working caregivers to successfully balance work and family.

In conceptualizing my ideas, I realized that one of the critiques of my proposal would be that it does nothing to change the gender norms, or stated another way, it accepts the gendered division of work and family with which most people live. I do nothing to get women to do …

Class Actions At The Crossroads: An Answer To Wal-Mart V. Dukes, Suzette M. Malveaux

Publications

The Supreme Court has recently decided to hear argument in the largest private-employer civil rights case in American history, Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. This historic case involves up to 1.5 million women suing Wal-Mart, one of the largest companies in the world, for alleged gender discrimination in pay and promotions, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Like many employees who challenge companywide employment discrimination, the plaintiffs in Dukes brought their case as a class action pursuant to Rule 23(b)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and sought injunctive and declaratory relief, …

How Goliath Won: The Future Implications Of Dukes V. Wal-Mart, Suzette M. Malveaux

Publications

No abstract provided.

Teaching Values, Teaching Stereotypes: Sex Education And Indoctrination In Public Schools, Jennifer S. Hendricks, Dawn Marie Howerton

Publications

Many sex education curricula currently used in public schools indoctrinate students in gender stereotypes. As expressed in the title of one article: "If You Don't Aim to Please, Don't Dress to Tease," and Other Public School Sex Education Lessons Subsidized by You, the Federal Taxpayer, Jennifer L. Greenblatt, 14 Tex.J. on CL. & CR. 1 (2008). Other lessons pertain not only to responsibility for sexual activity but to lifelong approaches to family life and individual achievement. One lesson, for example, instructs students that, in marriage, men need sex from their wives and women need financial support from their husbands. …

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

Publications

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 dismay …

A Diva Defends Herself: Gender And Domestic Violence In An Early Twentieth-Century Headline Trial, Carolyn B. Ramsey

Publications

This short article was presented as part of a symposium on headline criminal trials, organized by St. Louis University School of Law in honor of Lawrence Friedman. It describes and analyzes the self-defense acquittal of opera singer Mae Talbot in Nevada in 1910 on charges of murdering her abusive husband. Based on extensive research into archival trial records and newspaper reports, the article discusses how the press, the court, and trial lawyers on both sides depicted the killing and Mae’s possible defenses. Without discounting the sensationalism and entertainment value, to a scandal-hungry public, of stories about violent marriages, I contend …

Ruti Teitel Responds To Shana Tabak, Ruti G. Teitel

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of Michelle Oberman’S And Cheryl L. Meyer’S “When Mothers Kill: Interviews From Prison”, Michael L. Perlin

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

A Major Step On Medicaid, Arthur S. Leonard

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Unequal Equality For Lesbian Mom, Arthur S. Leonard

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Section 2259 Restitution Claims And Child Pornography Possession, Dina Mcleod

Michigan Law Review

In 2009, a child pornography victim brought a criminal restitution claim against a defendant who possessed images of her abuse. The statutory provision authorizing restitution, 18 U.S.C. § 2259, had never before been used to bring a claim against a defendant who had only possessed, rather than produced or distributed, child pornography ("child pornography possession defendants"). The federal courts have not developed a consistent approach to resolving Section 2259 claims involving such defendants. This Note argues that two conceptions of traditional proximate cause doctrine can provide a framework for analyzing such claims. It examines Section 2259 claims using both a …