Sexuality and the Law Commons^™

Regarding Rights: An Essay Honoring The Fiftieth Anniversary Of The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights Introduction: Locating Culture, Identity, And Human Rights Symposium In Celebration Of The Fiftieth Anniversary Of The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, Tracy E. Higgins

Faculty Scholarship

The half-century since the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights' has been famously heralded as the "Age of Rights" and the concept of human rights described as "the only political-moral idea that has gained universal acceptance." During the same period, however, both terms defining the subject-human and rights-have become increasingly contested. Informed by the emergence of identity-based political movements, critics have attacked the category human has as bearing the baggage of Western Enlightenment assumptions about personhood and community, inherently racist, sexist, and classist. Theorists across the political spectrum have criticized the concept of rights as indeterminate, destructive of …

Universalism, Liberal Theory, And The Problem Of Gay Marriage, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Liberalism, both contemporary and classical, rests at heart on a theory of human nature, and at the center of that theory lies one core commitment: all human beings, qua human beings, are essentially rational. There are two equally important implications. The first we might call the "universalist" assumption: all human beings, not just some, are rational -- not just white people, men, freemen, property owners, aristocrats, or citizens, but all of us. In this central, defining respect, then, we are all the same: we all share in this universal, natural, human trait. The second implication, we might call the "individualist" …

Putting Sex To Work, Katherine M. Franke

Faculty Scholarship

When I was living in New Haven a number of years ago, a miracle happened that drew people by the thousands to witness evidence of the Divine. A crucifix had been found to appear in the body of an oak tree in the middle of Worchester Square. I went – after all, how often do you get to see that kind of thing? Not surprisingly, at first I couldn't see anything but the usual trunk and limbs of a tree. Yet a believer took the time to show me what was really there, something that my untrained eye could not …

Treating Sexual Harassment With Respect, Anita Bernstein

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Choosing Substantive Justice: A Discussion Of Choice, Rights And The New Reproductive Technologies, April L. Cherry

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This paper is an expanded version of the speech that Professor Cherry presented at the National Women Law Students' Association Conference, entitled Consensus and the Community: Diversifying Our Points of View, at the University of Wisconsin Law School on March l, 1996. For Professor Cherry's complete article on this topic, see 10 Wis. Women's L.J. 161 A Feminist Understanding of Sex-Selective Abortion: Solely a Matter of Choice

The Economics Of Home Production, Joni P. Hersch

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The composition of the labor force has changed dramatically since 1960. In 1960, only one-third of the labor force participants were female. However, since the 1960s, the labor force rates of men have declined, from 83.3% to 75% as of 1995, while the participation rate for women has surged, from 37.7% in 1960 to 58.9% in 1995.1 The combination of rising labor force participation rates for women and falling rates for men has resulted in a work force that is approaching equal representation of each gender. However, the picture at home indicates a far greater gender stratification of work than …

United States. V. Virginia New Gender Equal Protection Analysis With Ramifications For Pregnancy, Parenting And Title Vii, Candace Kovacic-Fleischer

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

ABSTRACT: In this Article, Professor Kovacic-Fleischer argues that the Supreme Court's recent decision in United States v. Virginia raises gender equal protection analysis to the level of strict scrutiny. Professor Kovacic-Fleischer asserts that the Court's refusal to accept as immutable VMI's single-sex institutional design, and the Court's requirement that VMT make adjustments and alterations that will enable qualified women to undertake VM's curriculum evidences this shift in gender equal protection analysis. Professor Kovacic-Fleischer then turns to the significance of the Court's citation to California Federal Savings & Loan Association v. Guerra. She asserts that this citation indicates that the Court …

International Human Rights Standards On Sexual Violence Against Women As They Apply To Pornography, Claudia Giunta

LLM Theses and Essays

The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing in September 1995, and represented an important step towards the achievement of equality for women. At the Conference, the progress made towards equality was acknowledged, but it was also acknowledged that many goals have not been achieved yet, and that cultural changes of fundamental importance remain to be made. Indeed, in many countries the cultural approach to violence and discrimination against women is quite fatalistic; they believe violence against women cannot be solved by laws. However, this approach overlooks the role played by societies in tolerating practices of …

Suppressing Memory, Lynne Henderson

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Comparatively Speaking: The Honor Of The East And The Passion Of The West, Lama Abu-Odeh

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this Article, I will attempt a comparative review by examining in the United States the crime that has the most affinity with the crime of honor in the Arab World: the killing of women in the heat of passion for sexual or intimate reasons, which is seen in the United States as one of many instances in which the more generic crime of passion can occur. For the purposes of this Article, I will use the term "crime of passion" as it is so specifically defined. The reason for the exercise is to locate precisely the meaning of the …

Free Speech At Work: Verbal Harassment As Discriminatory (Mis)Treatment, Deborah Epstein

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In his reply to my article on workplace harassment law and freedom of speech, Professor Volokh does not respond to my most important critiques of his earlier work. For example, he fails to grapple with the true complexity of the problem by focusing exclusively on one side of this conflict of rights-the burden that the law imposes on workplace expression. Equal attention must be paid to the other side: the harm inflicted by discriminatory speech on employees of a single gender. As I describe in detail in my original piece, these harms may include: an adverse effect on the quantity …

Homosexuals, Torts, And Dangerous Things, Katherine M. Franke

Faculty Scholarship

Negligent, intentional, and strict liability torts. From a canonical standpoint, whatever else one might teach, it is not a first-year torts course if these three concepts are not covered. Torts has a canon, even a Restatement. Yet a canon evolves only after some criteria of value has been established such that privileged texts can be identified according to some authoritative standard. In other words, a canon is the result of a process by which a rule of recognition identifies authoritative texts.

At what point can we say that torts became a field and an intact legal subject, the canon …

What's Wrong With Sexual Harassment, Katherine M. Franke

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, Professor Franke asks and answers a seemingly simple question: why is sexual harassment a form of sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964? She argues that the link between sexual harassment and sex discrimination has been undertheorized by the Supreme Court. In the absence of a principled theory of the wrong of sexual harassment, Professor Franke argues that lower courts have developed a body of sexual harassment law that trivializes the legal norm against sex discrimination. After illustrating how the Supreme Court has not provided an adequate theory of sexual harassment as …

Estranged Fruit: The Reconstruction Amendments, Moral Slavery, And The Rearticulation Of Lesbian And Gay Identity, E. Nathaniel Gates

Cardozo Law Review

David A.J. Richards has composed a thoughtful and suggestive narrative that centers on the excavation of the antislavery constitutionalism forged by a small, but arguably influential, group of antebellum abolitionist feminists. Central to his narrative, and to the constitutional theses of the abolitionist feminists, is the concept of "moral slavery" which, on Richards' account, constitutes a crucial element of the hermeneutic background essential to a proper interpretation of the Reconstruction Amendments. According to Professor Richards, an understanding of the figure of the abolitionist feminist as a "multiple exile and outcast" who in opposing "moral slavery" played a vital role in …

Fax: The White House Office Of The Press Secretary, May 17, 1996, The White House

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

A fax sent regarding Megan’s Law requiring every state in the country to tell communities when a dangerous sexual predator moves into the area and the Presidents mission to make schools safer by strengthening the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Act.

With Justice For Whom? The Presumption Of Moral Innocence In Rape Trials, Stacey Pastel Dougan

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Free Speech Faces Hostile Environment: An Aggressive Hunt For Sex Harassment Leaves Plenty Of Wreckage, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

Take the case of James Maas, who has been teaching at Cornell University for more than 30 years and whose Psychology 101 is perhaps the largest undergraduate course in the country (attracting about 1,000 students every semester). He was won numerous teaching awards. In 1994, Mr. Maas was called before Cornell's "Professional Ethics Committee" to defend himself against charges of sexual harassment. The allegations centered around his "overly friendly and affectionate behavior" - which, it turns out, were hugs and occasional social kisses, most often in front of class or family.

The most notable example of a professor who stood …

Running The Gauntlet No More - Using Title Ix To End Student-To-Student Sexual Harassment, Verna L. Williams

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Reports on the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Davis v. Monroe Board of Education which dealt with student-on-student sexual harassment.

When A Kiss Isn't Just A Kiss: Title Ix And Student-To-Student Harassment, Verna L. Williams

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This article discusses peer hostile environment sexual harassment. It examines the circuit court caselaw on the issue and the legislative history of Title IX, provides an overview of the Supreme Court precedent interpreting Title IX, outlines the Department of Education’s interpretation of Title IX’s requirements concerning peer hostile environment sexual harassment, and discusses analogous legal principles underlying the analysis of student-to-student hostile environment sexual harassment.

An Essay On The Piano, Law, And The Search For Women's Desire, Julia E. Hanigsberg

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

The thesis of this essay is a simple one: to have a measure of control over her destiny, to have any choices, a woman must be a sexual agent, a subject of desire rather than an object. How can women exercise any autonomy in any other realms if in their most intimate lives they are unable to voice their desires? I do not mean to suggest that sexuality has unlimited explanatory power or that everything about women's domination can be explained by a rearticulation of desire. I do believe, however, that although the issue of sexuality is much discussed, feminist …

The Deliberate Contruction Of Families Without Fathers: Is It An Option For Lesbian And Heterosexual Mothers, Nancy Polikoff

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Social Contract Theory, Welfare Reform, Race, And The Male Sex-Right, April L. Cherry

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

In this article, Cherry argues that the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) is ultimately a politically undesirable and thinly veiled attack on the reproductive and sexual activities of poor women. In Part I, Cherry examines the development of social contract theory and analyzes social contract theory as a justification for material inequality. Part II examines social contract theory as a justification for the subordination of women. With this theoretical background established, in Part III, Cherry evaluates the current welfare reform proposals as social contract. This section examines the social contractarian language found in the current …

Anita Hill Meets Godzilla: Confessions Of A Horror Movie Fan, Wendy B. Scott

Journal Articles

The cases and events discussed in this Essay involve African- American women who have confronted oppression in the civil and criminal courts, and other arenas, in both celebrated and unsung victories: victories not only for Black women, but for women and men of all hues who seek social justice. I will use these cases and events to illustrate the relationship between stereotypes and myths, born during the antebellum and Jim Crow era, and contemporary manifestations of sexual harassment and other forms of sex-based exploitation. I will go on to discuss the means used by women, in the workplace of chattel …

State V. Riker, Battered Women Under Duress: The Concept The Washington Supreme Court Could Not Grasp, Ann-Marie Montgomery

Seattle University Law Review

Although some people have the option of going to the police after receiving threats on their lives, this was not the case for Deborah Riker: Deborah is a battered woman. Since age nine, Deborah suffered repeated torture and abuse at the hands of men who were in her life. In 1987, Deborah met Rupert Burke, a man who abused both women and drugs. When Burke threatened both Deborah and her sister, Deborah did what he told her to do: she soldhim cocaine. As a result, Deborah was charged with delivery and possession of cocaine. Deborah's case presented the classic defense …

Whose Justice? Which Victims?, Lynne Henderson

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

German Unification And The Reform Of Abortion Law, Rosemarie Will

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article examines the legal and political challenges surrounding abortion law reform in Germany following unification, highlighting the tension between East Germany's liberal "stipulated period" model and West Germany's more restrictive "grounds for termination" approach. It argues that the unification process necessitated a compromise balancing the constitutional protection of fetal life with women's rights to self-determination, ultimately resulting in a hybrid model emphasizing counseling and limited legal access to abortion.

Custody And Conduct: How The Law Fails Lesbian And Gay Parents And Their Children, Julie Shapiro

Faculty Articles

When parents dispute child custody, courts determine their rights by using a "best interests of the child" analysis. In this context, courts consider a host of factors, including parental sexuality. When considering the suitability of custody for a lesbian or gay parents, most courts employ a nexus test - one that requires a showing of a nexus between parental sexuality and the well-being of the child. A smaller number continue to use a harsher test that disqualifies lesbian and gay parents under a per se rule. This article argues that closer examination reveals that even the apparently more liberal nexus …

The Mark Of Cain: No Second Chance For Teachers Convicted Of Sex Offenses Against Students, Eric J. Kuperman

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note argues that teachers convicted of sex offenses against students should be subject to a national registration and notification system, akin to Megan's Law, due to the inadequacy of current systems in preventing these individuals from continuing to teach and offending again. The author emphasizes the need to protect children from sexual predators in educational settings, highlighting the failure of schools and courts to effectively address the issue.

Constitutional Misconceptions, Radhika Rao

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Children of Choice: Freedom and the New Reproductive Technologies by John A. Robertson

Report On The Consultation With The Maritime School Of Social Work Community, Dianne Pothier

Dianne Pothier Collection

In my assessment there is a genuine and strong commitment to affirmative action and anti-racism at the MSSW. But that in itself is only the beginning. Real cross cultural understanding is a major challenge, and needs to be constantly worked at. In the process, mistakes will be made on all sides. Allowances need to be made for that. The School looks at itself compared to other institutions; critics look at the School compared to an ideal world. Neither perspective holds the complete truth. The MSSW needs to continue to work at the effectiveness of its affirmative action program, defining that …