Sexuality and the Law Commons^™

Revoking Rights, Craig J. Konnoth

Publications

In important areas of law, such as the vested rights doctrine, and in several important cases--including those involving the continued validity of same-sex marriages and the Affordable Care Act--courts have scrutinized the revocation of rights once granted more closely than the failure to provide the rights in the first place. This project claims that in so doing, courts seek to preserve important constitutional interests. On the one hand, based on our understanding of rights possession, rights revocation implicates autonomy interests of the rights holder to a greater degree than a failure to afford rights at the outset. On the other …

Report From The Restorative Justice Process At The Dalhousie University Faculty Of Dentistry, Jennifer Llewellyn, Jacob Mcissac, Melissa Mackay

Reports & Public Policy Documents

In December 2014, female students in Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Dentistry filed complaints under the University’s Sexual Harassment Policy after they became aware some of their male colleagues had posted offensive material about them in a private Facebook group. The select materials revealed from the Facebook group reflected misogynistic, sexist and homophobic attitudes. At the complainants’ request, the University began a restorative justice process to investigate the matter, address the harms it caused and examine the climate and culture within the Faculty that may have influenced the offensive nature of the Facebook group’s content. Twenty-nine students from the class of …

Images Of Harassment: Copyright Law And Revenge Porn, Ari Ezra Waldman

Other Publications

Nonconsensual pornography, commonly known as “revenge porn,” usually occurs when an individual (usually a man) publicly posts online sexually explicit images of his former partner (usually a woman). Although normally the stuff of tort law, revenge porn offers copyright attorneys opportunities to help victims, as well: the offending images are often selfies taken by the victim and thus covered by the victim’s copyright. There is, to date, no Second Circuit case law on the subject, making this area uniquely suited to creative social impact litigation. Until state legislatures or Congress pass well-drafted criminal revenge porn statutes, copyright law remains a …

Surrogates In Quebec: The Good, The Bad And The Foreigner, Régine Tremblay

All Faculty Publications

The regime for the formal establishment of parent-child relationships in the province of Quebec was substantially modified in 2002 in order to achieve equality. Reforms to filiation – the legal bond connecting child and mother or child and father – in Quebec provided means for same-sex couples to adopt, for lesbian couples to conceive using donated sperm and clarified the filiation of children born of assisted procreation. This ‘successful’ reform in terms of equality left untouched an existing rule justified by women’s equality, namely, what the civil law calls the absolute nullity of surrogacy agreements. Surrogacy raises questions about what …

School-Based Supports For Trans Youth In Ontario, Charlie E. C. Davis

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Trans youth are some of the most marginalized youths in schools. In 2012, the Ontario Government passed two legislations, one of which was the Accepting Schools Act, strengthening supports for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning (LGBTQ) students in schools. The other was Toby’s Act, an amendment to the Ontario Human Rights Code including protection from discrimination on the grounds of gender identity and gender expression. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how these two acts have created a political context supporting trans youth in schools. A comprehensive mixed-methods approach was used to examine provincial trends of trans-specific …

The Evidentiary Rules Of Engagement In The War Against Domestic Violence, Erin R. Collins

Law Faculty Publications

Our criminal justice system promises defendants a fair and just adjudication of guilt, regardless of the character of the alleged offense. Yet, from mandatory arrest to "no-drop" prosecution policies, the system's front-end response to domestic violence reflects the belief that it differs from other crimes in ways that permit or require the adaptation of criminal justice response mechanisms. Although scholars debate whether these differential responses are effective or normatively sound, the scholarship leaves untouched the presumption that, once the adjudicatory phase is underway, the system treats domestic violence offenses like any other crime.

This Article reveals that this presumption is …

Marriage Equality Comes To Wisconsin, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Marriage equality has swept America. Numerous federal judges, including Western District of Wisconsin Judge Barbara Crabb, have invalidated state proscriptions on same-sex marriage. This paper scrutinizes U.S. litigation, Crabb’s opinion, Seventh Circuit affirmance, and Supreme Court resolution. Finding that Wisconsin shows how to efficaciously institute full marriage equality, even as other states have not, the piece affords future suggestions.

Marriage Equality Comes To America, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Marriage equality is sweeping the nation. Four appeals courts recently affirmed district judges’ opinions which invalidated numerous state laws proscribing same-sex marriage. Yet, the Sixth Circuit reversed a number of district jurists, prompting a circuit split that provoked Supreme Court resolution. Because marriage equality’s status is unclear, this piece assesses disposition of the litigation and recommends how to clarify marriage equality.

Bound By Law: A Roadmap For The Practical Legalization Of Bdsm, Daniel Haley

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note argues that the criminalization of BDSM practices, due to the lack of legal recognition of consent as a defense in BDSM-related injuries, is unconstitutional and harmful. It advocates for legal reform, specifically the creation of a BDSM exception in the Model Penal Code, to protect practitioners' rights and reduce stigma.

Can You Work It? Or Flip It And Reverse It?: Protecting Lgbt Youth From Sexual Orientation Change Efforts, Sanam Assil

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note advocates for raising the minimum age for Sexual Orientation Change Efforts (SOCE) from eighteen to twenty-one, arguing that individuals under twenty-one lack the emotional maturity to consent to such therapies. It emphasizes the harmful effects of SOCE, supported by findings from psychological organizations, and proposes incremental legislative changes to eventually achieve a nationwide ban on conversion therapy.

Accident Of Birth Or Matter Of Choice: Legal Recognition Of Transsexual People In The Common Law, Kevin K.S. Tso

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The purpose of the Article is to look at the recognition-or lack thereof-of transsexual people at common law in relation to the "proper" sex and gender with which they associate themselves. This Article will begin by addressing and defining transsexualism and how the medical community's position on this topic has evolved over the years. It will then look at the historical foundations of transsexualism in the common law, especially at the Corbett decision that held sway in England and Wales for over thirty-five years and was followed internationally. The Article will then provide an overview of the current positions in …

To Pee Or Not To Pee? "Where" Is The Question: Transgender Students And The Right To Use Public School Restrooms, Melissa Sterling

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Contested Spaces During Transition: Regime Change In Myanmar And Its Implications For Women, Amy Barrow

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

This article examines recent political and legal developments in Myanmar to promote and protect Buddhism and their implications for women. Myanmar is currently undergoing political regime change. While periods of transition often present an opportunity to contest stereotypical gender roles and discriminatory cultural practices, a rise in Buddhist ethno-nationalism risks undermining women's "spaces" in society. Drawing on qualitative research interviews with members of civil society and other actors in Yangon, this article discusses the accelerated development of laws on the protection of race and religion alongside the parallel development of Myanmar's first law specifically addressing violence against women, to explore …

Obergefell'S Squandered Potential, Peter Nicolas

Articles

No abstract provided.

Gayffirmative Action: The Constitutionality Of Sexual Orientation-Based Affirmative Action Policies, Peter Nicolas

Articles

Twenty-five years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court established a consistency principle in its race-based equal protection cases. That principle requires courts to apply the same strict scrutiny to racial classifications designed to benefit racial minorities—such as affirmative action policies—as they do to laws invidiously discriminating against them. The new consistency principle, under which discrimination against whites is subject to strict scrutiny, conflicted with the Court's established criteria for declaring a group to be a suspect or quasi-suspect class entitled to heightened scrutiny, which focused on such considerations as the history of discrimination against the group and its political powerlessness.

As …

A Conversation With Edie Windsor, Edie Windsor, Suzanne B. Goldberg, Madeline M. Gomez, Andrew Chesley

Faculty Scholarship

Suzanne Goldberg [SG]: It is not often that a law school gets to welcome a rock star. But in our world, Edie Windsor is a rock star. She is one of the major civil rights plaintiffs of our lifetime, whose lawsuit challenged – and triumphed over – the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Her victory in that suit has been vital to changing the landscape of marriage equality for all Americans. It is a tremendous honor, Edie, to have you here at Columbia Law School, and we welcome you.

From Contract To Status: Collaboration And The Evolution Of Novel Family Relationships, Elizabeth S. Scott, Robert E. Scott

Faculty Scholarship

The past decade has witnessed dramatic changes in public atti- tudes about and legal status for same-sex couples who wish to marry. These changes demonstrate that the legal conception of the family is no longer limited to traditional marriage. They also raise the possibility that other relationships – cohabiting couples and their children, voluntary kin groups, multigenerational groups, and polygamists – might gain legal recognition as families. This Article probes the challenges faced by aspiring families and the means by which they could attain their goal. It builds on the premise that the state remains committed to social-welfare criteria for …

Multidimensional Advocacy As Applied: Marriage Equality And Reproductive Rights, Suzanne B. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

Talking about marriage equality and reproductive rights advocacy together presents an interesting, and sometimes puzzling, assortment of challenges and opportunities. Both involve efforts to secure legal protections and social recognition that are fundamentally important to those who need them yet also deeply provocative to their opponents. For both, too, advocacy takes place on a shifting terrain shaped by competing views of sexuality, autonomy, equality, personhood, and more.

Yet the two advocacy efforts have experienced very different receptions over time. Just over two decades ago, the Supreme Court expressly affirmed that women have a constitutional right to seek an abortion and …

Equality And Singapore’S First Constitutional Challenges To The Criminalization Of Male Homosexual Conduct, Jack Tsen-Ta Lee

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In 2013, i Lim Meng Suang and Kenneth Chee Mun-Leon v Attorney-General and Tan Eng Hong v Attorney-General, the High Court of Singapore delivered the first judgments in the jurisdiction considering the constitutionality of section 377A of the Penal Code, which criminalizes acts of gross indecency between two men, whether they occur in public or private. The Court ruled that the provision was not inconsistent with the guarantees of equality before the law and equal protection of the law stated in Article 12(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore. The result was upheld in 2014 by the Court …

The Effect Of Statutory Rape Laws On Teen Birth Rates, Michael D. Frakes, Matthew C. Harding

Faculty Scholarship

Policymakers have often been explicit in expanding statutory rape laws to reduce teenage pregnancies and live births by teenage mothers, often with the goal of reducing associated welfare outlays. In this paper, we explore whether expansions in such laws are indeed associated with reductions in teen birth rates. In order to codify statutory-rape-law expansions, we use a national micro-level sample of sexual encounters to simulate the degree to which such encounters generally implicate the relevant laws. By codifying statutory-rape laws in terms of their potential reach into sexual encounters, as opposed to using crude binary treatment variables, this simulation approach …