Unity Dow

Visiting Professor of Law (Spring 2009)

Office: Columbia Law School
435 West 116 Street
New York NY 10027
Email: udow@law.columbia.edu
Courses/Current Research
•    Constitutional Law
•    Criminal Law 
•    Human Rights

Education
•    University of Botswana and Swaziland, 
•    Edinburgh University, LLB, 1983

Media Contact: Media Relations, (212) 854-2650

Detailed Biography
Unity Dow is Justice of the High Court of Botswana. She is the first woman in her country to hold this position.  An author of landmark legal publications and decisions, she also writes fictional thrillers. A human rights leader, especially in issues affecting women and children, she sued to overturn Botswana laws, so that women could pass on their nationality to their children. Her human rights work led to her election to The International Commission of Jurists, the most prominent lawyers' NGOs.
Recently, as one of three Justices, she served on a panel that decided the Bushmen of Kalahari were free to return to their ancestral land to continue their hunting traditions. She has been a criminal prosecutor, a law partner in criminal defense counsel.  She has worked in collaboration with international human rights organizations. Among these are: The Urban Morgan Institute of Human Rights, International Association of Women Judges, International Women's Rights Action Watch, Amnesty International, UNICEF and Africa Legal Aid. As party to development of jurisprudence focused on bringing human rights home by using
International human instruments in domestic litigation, The AG v Dow case has become one of the central decisions taught in constitutional and human rights law in Law Schools the world over.

Recent Publications
  • Maintenance Laws and Practices in Botswana, Gaborone 1992 (as part of a research team).
  • Women, Marriage and Inheritance, Gaborone, 1994 (coauthored).
  • The Citizen Case: The Attorney General of the Republic of Botswana v Unity Dow, Gaborone, 1995.
  • "Looking at Women's Empowerment Initiatives from a Grassroots Level", Human Rights Education for the Twenty-First Century, 455468 (coauthored).
  • Far and Beyond: 2001, Spinifex Press, Melbourne, Australia, Longman, Gaborone, Botswana and Aunt, Lute, San Francisco, USA.
  • The Screaming of the Innocent: 2002, Spinifex Press, Melbourne, Australia, 2003 Double Storey, South Africa.
  • Juggling Truths: Spinifex Press, July 2003.
  • The Heavens May Fall: 2006, Doubley Storey.