L9169 SEMINAR: ABORTION: LAW IN CONTEXT (3 pts)
(see Family Law)
L8006 SEMINAR: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND THE LAW (2 pts)
(see Family Law)
L9551 SEMINAR: FEMINIST LEGAL THEORY WORKSHOP (1 pt)
K. Franke, P. Williams
The Feminist Legal Theory Workshop will provide students exposure to new work by scholars of feminist legal theory. Each week a prominent scholar in this area will come to the Law School to present new work or a work-in-progress and discuss it with the members of the seminar. Students enrolled in the Workshop will be expected to read each paper and write a short response paper in advance of the Workshop meeting. Class attendance is mandatory and students will be evaluated on a pass/fail basis. The Workshop will meet every other week. The list of speakers will be available at the beginning of the spring semester.
L8010 SEMINAR: LAWYERING, SOCIAL CHANGE, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF SEXUALITY AND GENDER LAW (2 pts)
S. Goldberg
This is a course on multidimensional lawyering and advocacy. More specifically, the course will explore various dimensions of lawyering for social change in the context of efforts to secure rights for different identity groups. The primary focus will be on advocacy for women and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered individuals, but the seminar will also include analysis of advocacy efforts on behalf of immigrants, people of color, and people with disabilities, among others. The seminar will begin with an introduction to the historical and contemporary landscape of advocacy organizations and their dockets. We will then explore several specific issues in depth, with an eye toward understanding how lawyers identify problems, set priorities, and develop and execute strategies by choosing among litigation, public education, grassroots organizing, and legislative advocacy. Issues may include relationship recognition (marriage, civil union, and domestic partnership); affirmative action; the military's ban on service by lesbians and gay men and the Solomon Amendment; domestic violence; parenting; immigration; and employment. Our discussion of these issues will require consideration of complex constitutional doctrine, procedural strategy, ethical canons, social science research, and constitutional and political theory. Course evaluation will be based on class participation, several small assignments during the semester (including a draft brief, a draft press release, and a few short reflection papers), and a final research paper that includes independent research and incorporates class readings. Minor writing credit is awarded in this course.
L9816 SEMINAR: MEANINGS OF MOTHERHOOD (3 pts)
(see Family Law)
L8158 SEMINAR: PERSPECTIVES ON FAMILY AND GENDER (2 pts)
(see Family Law)
L9149 SEMINAR: SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN EMPLOYMENT: POLICIES AND PRACTICES (2 pts)
(see Labor and Employment Law)
L9153 SEMINAR: TOPICS IN LAW AND SEXUALITY (3 pts)
K. Thomas
This seminar explores aspects of the legal regulation of sexuality. The seminar will pursue two main goals. The first goal is to read and discuss the formal "black letter" law found in judicial decisions, statutes, and administrative rules. The second, overlapping, goal is to introduce and discuss concepts from a variety of disciplines (and from other legal systems) that can be used be understand and interrogate the deeper ideological and political determinants of U.S. sex law. Among the questions on which we will focus throughout the semester are these: How has sexuality (and related notions such as sexuality and gender) been defined, posed and addressed as a problem in and for the U.S. legal system? What role do various conceptions of sexuality play in framing the terms, the argumentative strategies and resolution of legal disputes? What shaping functions do legal constructions of sexuality exert in and on broader political conversations about sex and social justice in the contemporary U.S.?
Topics to be discussed include the scope and limits of the "public/private" distinction as a conceptual framework in U.S. sex law; legal efforts to define and distinguish sex, gender and sexuality, sexual acts, gender identities and expressions (male, female, transgender, transsexual, intersex), and sexual identities ("homosexuality," "heterosexuality," and "bisexuality"); law, sexuality and intimate association; sexuality, gender, and reproduction; law gender, and sexuality in the U.S. military; gender, sexuality, surveillance and citizenship; law, sexuality, kinship and family relations; gender identity, sexuality and the legal construction, and regulation, of the human body; sex, sexuality and sexual commerce; law, sexuality and violence.