WOMEN AND THE LAW

PENN LAW FACULTY

Anita Allen	Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy
Regina Austin	William A. Schnader Professor of Law
Eric Feldman	Professor of Law
Serena Mayeri	Assistant Professor of Law
Amy Wax	Robert Mundheim Professor of Law

PENN LAW ADJUNCTS & LECTURERS

Harry Reicher	Adjunct Professor of Law
Stacey Sobel	Lecturer in Law

TOLL PUBLIC INTEREST CENTER PARTNERS AT PENN

African Studies Center: Women's Issues
    • www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/About_African/ww_wmen.html

Alice Paul Center for Research on Women and Gender
    • www.sas.upenn.edu/wstudies/

Center for Research on Reproduction and Women's Health
    • www.med.upenn.edu/crrwh/

Penn Women's Center (Graduate Professional Women's Organization, Penn for Choice,
Sister Sister, Women in Thought)
    • www.vpul.upenn.edu/pwc/main.html

Women's Studies at Penn - Graduate Programs
    •www.sas.upenn.edu/wstudies/

PRO BONO PLACEMENTS

American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania - Legislative
Arnold & Porter
Custody and Support Assistance Clinic (CASAC)
Dechert LLP
Domestic Violence Unit
Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations
Reproductive Rights Project
Women Against Abuse Legal Center
Women's Law Project

PENN LAW COURSES

Advanced Torts

This seminar will consider the law of intentional torts from the perspective of intergroup and intragroup conflict. Although many tort actions involve strangers, intentional tort actions very often arise from the repeated or continuous interaction of members of groups or communities united or divided by race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, or class. The goal of the course is to develop techniques for analyzing legal disputes with regard to the full context in which they arise, particularly as viewed from the perspective of groups of subordinate status. Among the topics to be explored are the construction of women's consent to medical procedures (including sterilization, female genital surgery, and plastic surgery); consent to assault and male bonding associations (teams, gangs, and fraternities); false imprisonment and worker exploitation; and defamation, invasion of privacy and social stratification. Videos and ethnographic readings will be liberally employed.

Feminist Legal Theory Seminar

This seminar uses gender as a lens to interpret the law and the experiences that women and men of all colors have with the law. We will begin by examining the theoretical presumptions and organizing principles of traditional feminist critiques of the law. Then, through examination of a variety of topics that have been of particular interest to feminist legal scholars, we will examine and critique the assumptions of feminist legal theory. Specifically, we will discuss legal aspects of work, motherhood, family life, sexual harassment, domestic violence, sexual intimacy, rape, pregnancy, abortion, race, ethnicity, wealth, poverty and sexual orientation. Throughout the course, our examination is grounded by inquiring to what extent feminism and theories of gender, when applied to the law, accurately have met the needs of women and men of all colors. The course concludes with a study of the most recent contributions to feminist legal scholarship and the emergence of a “third wave” feminist jurisprudence.

International Human Rights

This course traces the dramatic rise of the individual as a subject of international law in the post-World War II era; specifically, as a beneficiary of fundamental rights recognized, protected and enforced directly by that system of law. It begins by laying historical foundations, showing how the individual was formerly treated as no more than a mere appendage of his/her State, and then considers the transformation effected by the United Nations Charter (1945), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and two International Covenants (1966). The evolution of specific areas of human rights will be studied, e.g., elimination of racial discrimination, elimination of discrimination against women, freedom of religion, the rights of the child, elimination of torture, etc. In each case, three "eras" will be traversed: (a) that of general principles, in which the notion of the rights emerges at the general level; (b) that of specificity, in which the content of the rights takes shape and is defined; and (c) that of enforcement, in which the international legal system seeks to give practical effect to the rights it has recognized, at the national, regional and international levels. Videos will be shown and discussed in class, e.g., on the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, on the struggle for human rights at the grass-roots level, in the former Czechoslovakia and Guatemala, on women's rights and on a trial arising out of human rights atrocities committed in the former Yugoslavia.

Law & Economics of Work and Family Seminar

This interdisciplinary course brings together topics in employment law, labor economics, domestic relations, tax law, employment discrimination, industrial organization, and feminist jurisprudence. The course will focus on an issue of increasing social importance: the need for fair, efficient, and flexible structures to help individuals reconcile the demands of family and work. The course will examine how family dynamics and labor markets affect the choices and the well-being of men, women, and children, and will investigate the effects of various legal interventions and private and public policies on those choices and on individual and social welfare. The class will have an analytical and empirical focus and will make use of materials in sociology, economics, and psychology.

Law & Social Movements in 20th Century America Seminar

The aim of this seminar is to explore how social movements influence legal reform, and how law and legal institutions shape social movements’ development. The course examines a diverse array of twentieth-century American social movements, from civil rights and feminism, to religious conservatism and anti-communism, among others. Readings and discussions will consider the legal strategies social movements employed, and how law shaped strategic options as well as outcomes. These historical examples illuminate recurring challenges faced by social movements seeking to effect legal change through mobilization, lobbying, litigation, legislation, constitutional amendment advocacy, public education, and coalition-building. Course requirements include presentations and a research paper.

Legal Responses to Inequality

This course will study legal material as expressive of, and as supportive of, differing concepts of equality and its role as a social value, rather than as simply part of a course of doctrinal development or a system of analytical reasoning. Its premise is that differences in those concepts are often not recognized, and the contestability and bases of one's approach to equality issues are often not acknowledged. Substantively, the course will include aspects of legal regulation affecting the status of racial, religious and ethnic "minorities," women, gay and lesbian people, and people perceived as disabled, as well as, the interaction between the law and inequality in the distribution of wealth and income. It will do this in part by examining “antidiscrimination,” “equal protection,” or “poverty” law, but will focus also on issues of equality implicit in such mainstream first-year subjects as Procedure and Contracts.