2007-2008 Events
October 2, 2007
CEDAW : Promoting Women's Human Rights Across the World
 |
 |
The international students from the Women and the Law Program's Gender Perspectives Across the World class created an interactive art exhibit to share their expertise on CEDAW Compliance and women's human rights issues in their home countries of Kenya, Zimbabwe, the US, Ireland, Pakistan, Holland, Trinidad and Tobago, and Sri Lanka.
September 26, 2007
Seeing the Invisible: Spotting Gender Issues in First Year Courses
 |
 |
| Professor Ann Shalleck, Director of the Women and the Law Program |
The Women and the Law Program collaborated with the Integrated Curriculum program to introduce first-year students to issues of gender in the first year curriculum. Professor Ann Shalleck, Director of the Women and the Law Program, led a colloquium of over 20 students as they reconsidered the case of O'Brien v. Cunard from a gender perspective.
September 19, 2007
Teaching Gender and Human Rights in the Northwest Frontier Province (Pakistan)
From Left to Right:
Angie McCarthy, Program Coordinator, Women and the Law Program, WCL
Sasha Mehra, WCL Alumna and Deputy to the Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State for Women's Empowerment, US State Department.
Amelia Parker, Program Coordinator, Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, WCL
Daniela Kraiem, Associate Director, Women and the Law Program, WCL
Hadar Harris, Executive Director, Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, WCL
Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli, Senior Adviser to the Secretary of State for Women’s Empowerment
Professor Anoosh Khan, WCL International Visiting Scholar from the University of Peshawar, Pakistan
Guest Speaker:
Professor Anoosh Khan, University of Peshawar, Pakistan
Professor Khan is visitng WCL as part of a collaborative project with the University of Peshawar (Pakistan) focused on building capacity within the University of Peshawar (Pakistan) law faculty regarding its human rights program.
July 28, 2007
Collaborative Research Network (CRN) on Gender and Legal Education
In 2007, the CRN hosted a roundtable discussion on Integrating Gender into Legal Education: Transforming Women's Legal Status at the annual Law and Society Association meeting in Berlin, Germany on July 28th, 2007. Associate Director Daniela Kraiem chaired the session, which provided a forum for feminist scholars from the U.S., Canada, Japan, Bolivia and the Netherlands to discuss the incorporation gender and culture into core law school courses, such as torts, criminal law, contracts and property. Participants discussed teaching materials and methods that enable students to better understand the gendered assumptions inherent in many central legal principles and how gender affects the production of legal knowledge. The session also addressed the challenges facing law teachers who use non-traditional readings and methods in the core curriculum. The conference also provided Associate Director Daniela Kraiem with an excellent opportunity to network with faculty from across the world who share an interest in incorporating gender into legal education.
April 12, 2007
A Conversation on Comparative Family Law
Even though families have been greatly affected by rapidly changing economies and increasing migration, the study of family law has been largely absent from discussions of globalization. To bring the tools of comparative law to the study of family law, the Women and International Law Program and the International Legal Studies Program teamed up with Washington College of Law Professor Fernanda Nicola and Harvard Law School Professor Janet Halley to organize a “Conversation on Comparative Family Law.” Panelists from the U.S., the Middle East, Europe, Latin America and Asia addressed the intimate connection between family law, sovereignty, and governance across different legal regimes; the way family law reflects the changes prompted by globalization; and how family law reacts to challenges and opportunities created by international trade, international human rights regimes, and global migrations. Washington College of Law faculty, including Fernanda Nicola, Ezra Rosser, Kevin Haynes, and Macarena Saez made presentations at the event, adding greatly to the complexity and diversity of the discussion.
The morning session was devoted to discussing the theories and methodologies behind comparative family law, and analyzing the place of family law in the comparative law discourse. Panelists then discussed varying applications of family law addressing the intimate connection between family law, sovereignty and governance across different legal regimes around the world, including Taiwanese family law under the Oriental Colonial Empire of Japan, Feminist Islamic Jurisprudence, alternative family structures in Chile and the veil in public schools. The final panel addressed practical applications for and the reception of the practice of family law by addressing the way family law reflects and signals the changes prompted by globalization and how family law receives and reacts to the challenges created by international trade regimes, international human rights regimes and global migrations. Presentations highlighted various issues such as immigration law and the regulation of marriage, international remittances and the family, and family conflict resolution.
March 23, 2007
Symposium on Intellectual Property and Gender: The Unmapped Connections
The application of feminist lens to the study of intellectual property law provides a powerful view into the intersections of knowledge, power and gender. Washington College of Law, through the combined efforts of the Women and the Law program, the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property and the Journal on Gender, Social Policy and Law, has been at the forefront of this emerging area. Each year, we hold a symposium that gathers participants to chart new territory in this previously unstudied area of law. In 2007, we added international voices that further challenged the cultural as well as gendered dimensions of the production and protection of knowledge. University of Michigan/Princeton Professor Margaret Jane Radin opened up this year’s symposium. Washington College of Law Associate Dean Christine Haight-Farley and Women and the Law Program Director Ann Shalleck, Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property Director Peter Jaszi and Professor Victoria Phillips joined panelists from the U.S., Canada, India, and Europe in presenting papers and providing commentary.
This was the fourth in a series of workshops discussing the intersection of gender-related imbalances in wealth; cultural access; political power, and social control; creative production and gender; the effect of stereotyping and the feminization and masculinization of participant roles in intellectual property; the gendered development of IP doctrine; and feminist jurisprudence insights about intellectual property law.
March 21, 2007
Founders’ Celebration Feminist Jurisprudence Dinner
The Women and the Law Program, in conjunction with the Legal Rhetoric Program, celebrated with a gala dinner the launch of our new Feminist Jurisprudence Student Essay Contest. The purpose of the competition is to foster the next generation of scholars and activists by creating a venue for them to showcase creative feminist approaches to the law.
The event began with a presentation by 2006 Essay Competition winner Monica S. Devens and her work on “Wartime Sex Crimes as ‘War Crimes’ and ‘Crimes Against Humanity’: a Developing International Understanding”. During her presentation, Monica Devens highlighted some of the progress that has been made in international law while also emphasizing the shortcomings of the international legal system in dealing with these cases and made recommendations for future improvements, particularly the recommendation of addressing forced marriage as a war time sex crime against women as separate from that of arranged marriage.
The presentation was followed by a reception and dinner where Dean Claudio Grossman introduced both the Women and the Law Program and Legal Rhetoric programs and provided background of Washington College of Law’s rich tradition of supporting feminist scholarship. Teresa Phelps presented Monica Devens with her award for the competition. The keynote address was delivered by Washington College of Law’s Susan Carle, Associate Dean of Scholarship. Dean Carle delivered a memorable keynote address outlining how feminism had shaped her work over the years.
