Gender & International Comparative Law (LAW-676A-001)
Paula Tavares
Meets: 06:30 PM - 08:20 PM (Tu) - Capital - Room C217
Enrolled: 14 / Limit: 22
Notices
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Description
“Gender, International and Comparative Law” is an introduction to women’s rights and LGBTI advocacy in international and comparative settings. We will explore recent developments and challenges in the integration of the needs and concerns of women and LGBTI people into international organizations, such as the UN, World Bank or human rights treaty bodies. We will also highlight the diverse approaches taken by advocates for gender-based equality in countries and regions around the world. Gender cuts across all substantive areas of the law and every aspect of legal systems—from the largest institutions to the most intimate of relations. It also intersects with many interlocking forms of oppression. Because we have to narrow it down somehow, this semester we will explore in depth how international and domestic law address sexual and reproductive health, gender-based violence, wealth and poverty, caregiving and other domestic labor, political participation and power, and family life. Students will develop expertise in the status of women and LGBTI persons in their home countries or states (within the US), and will share their findings with the group each week. The course presents opportunities for self-reflection, as students learn to challenge their own stereotypes and biases and to learn from one another. Best of all, it allows us to build a community of students who care about gender justice from the school’s SJD, LLM and JD programs. Course Objectives After taking this course, you should be able to: • Understand the significance of sex, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity as legal categories under both international and domestic legal regimes; • Describe in broad terms the debates related to women’s human rights and LGBTI human rights under international law, gender mainstreaming, women’s political participation, family law, gender and economic development, violence against women and LGBTI persons, and sexual and reproductive health around the world; • Compare approaches taken in different nations to gender-based equality, regulation of sexual behaviors, and recognition of non-binary gender identities, and situate those comparisons within (post) colonial and transnational contexts; • Identify schools of feminist and queer thought (including intersectional approaches) and analyze how differences in approach might lead to different policy prescriptions or legal strategies for reducing gender-based (and intersecting) inequalities; • Assess the status of women and LGBTI persons in your own nation and analyze how your nation’s specific legal rules and norms disrupt or perpetuate gender-based inequalities. Course evaluation will be based on multiple short papers, a final project and class participation. Professor Paula Tavares is the Lead Legal and Gender Specialist at the World Bank's Women Business and the Law Project.
Textbooks and Other Materials
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First Class Readings
Not available at this time.