COURSE DESCRIPTION 2012 2013

Women and the Law

Prof. Kate Nace Day,

2 credits day; 2 credits evening. Students will be evaluated on an examination; this course does not fulfill the writing requirement.

This course introduces students to the relationship between law and women's lives. Over the past forty years, the realities of abuse at home, sexual harassment in the workplace, pornography and sexualized violence against women in all forms have been recognized as political issues and legal claims that challenge both the substance and form of national and international laws. This course articulates these equality claims and asks: whether law will include or exclude the substance of women's experiences; whether law will put the power of legal redress into the hands of women. In pursuing these questions, this course examines legal formalism, received theories of constitutional interpretation, and existing doctrines of free speech, autonomy, and privacy. While much of the material will focus on the United States, the course also offers case studies from national laws of Sweden and the Netherlands and issues of international law presented in post-conflict Uganda. These provide the particulars for asking what law does for women's lives.

Enrollment is limited: 20

Elective Course

Final Project or Paper Required