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Prof. Kate Nace Day,
2 credits day; 2 credits evening.
The seminar will trace the movement of women's rights from national to international law to
identify the features of a women's model of human rights: what women need to become fully
human, what women's resistance to male dominance has already achieved, and what promise
remains unfulfilled. It will examine the gendered dimensions of national behavior through law,
including the distinction of public and private, naturalizing dominance as difference, obscuring
coercion as consent, and hiding sexual politics behind morality. It contrasts American law with
Canada's substantive equality and South Africa's transformative equality, Sweden's model of
decriminalizing the women in prostitution, the promise of the Optional Protocol to the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the
inspiration and lessons from Bosnia and Rwanda. Specific topics may include femicide, rape as
genocide and spectacle, sexual violence in post-conflict situations, sex trafficking in women and
girl children, pornography and sexual harassment in the workplace and schools, reproductive
autonomy, missing girls, and honor killings. Final grade is based upon an independent project
and in-class participation.
Elective Course
On List of Recommended Perspectives Courses
Meets International Law Concentration Requirements
Final Project Required
LLM Course
International Intellectual Property