GSL Online
Gender & Sexuality Law Online is a webjournal published by the Columbia Law School Center for Gender & Sexuality Law.
The Queen v. Fennety: Infant Abandonment in Mid-Nineteenth Century New Brunswick, Canada
Author: Nikki Kumar, LLM 2010 Abstract: The plight of young unwed mothers in nineteenth century New Brunswick is not well documented, nor well understood. However, an article in a Fredericton newspaper, the Head Quarters, described the case of Sophia Fennety, a young unwed mother, and her supposed drowning or suffocation of her six-week old infant child ...
Prosecuting Human Trafficking as a Crime Against Humanity under the Rome Statute
Author: Jane Kim, JD 2011 Abstract: Bought and sold, consumed and exploited: human bodies, labor, personhood, and dignity have become the most valuable, reusable, and profitable products in the 2011 world market. In the early twenty-first century, increased awareness and international concern mobilized several legal mechanisms to combat the 32 billion dollar human trafficking industry. In ...
Taking the Sex out of Sexual Harassment: How the Equal Opportunity Harasser Defense Threatens to Change the Contours of Sexual Harassment Under Title VII, and Why it Should be Eliminated
Author: Shana Khader, JD 2011 Abstract: The “equal opportunity harasser” defense to a sexual harassment claim—allowing for an employer to escape liability under Title VII by showing that members of both sexes were sexually harassed—is problematic on its face. Intuitively, it seems both wrong and right: it appears to be a bizarre loophole that more harassment ...
Violence and the Form: The Ultrahazardous Activity of Excluding Children in Canada’s Immigration Family Class
Author: Jamie Chai Yun Liew, LLM 2011 Abstract: The paper is about a Canadian immigration rule that permanently prohibits the reuniting of children with their parents in Canada simply because their landed immigrant parents did not list their children on their application forms. This paper is interested in how violence can manifest itself in the strict application ...
Sex, Drugs, and American Jurisprudence: The Medicalization of Pleasure
Author: Susan Reid, JD 2011 Abstract: This paper explores the role of medical arguments in cases where courts have overturned statutes that burden pleasure-seeking behavior, such as non-procreative sexual intimacy or the use of endorphin-inducing substances. It speculates that the characterization of the individual interests at stake as medical rather than pleasure-related, and the framing of ...
Female Genital Cutting: The Pressures of Culture, International Attention, and Domestic Law on the Role of African Women
Author: Aisha Nicole Davis, JD 2012 Abstract: This essay examines the international scrutiny of female genital cutting (FGC) often referred to as female genital mutilation (FGM), and how international legislation overlooks the women affected by the procedure. It focuses on FGC on the continent of Africa, analyzing the policy and legislation influenced largely by those who are ...About GSL Online
Gender & Sexuality Law Online offers students at Columbia Law School the opportunity to e-publish important new scholarship on gender and sexuality. These projects advance our understanding of emerging issues such as gender identity discrimination, trafficking, reproductive technologies, immigration reform, or marriage equality, to name only a few topics.
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How the Legal Regulation of Transgender Bodies Aff...
Author: Rita Vavra, LLM 2013 Abstract: The legal regulation of transgender bodies, which is often highly oppressive, restrictive and arbitrary, is commonly regarded as a problem that only affects the transgender community and its allies. This essay, however, argues that the legal regulation of...
Overseas and Under Siege: Why Congress Needs to Am...
Author: Emily Brailey, JD 2012 Abstract: This seminar paper explores the U.S. Military’s position regarding abortion procedures. It focuses on the 2012 Shaheen Amendment that seeks to extend federal funding to allow overseas military facilities to provide abortion in cases of rape or incest. The...
Female Genital Cutting: The Pressures of Culture, ...
Author: Aisha Nicole Davis, JD 2012 Abstract: This essay examines the international scrutiny of female genital cutting (FGC) often referred to as female genital mutilation (FGM), and how international legislation overlooks the women affected by the procedure. It focuses on FGC on the continent of...
Author: Emily Brailey, JD 2012 Abstract: This seminar paper explores the U.S. Military’s position regarding abortion procedures. It focuses on the 2012 Shaheen Amendment that seeks to extend federal funding to allow overseas military facilities to provide abortion in cases of rape or incest. The paper...
Author: Laura Stafford, JD 2011 Abstract: This paper seeks to analyze EU accession procedures and their effects on subject countries. It examines the EU’s accession process as it relates to Romania’s decriminalization of homosexuality. The paper suggests that the EU “orientalizes”...