282.1 sec. 001 - Domestic Violence & the Law: Past and Possible Future (Fall 2025)
Instructor: Mallika Kaur (view instructor's teaching evaluations - degree students only | profile)
View all teaching evaluations for this course - degree students only
Units: 3
Grading Designation: Graded
Mode of Instruction: In-Person
Meeting:
W 10:00 AM - 12:40 PM
Location: TBA
From August 20, 2025
To November 19, 2025
Course End: November 19, 2025
Class Number: 32012
Enrollment info:
Enrolled: 30
Waitlisted: 0
Enroll Limit: 30
As of: 08/27 12:45 PM
During their career, all attorneys will–knowingly or unknowingly–work with and/or represent someone victimized by or someone accused of domestic violence (or intimate partner violence). Since millions of people in the U.S. report being victimized by DV each year, the resulting legal needs are as diverse as our population. Further, the efficacy of legal systems to fairly combat DV in the U.S. is passionately debated today. This course will examine the legal system's historic response to domestic violence as well as possible future trajectories. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this seminar will survey historical, psychological, and empirical materials as well as topics in criminal, family, tort, immigration, welfare, housing, employment, human rights, comparative international, and constitutional law.
We will explore how domestic violence laws disparately affect different groups, including people of color, immigrants, people with disabilities, people of faith communities, and people who fall outside of the current normative family structures in the U.S. Ethical and policy issues will be explored throughout, and students will develop a trauma-centered and intersectional approach to persistent issues at the intersection of legal and gender asymmetries: racial justice, poverty, immigration policy, mass incarceration, reproductive care, family separation, and more.
This course is highly encouraged as a foundation for students (JDs and LLMs) who may wish to apply for the new Domestic Violence and Gender-Based Violence Practicum in Spring 2026. Through this Practicum, students gain real-time training and experience. The 2-unit Practicum is accompanied by a 1-unit classroom seminar taught by Mallika Kaur. JD and LLM students are welcome to reach out with questions about possible projects, which will be solidified through summer and Fall 2025, to best respond to real-time needs, in a fast changing landscape.
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Requirements Satisfaction:
Units from this class count towards the J.D. Race and Law Requirement. |
Exam Notes: (TH) Take-home Final Exam
(Subject to change by faculty member only through the first two weeks of instruction)
Exam Length: 5 hours
Course Category: Family Law
This course is listed in the following sub-categories:
Criminal Law
Race and Law
Social Justice and Public Interest
If you are the instructor or their FSU, you may add a file like a syllabus or a first assignment to this page.
Readers:
No reader.
Books:
Required Books are in blue
- Domestic Violence Law
NANCY K.D. LEMON
Edition: any edition (see bCourses for imp. details)
Publisher: West Academic Publishing
ISBN: 9781636594583
e-Book Available: Yes
Price: To Be Determined