2019 Publications

Author: Shreya Atrey 

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Language: English

About: Explores why intersectional discrimination should exist as a unique category in discrimination law. Explains the theoretical, conceptual, and doctrinal roots of intersectional discrimination. Applies central concepts and tools in discrimination law such as grounds, direct and indirect discrimination, comparison, and remedies to intersectional claims. Presents a comparative analysis of intersectional cases in the US, UK, South Africa, India, and at the ECtHR, CJEU, and international human rights treaty bodies.

Author: Ulrich Baer 

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Language: English

About: Angry debates about polarizing speakers have roiled college campuses. Conservatives accuse universities of muzzling unpopular opinions, betraying their values of open inquiry; students sympathetic to the left openly advocate against completely unregulated speech, asking for “safe spaces” and protection against visiting speakers and even curricula they feel disrespects them. Some even call these students “snowflakes”-too fragile to be exposed to opinions and ideas that challenge their worldviews. How might universities resolve these debates about free speech, which pit their students’ welfare against the university’s commitment to free inquiry and open debate?

Ulrich Baer here provides a new way of looking at this dilemma. He explains how the current dichotomy is false and is not really about the feelings of offended students, or protecting an open marketplace of ideas. Rather, what is really at stake is our democracy’s commitment to equality, and the university’s critical role as an arbiter of truth. He shows how and why free speech has become the rallying cry that forges an otherwise uneasy alliance of liberals and ultra-conservatives, and why this First Amendment absolutism is untenable in law and society in general. He draws on law, philosophy, and his extensive experience as a university administrator to show that the lens of equality can resolve this impasse, and can allow the university to serve as a model for democracy that upholds both truth and equality as its founding principles.

Author: Meera E. Deo

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Language: English

About: This book is the first formal, empirical investigation into the law faculty experience using a distinctly intersectional lens, examining both the personal and professional lives of law faculty members. Comparing the professional and personal experiences of women of color professors with white women, white men, and men of color faculty from assistant professor through dean emeritus, Unequal Profession explores how the race and gender of individual legal academics affects not only their individual and collective experience, but also legal education as a whole. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative empirical data, Meera E. Deo reveals how race and gender intersect to create profound implications for women of color law faculty members, presenting unique challenges as well as opportunities to improve educational and professional outcomes in legal education. Deo shares the powerful stories of law faculty who find themselves confronting intersectional discrimination and implicit bias in the form of silencing, mansplaining, and the presumption of incompetence, to name a few. Through hiring, teaching, colleague interaction, and tenure and promotion, Deo brings the experiences of diverse faculty to life and proposes a number of mechanisms to increase diversity within legal academia and to improve the experience of all faculty members.

Authors: Sandra Fredman

Publisher:  Oxford University Press

Language: English

About: Courts in different jurisdictions face similar human rights questions. Does the death penalty breach human rights? Does freedom of speech include racist speech? Is there a right to health? This book uses the prism of comparative law to examine the fascinating ways in which these difficult questions are decided. On the one hand, the shared language of human rights suggests that there should be similar solutions to comparable problems. On the other hand, there are important differences. Constitutional texts are worded differently; courts have differing relationships with the legislature; and there are divergences in socio-economic development, politics, and history. Nevertheless, there is a growing transnational conversation between courts, with cases in one jurisdiction being cited in others. Part I (Chapters 1–5) outlines the cross-cutting themes which shape the ways judges respond to challenging human rights issues. Chapters 1–5 examine when it is legitimate to refer to foreign materials; how universality and cultural relativity are balanced in human rights law; the appropriate role of courts in adjudicating human rights in a democracy; and the principles judges use to interpret human rights texts. The book is unusual in transcending the distinction between socio-economic rights and civil and political rights. Part II (Chapters 6–12) applies these cross-cutting themes to comparing human rights law in five jurisdictions. These chapters focus on seven particularly challenging issues: the death penalty, abortion, housing, health, speech, education, and religion, with the aim of inspiring further comparative examination of other pressing human rights issues. It is primarily court-centred, but also examines courts’ drawbacks.

Authors: Jessie Hohmann and Daniel Joyce

Publisher:  Oxford University Press

Language: English

About: Our Study Group member Lolita Buckner Inniss has authored a chapter titled “Ships’ Ballast” in this book.

From her chapter: In this chapter I offer a brief discussion of the history of the use of ballast in trans­atlantic slavery. I then consider how slave ships’ ballast had a crucial role in shaping norms of international trade and law. In both of these contexts the use of ballast ad­vanced the nominalization of the processes of capturing and enslaving Africans via the transatlantic trade. …Ships’ ballast, by enabling the trade in slaves, made persons into captives, captives into ships’ cargo, and ships’ cargo into slaves. As ships’ cargo, African captives were sometimes sub­ject to an even more grim transformation wherein the bodies of the captured were reduced to mere ballast to be jettisoned when maritime conditions dictated. …Ballast in its numerous forms, and its human involvement, was both a key material object as well as a symbol of the transatlantic slave trade, international law, and the suffering of captive Africans

Authors: Gauthier de Beco, Shivaun Quinlivan, Janet E. Lord

Publisher:  Cambridge University Press

Language: English

About: Education is a fundamental human right that is recognized as essential for the attainment of all civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. It was not until 2006, on the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), that the right to inclusive education was codified. This volume fills a major gap in the literature on the right of disabled people to education. It examines the theoretical foundations and core content of the right to inclusive education in international human rights law, and explores the various ways of implementing this right through an exploration of legal strategies and mechanisms. With contributions by leaders in the field, this volume advances scholarship on the core content of the right to inclusive education by examining the content and practice of the right at the national, regional and international levels.

Authors: Olivier De Schutter

Publisher:  Cambridge University Press

Language: English

About: International human rights law has expanded remarkably since the 1990s. It is therefore more important than ever to identify, beyond specific controversies, its deeper structure and the general pattern of evolution. Moreover, it has a logic of its own: though part of international law, it borrows many of its principles from domestic constitutional law. This leading textbook meets both challenges. It has been significantly updated for the new third edition, introducing sections on subjects including business and human rights, amongst other key areas. Features include forty new cases from various jurisdictions or expert bodies, and figures offering visual descriptions of the procedures discussed in the text. The ‘questions for discussion’ have also been systematically updated. The text retains its student-friendly design, and the features which made the previous editions so engaging and accessible remain. This popular textbook continues to be an essential tool for all students of human rights law.

Authors: David Gutiérrez

Publisher: Editorial Bomarzo

Language: Spanish

About: The duty to provide reasonable accommodation in the workplace is a measure to combat discrimination on the ground of disability, whose importance has been growing in recent years. Its incorporation into article 5 of Directive 2000/78, added to the central role granted in the Convention of Rights of People with Disabilities, has placed it as the legal materialization of the social paradigm of treatment of disability, that advocates for social integration and full participation of people with disabilities. Thus, this doctoral thesis is responsible for analyzing the origin, evolution and current configuration of the duty to provide reasonable accommodation in the workplace for people with disabilities. In this regard, it offers an international, European, compared and national vision of its configuration and its implications in the legal systems that have regulated it. For that purpose, the evolution of disability treatment from an international and European point of view is first examined, detailing what has been the institutional role in the labor integration of people with disabilities. Second, the thesis focuses on a comparative and Spanish characterization of the obligation to provide reasonable accommodation in the workplace for people with disabilities, examining for this purpose the regulation of the American, Canadian, British, French and Spanish legal systems. This work aims to analyze issues of interest regarding the aforementioned business duty, such as the characterization of the obligation, what adjustments should be considered reasonable, the regulation of the disproportionate burden or the consequences of its breach, as well as the relationship that exists between the duty to provide reasonable accommodation and domestic institutions of external flexibility, with special consideration to the extinction of the employment contracts of people with disabilities. Hence, the multilevel approach, which addresses together the evolution of disability and the duty to provide reasonable accommodation in the workplace, allows to formulate proposals for improving the effective application of the mentioned labor integration mechanism in Spain

Authors: Adilson Moreira

Publisher: Pólen Livros

Language: Portuguese

About: This book addresses an ever-present question in political and legal debates about human rights in Brazil: how should we classify humorous expressions that reproduce negative stereotypes about racial minorities? Many individuals claim that racial stigmas negatively affect racial minority groups in many different ways, the reason why discriminatory behaviors should not have expression in the public sphere. However, there are those who deny the validity of this argument, perspective based on the hypothesis that racist humor has a benign character. The discussion of this claim has significant relevance in a nation that is becoming increasingly aware that the circulation of disparaging ideas about minority groups prevents them from having legal protection and social respectability. As several psychological theories demonstrate, humor also expresses racial hatred, evidence that it can be used to promote marginalization. This essay identifies the central elements of recreational racism, a characteristically Brazilian project of racial domination, a mechanism that masks racial hostility through humor. This is a strategic discourse and practice that enables the pursuit of psychological satisfaction of white people by affirming an alleged racial superiority, while maintaining their interest in preserving a positive social image.

Authors: David Oppenheimer

Publisher:  Brill Publishers

Language: English

About: Positive measures to prevent and remedy discrimination have been adopted in many parts of the world. By comparing the scope and form of such measures in different legal systems, we can gain a better perspective on our own system, and appreciate possible new approaches. This book compares positive anti-discrimination measures in the United States, India, Brazil, South Africa, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union.

Authors: Various Authors

Publisher:  Oxford University Press

Language: English

About: The Max Planck Encyclopedias of International Law is a comprehensive, analytical resource containing peer-reviewed articles on every aspect of international law. This definitive reference work contains both the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law and the Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law.

Our member Anne Hellum authored the chapter, on the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Authors: Jennifer Ann Drobac, Carrie N. Baker, Rigel C. Oliveri

Publisher: Carolina Academic Press

Language: English

About: Sexual Harassment Law: History, Cases, and Practice is the only comprehensive textbook covering the origins and development of U.S. sexual harassment law in employment, education, housing, prisons, and the military. Beginning with the first sexual harassment cases in the early 1970s and extending through the contemporary #MeToo movement, this book examines statutory law, federal regulations, case law, and legal reasoning. In addition to careful analysis of relevant law, this textbook reviews topics such as street harassment, online harassment, extra-legal responses to misconduct, mandatory arbitration, and nondisclosure agreements.

The text also examines media coverage and public discourse on sexual harassment, from the 1991 Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings to the 2018 Blasey-Ford/Kavanaugh hearings. Focusing on how the intersections of gender, race, class, and citizenship status shape people’s experience of sexual harassment, the book considers how institutional power enables sex-based harassment and creates barriers to legal relief. Accessible to law students as well as undergraduate students, the book considers the effectiveness of laws against sex-based harassment and reviews current proposals to strengthen these laws by expanding coverage and closing loopholes.

Authors: Bernard K. Freamon

Publisher: Brill Publishers

Language: English

About: In Possessed by the Right Hand, the first comprehensive legal history of slavery in Islam ever offered to readers, Bernard K. Freamon, an African-American Muslim law professor, provides a penetrating analysis of the problems of slavery and slave-trading in Islamic history. After examining the issues from pre-Islamic times through to the nineteenth century, Professor Freamon considers the impact of Western abolitionism, arguing that such efforts have been a failure, with the notion of abolition becoming nothing more than a cruel illusion. He closes this ground-breaking account with an examination of the slaving ideologies and actions of ISIS and Boko Haram, asserting that Muslims now have an important and urgent responsibility to achieve true abolition under the aegis of Islamic law.

Authors: Jozefien Van Caeneghem

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Language: English

About: This book addresses the legal feasibility of ethnic data collection and positive action for equality and anti-discrimination purposes, and considers how they could be used to promote the Roma minority’s inclusion in Europe. The book’s central aim is to research how a societal problem can be improved upon from a legal perspective. The controversy surrounding ethnic data collection and positive action severely limits their use at the national level. Accordingly, legal and political concerns are analysed and addressed in order to demonstrate that it is possible to collect such data and to implement such measures while fully respecting international and European human rights norms, provided that certain conditions are met.

Editors: Lynsey Black, Peter Dunne

Publisher: Hart Publishing

Language: English

About: Law and Gender in Modern Ireland: Critique and Reform is the first generalist text to tackle the intersection of law and gender in this jurisdiction for over two decades. As such, it could hardly have come at a more opportune moment. The topic of law and gender, perhaps more so than at any other time in Irish history, has assumed a dominant place in political and academic debate. Among scholars and policy-makers alike, the regulation of gendered bodies, and the legal status of sexual and gendered identities, is now a highly visible fault line in public discourse.

Debates over reproductive justice (exemplified by the recent referendum to remove the ‘8th Amendment’), increased rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons (including the public-sanctioned introduction of same-sex marriage) and the historic mistreatment of women and young girls have re-shaped Irish public and political life, and encouraged Irish society to re-examine long-unchallenged gender norms. While many traditional flashpoints remain such as abortion and prostitution/sex work, there are also new questions, including surrogacy and the gendered experience of asylum frameworks, which have emerged. As policy-makers seek to enact reforms, they face a population with increasingly polarised perceptions of gender and a legal structure ill-equipped for modern realities.

This edited volume directly addresses modern Irish debates on law and gender. Providing an overview of the existing rules and standards, as well as exploring possible options for reform, the collection stands as an important statement on the law in this jurisdiction, and as an invaluable resource for pursuing gendered social change. While the edited collection applies a doctrinal methodology to explain current statutes, case law and administrative practices, the contributors also invoke critical gender, queer and race perspectives to identify and problematise existing (and potential) challenges. This edited collection is essential reading for all who are interested in law, gender and processes of social change in modern Ireland.

Author: Meera E. Deo

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Language: English

About: This book is the first formal, empirical investigation into the law faculty experience using a distinctly intersectional lens, examining both the personal and professional lives of law faculty members.

Comparing the professional and personal experiences of women of color professors with white women, white men, and men of color faculty from assistant professor through dean emeritus, Unequal Profession explores how the race and gender of individual legal academics affects not only their individual and collective experience, but also legal education as a whole. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative empirical data, Meera E. Deo reveals how race and gender intersect to create profound implications for women of color law faculty members, presenting unique challenges as well as opportunities to improve educational and professional outcomes in legal education. Deo shares the powerful stories of law faculty who find themselves confronting intersectional discrimination and implicit bias in the form of silencing, mansplaining, and the presumption of incompetence, to name a few. Through hiring, teaching, colleague interaction, and tenure and promotion, Deo brings the experiences of diverse faculty to life and proposes a number of mechanisms to increase diversity within legal academia and to improve the experience of all faculty members.