Nancy Lemon and Her DV Class
By Yun-Hsien Diana Lin
In early 1990’s, when Taiwan still had no law for domestic violence, Judge Feng-Shian Gao studied in Boalt Hall School of Law, U.C. Berkeley. She enrolled in Nancy Lemon’s Domestic Violence Seminar and was deeply impressed by both the way Nancy conducted this class and the way domestic violence was dealt with in the United States. She went back to Taiwan after her study finished and started to write a bill named “Domestic Violence Prevention Act”, which is based on “Model Code on Domestic and Family Violence” in the US. This bill gained support of a few women’s groups as well as legislators in Taiwan. After much endeavor by people who care about domestic violence, the Act was passed by Taiwanese Congress in 1998. In the same year, Judge Gao published a book on domestic violence and the law, which is a collection of her articles on this topic over the years.
Ten years after judge Gao, I found my way to Nancy’s DV class. It was a fabulous class. Nancy provided students with many facets of the problems of DV. Her class not only covered the way the police, courts, prosecutors, medical personnel, and social workers deal with DV, but also “less mainstream” concerns about this problem. For example, violence in gay and lesbian relationships, undocumented victims, and the potential conflict of children’s welfare and victim’s parental rights. The more I learned about intimate violence in the US, the more I realized how less I knew about the situation in Taiwan. I started to read extensively on DV information in Taiwan and was shocked by the research and statistics. At that time (2002), the DV law in Taiwan (the first in Asia) has been in function for 4 years, and more truth has been exposed since.
Finally I was into DV law so much that I changed my research topic from same-sex marriage to the responses of legal system to DV, and wrote my doctoral dissertation on this topic. Nancy personally proofread my dissertation and those discussion we had benefited my research a lot. Now I am an assistant professor of law in National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, I taught family law and a seminar on intimate violence. Further, I published articles about children witnessing domestic violence as well as the mandatory DV reporting policy for medical personnel in Taiwan. Also, I am a supportive member for Taiwan Coalition Against Violence, which is composed of numerous grassroots groups advocating for anti-violence policies.
Looking back, I found that Nancy’s class was not only inspiring, but also influential far beyond her imagination. Judge Gao took her class and later came up with a draft of Taiwanese “Domestic Violence Prevention Act”, which was the blue print of the current law. I took her class 10 years after Gao did and become a law professor who teaches DV law in Taiwan. And there are also other international students in her class who went back to their countries and contribute for DV policies! Nancy certainly plays an important role in helping other countries shape their anti DV laws.
If you would like to know more about DV in Taiwan, please check this website for statistics, law, and news: http://dspc.moi.gov.tw/mp.asp?mp=5