I came to motherhood (“am2”?) late in life. Mothering is the most complex, difficult, challenging work in which I have ever engaged. It also is the most rewarding, exciting, frightening, all consuming work that I will ever do. I would not... more
I came to motherhood (“am2”?) late in life. Mothering is the most complex, difficult, challenging work in which I have ever engaged. It also is the most rewarding, exciting, frightening, all consuming work that I will ever do. I would not trade this life for anything. The night before this essay was due, I was up late (well, late for me, the mother of a seven-year-old boy Nikolai and six-month-old twins Natalia Luz and Nadal Sergio) working on the last set of edits — putting the finishing touches, if you will — on the draft of my musings on Rosenblum’s provocative piece. At 10:55 I could no longer keep my eyes open so I put the draft to bed, planning on reviewing it one last time with fresh eyes in the morning, right after I dropped Nikolai off at the bus to school. Pleased with how the work shaped up, I saved the draft, turned off the lights and headed for bed. The house was dark and quiet, everyone else asleep. At 11:01 I got in my warm bed and sighed out my exhaustion. My head hi...
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Globally speaking, international law and the vast majority of domestic legal systems strive to protect the right to freedom of expression. The United States’ First Amendment provides an early historical protection of speech—a safeguard... more
Globally speaking, international law and the vast majority of domestic legal systems strive to protect the right to freedom of expression. The United States’ First Amendment provides an early historical protection of speech—a safeguard now embraced around the world. The extent of this protection, however, varies among states. The United States stands alone in excluding countervailing considerations of equality, dignitary, or privacy interests that would favor restrictions on speech. The gravamen of the argument supporting such American exceptionalism is that free expression is necessary in a democracy. Totalitarianism, the libertarian narrative goes, thrives on government control of information to the detriment of freedom and liberty. It is thus of paramount importance to have “uninhibited, robust, and wide-open” debate. This approach places free speech above other equally significant constitutional values, such as racial, sexual, and sexual-orientation equality and privacy. Interna...
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It is really a pleasure to be here today and I think we owe great thanks to Western New England College School of Law for hosting this historic First Annual Northeastern People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference. I think there are two... more
It is really a pleasure to be here today and I think we owe great thanks to Western New England College School of Law for hosting this historic First Annual Northeastern People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference. I think there are two people who deserve special mention and to whom a great deal of thanks are in order. First, I would like to thank Dean Mahoney of Western New England College School of Law who made this conference possible. These events just do not happen without administrative and, more specifically, deaconal support. Her role and support are invaluable. The other person whom we must thank is Professor Leonard Baynes of Western New England College School of Law, who has done a lot of hard work in organizing the conference. We are all happy to have the opportunity to gather here and to enjoy each other's company and the fruits of his hard work. Having planned conferences before, as I am certain many of you have in the past, or will in the future, let me assure yo...
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This summary constitutes my Final Report to the Conference on the International Protection of Reproductive Rights (the "Conference") jointly sponsored by the Women & International Law Program at the Washington College of Law of... more
This summary constitutes my Final Report to the Conference on the International Protection of Reproductive Rights (the "Conference") jointly sponsored by the Women & International Law Program at the Washington College of Law of the American University and the Women in the Law Project of the International Human Rights Law Group. The Conference focused on issues that affect the role of women in society and the role played by rules of law in defining and marginalizing women's existence in society. The Conference goals included the reformulation of the international human rights construct to advance and implement women's rights, particularly women's sexual and reproductive health rights and freedoms, in order to create a world for women that makes equality theory a reality in everyday life. To achieve this end, experts in international law, international and domestic women's rights law, and women's health explored international and domestic "rights&quo...
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In 1995, the United Nations reported "in no society today do women enjoy the same opportunities as men." The condition and status of women worldwide was one of social, political, educational, legal, and economic inequality. Ten... more
In 1995, the United Nations reported "in no society today do women enjoy the same opportunities as men." The condition and status of women worldwide was one of social, political, educational, legal, and economic inequality. Ten years later, women's economic disparities persist. In Gender Injustice: An International Comparative Analysis of Equality in Employment, Dr. Anne-Marie Mooney Cotter focuses on women's global inequality in employment. The book's in-depth examination of women's second-class, subordinated status in the workplace around the world provides invaluable insights into the complexities of gender inequality.
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... Rights 183 Berta Esperanza Hernandez-Truyol and Jane E. Larson 11 Policing the Boundaries ... the sight of human beings being transported like animals, and kept in chain-link fence ... the power of corporations and individuals to act... more
... Rights 183 Berta Esperanza Hernandez-Truyol and Jane E. Larson 11 Policing the Boundaries ... the sight of human beings being transported like animals, and kept in chain-link fence ... the power of corporations and individuals to act as nongovernmental imperialists grows without ...
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236 NCJ Int'l L. & Com. Reg. [Vol. 18 that drug profits of $300 billion United States dollars are laundered each year through the international banking system.3 Sales within the United States alone generate $110 billion in illegal... more
236 NCJ Int'l L. & Com. Reg. [Vol. 18 that drug profits of $300 billion United States dollars are laundered each year through the international banking system.3 Sales within the United States alone generate $110 billion in illegal drug pro-ceeds.4 In response to these figures and ...
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Research Interests: Human Rights Law, Human Rights, Property Rights, Property Law, Political Science, and 12 moreLiberalism, Gay And Lesbian Studies, Law and Economics, Philosophy of Property, Sexual Orientation, Homosexuality, Social Science Research Network, Same Sex Marriage, Defense Of Marriage Act, Sexuality and the Law, Doma, and Nonheterosexuality
In 2003, the Supreme Court in the landmark decision Lawrence v. Texas found a Texas law, banning homosexual, but not heterosexual, sodomy to be unconstitutional. Thus, Lawrence ended the Bowers era in which morality was deemed to be a... more
In 2003, the Supreme Court in the landmark decision Lawrence v. Texas found a Texas law, banning homosexual, but not heterosexual, sodomy to be unconstitutional. Thus, Lawrence ended the Bowers era in which morality was deemed to be a justification for discrimination against gays and lesbians. While the decision did bring to United States Constitutional analysis the radical idea that gays and lesbians are people too, it stopped short of addressing the real problem the case presents--the existence of a second-class citizenry. This Article examines the Lawrence decision in light of both the international, regional, and foreign jurisprudence and the critical theoretical frameworks. In doing so, it provides a more complete rendition of the Lawrence facts than appears in the Supreme Court opinion and offers further insight into the litigants\u27 life histories. This critical evaluation leads to the conclusion that the good in Lawrence be celebrated, but with caution, in order to move for...
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This essay originated with a panel on Alternatives to the Regular Courts that took place during the first Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas conference sponsored by the University of Florida Levin College of Law. Some of the possible... more
This essay originated with a panel on Alternatives to the Regular Courts that took place during the first Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas conference sponsored by the University of Florida Levin College of Law. Some of the possible alternatives to the courts, in the trade field, that have been discussed include mediation, arbitration, constitutional courts and binational dispute panels. This essay reflects upon another alternative to domestic courts that progressively and increasingly is also being invoked in the trade context: international and regional human rights regimes. I specifically will review the Inter-American Human Rights System to ascertain the influence of human rights norms on domestic law in Latin America. The essay interrogates the impact the Inter-American regional system has had on local laws, using the changed location of women as an example that reveals the richness of this alternative to the regular courts. In undertaking such analysis, an invaluable sou...
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Part I of this Essay traces the role of women in Cuban society throughout history. It includes a review of the development of Cuban laws concerning women, and women's role in developing them. This Part also addresses laws pertaining... more
Part I of this Essay traces the role of women in Cuban society throughout history. It includes a review of the development of Cuban laws concerning women, and women's role in developing them. This Part also addresses laws pertaining to women that were adopted by the present revolutionary regime. Part II sets out laws, beyond the laws of Cuba, that address the issue of gender/sex equality. It focuses on international norms that protect sex equality pertinent to women in Cuba as well as to Cuban women outside of Cuba. It also reviews U.S. laws on equality as they affect Cuban women within U.S. borders. Part III turns to look at culture and its function in defining the reality of Cuban women on the island as well as in the U.S. The work concludes that culture trumps law: cultural assumptions about sex roles have persisted in Cuban societies whether within the island or in the Cuban community within the U.S.; further study is likely to reveal additional commonalities with respect to...
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The essays in this cluster all deploy narratives of identity and nation. They also bring to life the status of outsiders as racialized "others." This reality of racialization contradicts the popular narrative that we live in a... more
The essays in this cluster all deploy narratives of identity and nation. They also bring to life the status of outsiders as racialized "others." This reality of racialization contradicts the popular narrative that we live in a post-racial society. The current claim of post-racialism is grounded in the simple fact that in the United States a huge margin of the popular vote elected a Black man as president. That man is Barack Hussein Obama, someone who has to engage, as those who are the subject of the essays, with concerns about nation, identity, and being a racialized "other."
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In this journey, I want to engage in critical race feminism praxis by searching for the answer to Paula Gunn Allen's important question: ''Who is your mother?" The requisite interrogation, however, is not the facially... more
In this journey, I want to engage in critical race feminism praxis by searching for the answer to Paula Gunn Allen's important question: ''Who is your mother?" The requisite interrogation, however, is not the facially evident one -- I know and adore my mami. Rather, the journey on which I want to embark is the one mapped by Professor Gunn Allen, one that requires the plaiting of a broader, deeper, more complicated routing than "that woman whose womb formed and released you, " although that, too, is a path fundamental to our being. Professor Gunn Allen is talking about a different, larger layer of creation: the cultural, social, political, communitarian, historical passages that constitute a peoples. She is contemplating the sources of production of knowledges that will provide context, history, culture, spirituality, meaning, and direction to our multidimensional lives.This enterprise of locating our madres is, to be sure, a daunting task. The space from w...
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For some time now, I have focused on a mission to bring together the separate discourses of the human rights and trade fields -- certainly not to blend them, but to raise awareness of their myriad interconnections. Indeed, human rights... more
For some time now, I have focused on a mission to bring together the separate discourses of the human rights and trade fields -- certainly not to blend them, but to raise awareness of their myriad interconnections. Indeed, human rights and trade are interlocking pieces of the puzzle we call international law and cannot possibly remain sequestered in the "splendid isolation" in which they have existed since their inception as disciplines. In any study of globalization, especially if one endeavors to pursue its benefits for all persons, not just the elite around the world, one must be aware of and seek to remedy its patent deficiencies in the myriad intersections of trade and human rights. Particular attention needs to be drawn to the impact of globalization on areas such as the environment, health, labor, trafficking, women, the global economy, indigenous populations, and poverty. The thesis of the book on which this essay is based is that viable alternatives exist to creat...
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This Essay is a journey that will elucidate a personal exploration of LatCrit's trinitarian goals of engagement of identity interrogations, community building, and self-critical analysis. It will reflect personal travels and travails,... more
This Essay is a journey that will elucidate a personal exploration of LatCrit's trinitarian goals of engagement of identity interrogations, community building, and self-critical analysis. It will reflect personal travels and travails, bumps in the road and epiphanies, theory and practice. The plot for these musings is a cultural voyage in which this viajera embarks to live and comprehend the meaning of mestizaje 5 in a personal quest for identity location; the stage is LatCrit IV. My interrelated trips are chartered in three parts. Part I, Nuevos Mundos. Traveling LatCrit Community, presents the historical background of, contexts for, and evolutions of personal identity explorations in which I have engaged in the past utilizing the vehicle of LatCrit. As will become evident, that vehicle is a complex and changing one. But at its core, LatCrit philosophizes inclusiveness in light of diversity, support in light of difference, community in light of conflict. These foundational elem...
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Research Interests: Law, Terrorism, Human Rights Law, Human Rights, Glocalization, and 13 morePolitical Science, Politics, National Security Law, Taliban, War on Terror, Law Enforcement, National Security, Social Science Research Network, Al Qaeda, Civil liberties, World Trade Center, PATRIOT ACT, and Terrorist attacks
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Research Interests: Sociology, Human Rights Law, International Law, Law and Society, Political Science, and 15 moreGlobal Citizenship, Law and Economics, Personhood, Citizenship Theory, Citizenship, Statelessness, Civic Republicanism, Nationality, Dual citizenship, Legal Status, Transnational Law, Guantanamo Bay, Naturalization, Dual Nationality, and Multiple citizenship
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370 COLUMBIA HUMAN RIGHTS LAW REVIEW [Vol.25:369 Las costumbres, raices y herencias que me hacen quien soy, Son colores de un arcoiris, acordes de un mismo son Forgemos nuevos caminos, en la unión hay un gran poder Orgullosos de ser... more
370 COLUMBIA HUMAN RIGHTS LAW REVIEW [Vol.25:369 Las costumbres, raices y herencias que me hacen quien soy, Son colores de un arcoiris, acordes de un mismo son Forgemos nuevos caminos, en la unión hay un gran poder Orgullosos de ser Latin[asl]os no importa de ...
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In writing this essay I will begin what I am certain will be a long, complex process of answering the question of who is my mother. I will develop the work in three parts, corresponding to critical parts of the rediscovery process. In... more
In writing this essay I will begin what I am certain will be a long, complex process of answering the question of who is my mother. I will develop the work in three parts, corresponding to critical parts of the rediscovery process. In Part II, this essay probes cultural links that are formative and transformative of our personhood, which define and determine how we interact with the various and varied communities through which we take daily voyages. I use narrative to locate myself in the context of knowing and discovering the myriad cultures in which I define my mothers. This part underscores the importance of piercing our self-conceptions and identifications as a means of understanding our own realities. Part HI explores ways that certain identities have been erased or colonized and how law and religion have played central roles in creating and justifying cycles of domination and subordination. Here the essay reveals the brutal colonization and fast extermination of the poblaci6n ...
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Worldwide, women\u27s equality remains elusive in the social, political, civil, economic and cultural spheres. Such reality presents a challenge in the movement of persons across state borders because, globally, the world is experiencing... more
Worldwide, women\u27s equality remains elusive in the social, political, civil, economic and cultural spheres. Such reality presents a challenge in the movement of persons across state borders because, globally, the world is experiencing a feminization of migration. In turn, the feminization of migration effects threats to the health and safety of migrant women, whose well-being is in peril at all stages of the migration journey – from the country of origin, to the transit states, to the receiving state – from smugglers and official actors alike. Because the globalization discourses exclude the movement of persons and focus on the movement of goods and services, migrants become invisible. This work suggests a paradigmatic shift in the way institutions engage migration – from a system that treats migrants as disposable people and focuses on legality of presence to a human rights-inspired one that centers on migrants\u27 well-being and dignitary interests. In support of this shift, th...