Feminist Legal Studies Workshop I
(Fall term, 2014), 1 credit
Course description:
The Feminist Legal Studies Workshop is designed to enable students to work closely with faculty in analyzing and discussing with leading feminist theorists and scholars visiting Queen's Faculty the topics of the speakers' papers.
The Feminist Legal Studies Workshop course is offered for one course credit per term. In the fall term of 2014, it is designated as Law 692; in the winter term of 2015 it is designated as Law 693. Students may enroll for one credit in the fall term, or for one credit in the winter term, or for a total of two credits in both terms combined. This course can also be combined with an ISP for students who may wish to carry out in-depth independent supervised work in relation to one or more of the areas discussed in this workshop.
Scheduling details:
The workshop speakers will be scheduled for the regular visitor slots on Mondays and Fridays, which run from 1 to 2:30 pm, and one or two additional meetings per term will be scheduled around everyone's class and other commitments. Speaker dates and locations are listed below.
Nature, mode, and content of evaluation of student participation:
Students will attend all the speakers events (4/term or all 7-8), will prepare advance reading for the first session of each term and two advance questions for the rest of the speakers in that term, plus 1-2 pages of briefing notes after each session (60% of course credit), will participate in the discussion at the speakers visit (10% of course credit), and will prepare a short term paper of approximately 10-15 pages on a topic that relates to any one of the speakers events (30% of course credit). To be taught by Profs. Amani and Lahey.
Fall term speakers (2014):
Friday, September 26, 2014
1pm, Macdonald Hall room 201
Kimberley Brooks
Dean and Weldon Professor of Law, Dalhousie University Schulich School of Law, Halifax
Why Feminism Matters to the Study of Law
To those attending my Sept. 26 session --
My hope for you in advance of the session on September 26 is that you will set aside two hours to turn your mind to some of the framing contributions of feminisms generally, and of the contribution of feminisms to the study of law more specifically.
To aid in that thinking, you will find three pieces attached: (1) Toni Pickard (retired Queen's law faculty member)'s wonderful introduction to law students at Queen's from 1987, (2) Patricia Monture (Queen's grad) 2004 piece, 'Women's Words' , and (3) Ruthann Robson (lesbian legal theorist and class crit)'s piece 'To Market, To Market'. I hope that each of these is a challenging and enjoyable (and relatively short) read.
I'd also turn your attention to two less conventional sources to spur reflection. The first is Emily Coyle's valedictory remarks at Dal last year, which can be found here. The second is Sonia Lawrence (Osgoode)'s institute for feminist legal studies blog here.
I welcome any thoughts or questions you have in advance of the session. You can find me at kim.brooks@dal.ca Otherwise, I look forward to meeting you in a couple of weeks.
Best,
Kim
Readings
Monday, September 29, 2014
1pm, Macdonald Hall room 201
Dr. Monique Cardinal
Associate Professor of Islamic Studies, Facult de thologie et de sciences religieuses, Universit Laval, Quebec
Friday, October 3, 2014
1pm, Macdonald Hall room 201
Patricia Allard
Senior Policy Analyst and Research consultant at Justice Strategies, former Open Society Foundations Soros Justice Advocacy Fellow (2007), and graduate of Queen's Law (1996).
Research to Action: Advancing the Needs of Children Facing Parental Incarceration
Patricia Allard is currently a Senior Policy Analyst and Research consultant at Justice Strategies, and was an Open Society Foundations Soros Justice Advocacy Fellow (2007). As an OSF Fellow, she developed a 'research to action' initiative that resulted in child welfare reform, affecting over one million children whose parents are incarcerated. Ms. Allard's research and advocacy efforts encompass a broad range of topics, with a particular focus on the impact of criminal justice policies on low-income women and women of color. Ms. Allard is an attorney who has consulted for Amnesty International and worked on staff at both the Sentencing Project and the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School. She is the author of several law journal articles and national reports, including Children on the Outside: Voicing the Pain and Human Costs of Parental Incarceration (2011); Impaired Judgment: Assessing the Appropriateness of Drug Treatment Courts as a Response to Drug Use in Canada (2011); Rebuilding Families, Reclaiming Lives: State Obligations to Children in Foster Care and their Incarcerated Parents (2006); and Life Sentences: Denying Welfare Benefits to Women Convicted of Drug Offenses (The Sentencing Project, 2002).
Ms. Allard is a graduate of Queen's University Faculty of Law (1996), was called to the bar of Ontario in 1998, and received her master's in criminology from the Center of Criminology at the University of Toronto (1999). Ms. Allard is pleased to call Toronto home where she lives with her life partner, Bo Yih Thom.
Reading:
Patricia Allard and Judith Green, Children on the Outside: Voicing the Pain and Human Costs of Parental Incarceration (2011).
Patricia Allard and Judith Green, Shadow Report of Justice Strategies to the International Convention on the Ellimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination: Alleviating the Impact of Parental Incarceration on Indigenous, African-American and Latino Children (2014).
Letter submitted to the United States Sentencing Commission
Friday October 24, 2014
1pm, Macdonald Hall room 202
Dr. Adelle Blackett
Associate Professor and William Dawson Scholar, Faculty of Law, McGill University
Subordination or Servitude in the Regulation of Decent Work for Domestic Workers? Understanding the Law of the Home Workplace [Working title]
In this lecture, Dr. Blackett will overview the international dimensions of domestic worker programs, and will focus on the relationship between traditional accounts of 'employment law' principles and provisions, and the distinct challenges to those accounts that arise when domestic work is the centre of analysis.
Dr. Blackett is Associate Professor, William Dawson Scholar, and the Director of the Labour Law and Development Research Laboratory at the Faculty of Law, McGill University. Since 2009, she has also been a Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commissioner. A Queen¹s Arts graduate, she also holds law degrees from McGill and a doctorate in law from Columbia University. She is involved in a number of international research networks, and has published and lectured widely on transnational labour law, infusing an intersectional approach that genders and centres 'peripheral' histories and identities in labour law¹s reconstruction. A former official of the International Labour Office (ILO) in Geneva, she served from 2008-2011 as the ILO's lead expert on international standard setting on decent work for domestic workers, which led to the adoption of an historic international treaty. She continues to serve as an ILO expert on labour law reform in Haiti. She was awarded the Bora Laskin National Fellowship in Human Rights Research in 2010, a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012, and the 2014 Christine Touringy Award of Merit from the Barreau du Québec.
Readings:
Adelle Blackett, 'The Decent Work for Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189) and Recommendation (No.
201), Introductory Note,' International Legal Materials, 53: (2014), pp. 250-266. [Texts of international legal instruments, with short introductory note.]
Adelle Blackett, 'The Decent Work for Domestic Workers Convention and Recommendation, 2011,' American Journal of International Law, 106: 4 (October 2012), pp. 778-794. [International labour law standard setting.]
Friday October 31, 2014
1pm, Macdonald Hall room 202
Judith Resnick
Arthur Liman Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Representing What: Women, Judges, and Equality in the United States
[Co-sponsored with Faculty of Law Speaker Series]