Standard Margins: Contemporary Issues in Canadian Law and Sexuality
27-29 April 2007
Professor Ruthann Robson
Faculty of Law, City University of New York
Saturday, April 28 from 1:30pm to 2:30pm in the St. John's College Social Lounge
Ruthann Robson teaches in the areas of constitutional law, family law, feminist legal theory, and sexuality and the law, and is faculty advisor to the New York City Law Review. She is the author of numerous works developing a lesbian legal theory, which include the books Sappho Goes to Law School and Lesbian (Out)Law: Survival Under the Rule of Law, and many articles in such journals as New York Law School Journal of Human Rights, Albany Law Review, Women's Rights Law Reporter, Hastings Law Journal, Australian Feminist Law Journal, Yearbook of New Zealand Jurisprudence, as well as feminist journals such as Signs, Hypatia, and Women's Studies Quarterly. The New York City Law Review has published a symposium on her work in volume 8, issue 2.
Professor Robson received her J.D. from Stetson University College of Law and an LL.M. from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall), clerked for a federal district court judge and a federal judge on the Eleventh Court of Appeals, and practiced law with Florida Legal Services. She has given many presentations on women and sexuality and the law in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand. A frequent contributor to Out Magazine, she has won prizes for her creative work, including novels, short story collections, poetry, and creative nonfiction.
Sexual Freedoms in Global Perspective
What is sexual freedom and who decides? For those of us trained in the discipline of law, we understandably look at legal schemes and institutions when confronted with such a question. Yet doubts about whether the law can be a vehicle for real change persist. Further, there are serious debates about which legal institutions and instruments can address issues of sexual freedom: should sexual freedom be voted upon or protected by judges or constitutionalized or subject to international norms? By examining these issues in a comparative perspective, we can begin to appreciate the specific cultural conditions that construct our own views and the practices in our particular jurisdictions. And while global sexual freedom might seem like a dream, it also seems as if many of us continue to struggle for it, in and outside the law.
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