Paula A. Monopoli is Professor of Law and Marbury Research Professor at the University of Maryland School of Law where she is also the Founding Director of its Women, Leadership & Equality Program. She received a B.A, cum laude, from Yale College in 1980, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1983. Her most recent publications include Gender and Constitutional Design in the Yale Law Journal and Gender and Justice: Parity and the United States Supreme Court in The Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law. Professor Monopoli is also the author of the book, American Probate: Protecting the Public, Improving the Process (Northeastern University Press 2003). Professor Monopoli is an elected member of the American Law Institute and she sits on the ALI's Consultative Committees for the Restatement Third of Property (Donative Transfers) and the Restatement Third of Trusts.
]]>Susan B. Haire is Associate Professor of Political Science in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia. Her research focuses on the U.S. Courts of Appeals, with a particular emphasis on the role of resources in judicial decision making. Haire is currently working on a project that examines how diversity in the makeup of the panel shapes the attention to issues in the court's opinion. She recently served as a program director for the National Science Foundation's Law and Social Science Program (2007-2009) and is the co-author of Continuity and Change on the United States Courts of Appeals (University of Michigan Press, 2000). Haire's articles have appeared in law reviews, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Judicature, Justice System Journal, Law & Society Review, and Policy Studies Journal.
Professor Ní Aoláin is concurrently the Dorsey and Whitney Chair in Law at the University of Minnesota Law School and a Professor of Law at the University of Ulster's Transitional Justice Institute in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She is co-founder and Associate Director of the Institute. Professor Ní Aoláin received her LL.B. and Ph.D. in law at the Queen's University Law Faculty in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She also holds an LL.M. degree from Columbia Law School. Professor Ní Aoláin was a Visiting Professor at the University of Minnesota Law School in 2003-04. She has previously been Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School (1993-94); Associate-in-Law at Columbia Law School (1994-96); Visiting Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University (1996-2000); Associate Professor of Law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel (1997-99) and Visiting Fellow at Princeton University (2001-02). Professor Ní Aoláin is the recipient of numerous academic awards and honors including a Fulbright scholarship, the Alon Prize, the Robert Schumann Scholarship, a European Commission award, and the Lawlor fellowship. Her teaching and research interests are in the fields of international law, human rights law, national security law and feminist legal theory. She has published extensively in the fields of emergency powers, conflict regulation, transitional justice and sex based violence in times of war. Her most recent book /Law in Times of Crisis /(Cambridge University Press 2006) was awarded the American Society of International Law's preeminent prize in 2007 - the Certificate of Merit for creative scholarship. She was a representative of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at domestic war crimes trials in Bosnia (1996-97). In 2003, she was appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations as Special Expert on promoting gender equality in times of conflict and peace-making. She has been nominated twice by the Irish government to the European Court of Human Rights in 2004 and 2007, the first woman and the first academic lawyer to be thus nominated. She was appointed by the Irish Minister of Justice to the Irish Human Rights Commission in 2000, and served until 2005. She remains an elected member of the Executive Committee for the Belfast based Committee on the Administration of Justice, and is also a member of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.
Biography:
Dr Heather Roberts is a lecturer at the ANU College of Law. Her research focuses on Australian constitutional law, legal biography, the history of the High Court and women lawyers in Australia. Her doctoral thesis examined the constitutional vision of Justice William Deane, a key proponent of implied constitutional rights in the controversial Mason High Court (1987-1995). She is currently engaged in a comparative analysis of the swearing-in ceremonies of Australian judges, with a focus on the women judges of the High Court and Federal Court of Australia. This research formed the basis of a paper at the International Conference on Feminist Constitutionalism, at Queens University in February 2009 entitled "Women Judges,' Maiden Speeches' and the High Court of Australia". Together with Professor Kim Rubenstein, also of the ANU, she is developing a project to create an oral history archive of the experiences of trailblazing Australian women lawyers.
Cathi is Professor of law at the University of the Witwatersrand whereshe teaches Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Gender and Law. She has published in Equality, Gender and Law, and Women and Democracy. She is particularly interested in the possibilities of judges giving 'transformative' judgments that address the fundamental inequalities of gender.
Current Position
Senior Research Fellow, The Ralph Bunch Institute for International Relations
The Graduate Center, The City University of New York 2009 The focus of my research and writing is the gender transformation of South Africa's judiciary and the judiciary's engagement in South Africa's transition to a human rights-based constitutional democracy.
Related Publications, Programs, Presentations
Creator and Executive Producer, *Courting Justice, *a documentary featuring women judges serving on the Constitutional Court, Supreme Court of Appeal and provincial High Courts of South Africa. 10-min video on www.wmm.com
"Women's Representation on the Courts in the Republic of South Africa," *University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class*, Vol. 6, No. 2, 2006 based on presentation at University of Maryland School of Law conference "The Global Advancement of Women: Barriers and Best Practices."
"The Challenges of Public Interest Litigation," to be published in *Comparative Constitutionalism and Rights: Global Perspectives, *Penelope Andrews and Susan Bazilli, eds. (Cambridge Univ. Press)
based on presentation at University KwaZulu Natal, Durban, South Africa , December 10-13, 2005.
"The women's legal centre during its first five years," *Advancing Women's Rights*, Christina Murray and Michelle O'Sullivan, eds., *Acta Juridica*, Journal of the University of Cape Town Law School, December 2005.
"Equal Rights for Women through Litigation: An Examination of the ACLU Women's Rights Project, 1971-1976," *Columbia** Human Rights Law Review*, Fall, 1976.
"The Impact of South Africa's Constitutional Court on Gender Equity," Congressional Breakfast,* April 13,2005 In commemoration of South Africa's 10^th anniversary as a constitutional democracy, I initiated and designed the program, managed its implementation through to its successful conclusion , and prepared and distributed a report of the event. U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and South Africa's Ambassador to the United States, Barbara Masekela, introduced the speakers: South Africa's Constitutional Court Justices Yvonne Mokgoro and Kate O'Regan.
"South Africa's Constitutional Mandate for Judicial Transformation by Gender ," Columbia University, School of International Public Administration, December 6, 2006.
"Women's Representation on South Africa's Courts," New York County Lawyers Association, September 13, 2006.
"South Africa's Record in Gender Transformation of the Judiciary, Keynote address, 2^nd Annual General Meeting, South Africa Affiliate , International Association of Women Judges, August 5, 2006.
"Transformation of the Judiciary by Gender in South Africa," American University, Women & Politics Institute Conference, "Women & Political Leadership," April 8, 2006.
"Women Judges in South Africa," New York County Lawyers Association and Gender Fairness Committee of the [New York] Supreme Court, March 15, 2006.
"Women and the Law," American University, Women & Politics Institute, November 1, 2005.
"Public Interest Litigation by the Women's Legal Centre of South Africa," American University, Women & Politics Institute, October 31,2005.
"The Case in Support of Women Judges," University of Saskatchewan College of Law, September 24, 2005.
Current Board Membership
*Pro Mujer, Founding President *President, Board of Directors 1991-2000Member, Executive and Governance Committees 2000-**
Pro Mujer is an award-winning social enterprise integrating micro-lending,, training, health education and health services. It operates in five Latin American countries
Global Partnership for Afghanistan (GPFA) 2002 GPFA, founded in 2002 assists Afghans to revive croplands, orchards and vineyards.
Council of Women World Leaders 2008 Members are women who currently are or who have been heads of state.
Education
Ph.D New York University, Political Science
M.A. University of Illinois, Labor-Management Relations
B.S. Cornell University, Industrial and Labor Relations
Certificate Harvard University, Management Development Program for College and University Administrators
]]>Mary Volcansek is professor of Political Science, specializing in judicial politics, comparative judicial politics, American constitutional law, and West European, Italian and EU politics. She has published five monographs and edited or co-edited seven collections. /Globalizing Justice: Critical Perspectives on Transnational Law and the Cross-Border Migration of Legal Norms /(co-edited with Donald W. Jackson and Michael Tolley) will be published by SUNY Press in 2010 and includes her chapter, "Blurring Sovereignty: The Human Rights Act of 1998 and British Law." Her article, co-authored with Donald W. Jackson, "Human Rights or Trade Protection?: U.S. Politics and the World Trade Organization," appeared in the /Australian Journal of Political Science/ in Spring, 2009. "Bargaining Constitutional Design: Judicial Review as Political Insurance" is forthcoming in /West European Politics/, and "Exporting the Missouri Plan: Judicial Appointment Commissions" will be published in fall, 2009, in the /University of Missouri Law Review/. She is Executive Director of the Center for Texas Studies at TCU. Professor Volcansek also serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of Humanities Texas and on the Board of the Fort Worth Transportation Authority, where she chairs the Finance Committee.
My analysis involves issues of recruitment of individuals for the federal bench and those who are selected through the Missouri Non-Partsian Plan. In addition, my studies have explored the role of interest groups in litigation with an emphasis on gender issues including reproductive rights.
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Gender permeates all parts of the judicial process. It shapes who is considered a viable candidate for a judgeship, which judges move up the judicial ladder, and how judges go about the business of judging.
Chair: Joyce Sterling
Papers:
Hazel Genn: Diversifying the Judiciary: Real World Challenges
Drawing on my experience as a member of the Judicial Appointments Commission in England, I will discuss the problem of operationalizing the concept of merit and of what constitutes evidence of merit and potential. I will also consider the problem of developing selection criteria in the absence of any positive description of the realities of judicial work, particularly in the "trenches".
Carrie Menkel-Meadow: Asylum in a Different Voice? Judging Immigration Claims and
Gender
This paper (soon to be a book chapter in Ramji-Nogales, et. al, Refugee Roulette (NYU Press) reviews the empirical findings of a major study of US immigration asylum judging which found women judges were 44% more likely, than male judges, to grant asylum. The paper analyzes these findings and discusses them in relation to the author's prior work on gender and legal behavior (of lawyers and judges) and the extant literature on gender and judging.
Judith Resnik: Representing Justice: Gender, Race and the Iconography of Courts
As women and men of all color became litigants, they came to question the ways in which the justice system represented them in legal doctrine and in the imagery that adorns courts. Thus the history of gender, race, and ethnic bias and the creation of specialized bar associations to reflect the changing demographics of lawyers intersects with contestations about "Mulatto" justices in Aiken, South Carolina, with "Communist" Justices in Newark, New Jersey, and with scenes of segregation in Jackson,Mississippi. This paper explores the history and contemporary debates about how to express commitments to diversity and to acknowledge the injustices of justice systems.
Ulrike Schultz: Women in Leading Positions in the Judiciary in Northrhine-Westfalia
I will report first results of empirical research into Women Judges Careers in the federal state of Northrhine-Westfalia, the biggest one in Germany with 18 Mill. inhabitants and 5.854 judges of who 33% are women. We have just got a governmental grant to do it. We will analyze the existing statistical data, evaluate personnel files and interview persons who hold key positions for advancing careers and a number of judges (male and female equally) who have climbed up the ladder or who haven´t got a chance for a career or foregone it.
Discussant: Leny de Groot-van Leeuwen