Law School Events

03.16.09 - The Center's Law School Initiative partners with law schools and law journals to host scholars' convenings to generate and explore new approaches to reproductive rights and human rights. Events range from informal roundtables where law teachers can trade ideas on how best to address the challenge of teaching reproductive rights to panel discussions and full-day academic symposia which take on cutting edge issues of reproductive health and rights. Whenever possible, we encourage the publication of papers in law school journals and we try to promote the value of bringing-in a comparative and international law perspective to discussions of reproductive health in the United States. Past scholars' convenings have taken place at law schools in Boston, New York, Denver and Oxford, Mississippi.

Center staff attorneys also speak at law school conferences, career panels, classes, and other events.

November 10, 2011
Visualizing the Fetus: Implications of Mandatory Ultrasound Laws: On November 10^th, the Center co-sponsored Visualizing the Fetus with Law Students for Reproductive Justice at the University of Texas School of Law. The event featured CRR Innovation in Scholarship Awardee Professor Carol Sanger, and explored the meaning and impact of mandatory ultrasound laws and the role of visualization of the fetus in abortion law and politics today. Over seventy (70) students, professors, practitioners and abortion providers packed the room for the panel. UT Law Professor Karen Engle chaired the event and UT Vice Provost Gretchen Ritter, Representative Donna Howard from the Texas House of Representatives, and Blake Rocap, Legislative Counsel at NARAL Pro-choice Texas responded to Professor Sanger's comments. The event was a great success and provided an opportunity for the Center to reach out to our allies on the ground in Texas.

April 1, 2011 
Baby Markets - The Center will co-sponsor Baby Markets, a roundtable on assisted reproductive technology on April 1st at Rutgers School of Law – Camden. The roundtable will focus on the challenges of regulating reproductive technologies. Discussions will span from comparative perspectives on ART regulation, to a re-evaluation of the constitutional right to procreate and the justifications for government regulation, to genetic selection of embryos and fetuses, to critical perspectives on the market in sperm and eggs. We are looking forward to a thought-provoking intellectual exchange that keeps sight of the practical implications of the regulatory choices that will be discussed.

March 4, 2011
“Sexual and Reproductive Rights:  Barriers to Access, Roadmaps to Fulfillment.” The Center co-sponsored this symposium on reproductive and sexual rights with the Harvard Journal of Gender & Law. Topics for the day centered on abortion, international issues, teen sexuality and mothers. Panels included Barriers and Access to Abortion, Barriers and Access to Decision-Making, and International Barriers and Access. Speakers included Boston University School of Law Professor and former CRR-CLS Fellow, Khiara Bridges, Harvard Law School Professor Glenn Cohen, and Yale Law School Professor, Reva Siegel.

February 23-25, 2011
Gender Justice in the Americas: A Transnational Dialogue on Sexuality, Violence, Reproduction, and Human Rights. This ambitious 3-day invitation-only event will bring together human rights activists and scholars in the Americas and highlight the potential for working in the Inter-American regional system to advance rights. The Center will co-sponsor the event with Professor Jorge Contesse Singh at Diego Portales University in Chile, Carrie Bettinger-Lopez at the University of Miami School of Law, and Risa Kaufman at the Human Rights Institute at Columbia Law School. Illustrious speakers include Elizabeth Abi-Mershed, the Deputy Executive Secretary for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and Rashida Manjoo, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women.

December 10, 2010
Teaching Sexual Rights Yale Law School Meeting. Working with Innovation in Scholarship Awardee Professor Ali Miller, the Center brought a small group of scholars together at Yale Law School to discuss sexual rights as part of the development of international human rights law. Attendees included Professor Mary Anne Case of the University of Chicago, Professor Suzanne Goldberg of Columbia Law School, and Professor Mindy Jane Roseman of Harvard Law, among others.   

March 24 - 27, 2010
The Center is sponsoring a panel on Family, Sex and Reproduction: Emerging Issues in International Law at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law (ASIL). President of the Center for Reproductive Rights Nancy Northup will speak on a panel of invited speakers who will discuss issues such as maternal mortality, same-sex marriage, the regulation of sexuality and therapeutic abortion.

February 12, 2010
NYU Review of Law and Social Change held a symposium, "Page to Practice: Broadening the Lens for Reproductive and Sexual Rights." US Legal Director Cynthia Soohoo served as a "practitioner-responder" on a panel on Global Movements and the Human Rights Framework. Professors Reva Siegel and Kenji Yoshino also took part in the event.

January 22, 2010
The Law School Initiative helped to catalyze the Case Western Reserve Law Review symposium on, "Reproductive Rights, Human Rights, and the Human Right to Health." US Legal Director Cynthia Soohoo presented a paper on the right to health under state constitutions. Center Innovation in Scholarship award winner, Professor Reva Siegel also spoke.

January 6 - 10, 2010
The Center for Reproductive Rights was represented at the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) Annual Conference in New Orleans. Center Fellow Payal Shah presented a paper at the South Asia Law Section of AALS, to be published in the Drexel Law Review.

October 19, 2009
Center Fellow Jordan Goldberg gave a talk for students at Cardozo Law School, giving an overview of reproductive health and the law.

October 13, 2009
US Legal Director Cynthia Soohoo taught a class for Columbia Law School's Human Rights Institute's annual Bringing Human Rights Home class this semester. She discussed the evolution of the US Human Rights Network and the US human rights movement, and her efforts to incorporate a human rights agenda into the Center's work.

May 7, 2009
Diana Hortsch spoke to the Human Rights Program’s scholars lunch at Harvard Law School together with Professor Martha Davis of Northeastern University School of Law. They discussed the challenge of avoiding the marginalization of reproductive rights in human rights advocacy and within the legal academy.

April 22, 2009

Fellow Jaime Todd-Gher presented Global Advocacy: Tools to Advance Women's Sexual and Reproductive Rights to a women's studies class at SUNY, New Paltz.

April 21, 2009

Staff Attorney Stephanie Toti spoke to a class at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Her presentation focused on the Center's Federal Policy Agenda and USLP litigation in Oklahoma, Louisiana and New York.

April 10, 2009

Law School Initiative Fellow Khiara Bridges  spoke at a symposium hosted by the Columbia Journal of Gender and the Law entitled Gender at the Intersections.  Khiara presented a paper focused on race and poverty law.

April 6, 2009

Law School Initiative Fellow Khiara Bridges participated in the Gender and Sexuality Law Symposium at Columbia Law School.  Khiara presented her paper, “Capturing the Judiciary: Carhart and the Burdens of the Undue Burden Standard.”

April 3, 2009

Legal Advisor Melissa Upreti attended a symposium at Washington and Lee University School of Law entitled Reproductive and Sexual Health and the African Women’s Protocol.  Melissa spoke about the African Protocol and its efficacy in addressing reproductive rights issues.  The symposium was sponsored by the Journal of Civil Rights, Social Justice and the Frances Lewis Law Center.

April 2 and April 3, 2009

Fellow Payal Shah participated in panel discussions at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Drexel University School of Law respectively.  Both panels addressed the Center’s work in India, the utilization of treaty monitoring bodies and other CRR litigation projects.

April 1, 2009

Fellow Rebecca Hart spoke to the Columbia Law Students for Reproductive Justice Chapter about USLP litigation in Louisiana, Oklahoma and Missouri. She also gave an overview of the state bills the Center is watching this year via our Legislative Counsel program reports.

March 31, 2009

Fellow Payal Shah spoke at a panel hosted by Cardozo Law School’s South Asian Law Student Association and the Asia Pacific Law Student Association at Cardozo Law School.  Payal discussed her work at CRR and the opportunities for law students interested in reproductive rights.

March 31, 2009

Fellow Mónica Arango spoke at the Frontiers of Humanitarianism 2009 Conference at the Graduate Center of The City University of New York.  This conference was sponsored by the Consortium on Security and Humanitarian Action - a venture between Columbia University, CUNY, Fordham and NYU.  Mónica spoke on a panel entitled Gender Based Violence: Protection and Justice in Africa and Latin America lead by The Institute for International Humanitarian Affairs at Fordham University.  Mónica’s presentation focused on the international mechanisms and framework of accountability for violence against women.

March, 27, 2009

Fellow Jaime Todd-Gher spoke on reproductive rights and human rights litigation and advocacy in the European region at a panel on International Women's Health Advocacy: Litigation and Advocacy in Europe at Rutgers University. The panel, was organized by Planned Parenthood and a Rutgers University pro-choice student organization, RUChoice. Other panelists included representatives from the International Women's Health Coalition, Planned Parenthood of New York and the Sierra Club.

March 26, 2009

Fellow Mónica Arango participated in a panel discussion at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia entitled Derechos sexuales y reproductivos en la adolescencia: A propósito de la discriminación escolar por embarazo (Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Rights: Regarding Pregnancy Discrimination in Schools).  Mónica spoke about international obligations towards the right to education and a comparative view of different public policies that address adolescent pregnancy and prevention.  The panel was hosted by Grupo de Derecho de Interes Publico (Public Interest Law Group) and the school.

March 9, 2009

ILP Director Luisa Cabal spoke on Defending Women’s Rights around the World: The Role of International Human Rights Law at New York University School of Law.  Her talk was part of NYU’s Leaders in Public Interest lecture series.  Luisa spoke about the Center’s legal advocacy efforts and the role of international human rights law in protecting women’s reproductive rights globally.

March 9, 2009

Law School Initiative Fellow Khiara Bridges spoke about her recent scholarship at a luncheon for the Columbia Law Students for Reproductive Justice Chapter at Columbia Law School.  

March 3, 2009
Fellow Jamie Todd-Gher spoke to a class at City University of New Jersey about litigation as a tool to advance women's human rights.

February 25, 2009

Four Center attorneys spoke at a conference sponsored by the Cardozo Journal of Gender and Law entitled What to Expect: Legal Developments and Challenges in Reproductive Justice. Staff Attorney Suzanne Stolz, Fellow Dana Sussman and I.L.P. Regional Manager & Senior Legal Advisor for Asia Melissa Upreti, spoke on a panel about Reproductive Human Rights.  Melissa spoke about the connection between reproductive rights and the international human rights framework. Suzanne spoke about using an international human rights frame in domestic advocacy and litigation. Dana addressed the reproductive health care needs of incarcerated women, specifically shackling during pregnancy, as a human rights violation. U.S.L.P. Deputy Director, Bonnie Scott Jones joined a panel discussion on Sexuality and Education, focusing on gender stereotypes and the trouble with abstinence-only education.

February 15, 2009

Staff Attorney Michelle Movahed spoke at the Law Students for Reproductive Justice (LSRJ) Northeast Regional Conference in Boston. She addressed priority policy areas in federal and state legislatures, current legislative trends in the states and pending state litigation.

February 5, 2009

U.S.L.P. Deputy Director, Bonnie Scott Jones spoke on a panel entitled Let's Talk about Sex: A Discussion on the Constitutionality and Effectiveness of Government-Funded Abstinence-Only Education Programs, at New York Law School.  Bonnie's talk addressed gender stereotyping, biased and uninformative information, the impact on LGBT students, and the human right to sexuality education in abstinence – only education programs.

January 29, 2009

Human Rights Attorney Katrina Anderson spoke at Columbia Law School in New York at a panel discussion entitled A Catalyst for Change: Gonzales v. United States, Domestic Violence Advocacy and the Obama Administration. Katrina spoke about using human rights strategies to advance key advocacy goals for reproductive rights in the new administration. The discussion included Jessica Lenahan (formerly Gonzales), who spoke about the case and her attempts to seek justice via the Supreme Court and the Inter-American Commission.

January 27th, 2009

Jordan Goldberg spoke at Fordham Law School at a brown bag discussion on the topic of Reproductive Rights as Human Rights in the United States.  Jordan discussed the Center's advocacy before the CERD Committee in Geneva and its work to promote an understanding that sexual and reproductive health care providers are human rights defenders.  The talk was followed by a lively Q & A with students and was sponsored by the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice.