A symposium that charts the future and examines the past of the legal status of sexual harassment will be held Friday-Sunday, Feb. 27-March 1, at the Law School, 127 Wall St. The conference -- which celebrates the 20th anniversary of the publication of Catharine A. MacKinnon's landmark book, "Sexual Harassment of Working Women" (Yale University Press, 1979) -- is sponsored by the Law School, Yale University Press and the University of Michigan Law School.
"Given the public backlash against sexual harassment law prompted by recent developments in Washington, this seems an especially important moment to explore this body of law and the controversies surrounding it," says Reva Siegel, professor of law and one of the conference organizers.
Participants will explore questions concerning the legal and social impact of sexual harassment law. These include: Does sex have to be "unwelcome" to be legally actionable? Who should be held responsible for acts of sexual harassment? Is the law right to treat sexual harassment as sex discrimination? Can there be sexual harassment between people of the same sex? Should the sexual orientation of the parties matter? Does sexual harassment law infringe upon Constitutionally protected speech? How do people in other countries handle these problems? A discussion on the meaning of sexual equality will close the conference.
Among the conference participants will be Andrea Dworkin, feminist theorist and activist; Martha Nussbaum, professor of law and ethics at the University of Chicago; Kimberle Williams Crenshaw, critical race theorist; and Guido Calabresi, federal judge and former dean of the law school. Yale faculty participants include George Priest, Kenji Yoshino, Jack Balkin, Nancy Cott, Harlon Leigh Dalton, Harold Hongju Koh, Burke Marshall and Judith Resnik.
There is a fee for the conference. For registration information, contact rebecca.tushnet@yale.edu.