Francine Banner

Immoral Waiver: Judicial Review of Intra-Military Sexual Assault Claims

Francine Banner — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 17:17:34 PDT

This essay critiques the application of the Feres doctrine and the policy of judicial deference to military affairs in the context of recent class actions against government and military officials for constitutional violations stemming from sexual assaults in the U.S. military. The Pentagon estimates that 19,000 military sexual assaults occur each year. Yet, in 2011, fewer than two hundred persons were convicted of crimes of sexual violence. In the face of such pervasive and longstanding constitutional violations, this essay argues that the balance of harms weighs heavily in favor of judicial intervention. The piece discusses why, from both legal and justice-based perspectives, the Feres principles are inapplicable to claims of intra-military sexual assault. Further, the essay argues that judicial decisions invalidating the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy provide a roadmap for the judiciary in assessing both its proper role in respect of the contemporary armed forces and the institutional obligation to resolve the claims of exceptionally deserving plaintiffs.

Comparing Testaments on Terrorism

Annamarie Oliverio et al. — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:59:39 PDT

Uncivil Wars: ‘Suicide Bomber Identity’ As A Product of Russo-Chechen Conflict

Francine Banner — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:51:17 PDT

’Beauty Will Save the World’: Beauty Discourse and the Imposition of Gender Hierarchies in the Post-War Chechen Republic

Francine Banner — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:30:15 PDT

Foreign Law in Domestic Courts : Different Uses, Different Implications

Francine Banner — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:26:12 PDT

‘It’s Not All Flowers and Daisies’: Masculinity, Heteronormativity and the Obscuring of Lesbian Identity in the Repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

Francine Banner — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:22:16 PDT

Rewriting History: The Use of Feminist Narratives to Deconstruct the Myth of the Capital Defendant

Francine Banner — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 11:45:14 PDT

Mothers, Bombers, Beauty Queens: Chechen Women's Roles in the Russo-Chechen Conflict

Francine Banner — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:15:06 PDT

History is written on the body. Factors such as historical, social, and cultural exigencies produce bodies of a determinate type. In the Chechen Republic, women's bodies have been front and center in struggles to raise birthrates in order to secure ethnic advancement and promote a sense of peace and national unity in periods after time of strife. They have been the focus of discussions over modesty, adherence to tradition, and religious observance, as women took the stage as contestants in beauty pageants. And they have been at the forefront in debates over Chechen terrorism, with the "black widows" of Chechnya being recognized in the West as heroines of jihad.