2020-2021 Symposium

Property Ownership and Entitlement: Gender, Religion, & Culture

The theme of Michigan State Law Review’s 2020-2021 Symposium is Property Ownership and Entitlement: Gender, Religion, & Culture. Gender, religion, and overall culture influence every category of law. The realm of property ownership and entitlement is no exception. The public’s perception of gender and religion is rapidly evolving and the law is trailing behind. There is much discussion to be had and work to be done on this important topic. Our Symposium invited top scholars to publish and present pieces related to the theme of property ownership in the realm of gender, religion, and culture and was co-sponsored by Professor David Blankfein-Tabachnick and Professor Daniel Barnhizer.

Current Symposium Scholars

Elizabeth Sepper is a nationally recognized scholar of religious liberty, health law, and equality. She is a professor of health law and reproductive rights & justice at the University of Texas at Austin Law School. Her recent work focuses on legal theoretical and policy debates related to the anti-discrimination obligations of public accommodations. She received her LLM and JD magna cum laude from New York University School of Law where she served as a Notes of Editor of New York University Law Review. Following law school, Professor Sepper clerked for the Honorable Marjorie Rendell of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, practiced human rights law with a focus on women’s rights, and was a center for reproductive rights fellow at Columbia Law School.

Rafael Pardo, a professor at Emory University School of Law, specializes in bankruptcy and commercial law, and his scholarship has been published in numerous law journals. Pardo received his JD from New York University School of Law, where he served as an executive editor of the New York University Law Review and was a recipient of the Judge John J. Galgay Fellowship in Bankruptcy and Reorganization Law. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute, an elected fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and has testified as a bankruptcy expert before both houses of Congress. In 2015, he received the Emory Williams Distinguished Teaching Award, the highest university honor for teaching given by Emory University to a full-time faculty member in recognition of a record of excellence in teaching.

Anita Bernstein, is a professor at Brooklyn Law School. She is a nationally recognized authority on tort law and feminist jurisprudence, as well as professional responsibility and products liability. Her awards include the first Fulbright scholarship in European Union affairs given to a law professor. She is a member of the American Law Institute. In 2020 she received from the AALS Section on Torts and Compensation Systems the top honor in her academic field, the William L. Prosser Award. Her writings have appeared in dozens of law reviews, including the principal ones of Harvard, Yale, Columbia, California, Michigan, Cornell, Duke, Texas, and Vanderbilt. Her books address torts, products liability, and the law of marriage. Professor Bernstein’s wide-ranging interests extend to microfinance, diversity as a rationale for affirmative action, and comparative and international law. Her scholarship has been cited in decisional law by federal courts (both trial and appellate) and the supreme courts of Pennsylvania and Texas.

Christopher Serkin teaches and writes about land use and property law at Vanderbilt Law School. His scholarship addresses local governments, property theory, the Takings Clause, land use regulations, and eminent domain. Dean Serkin was named associate dean for research in 2015 and now serves as the law school’s associate dean for academic affairs. Before joining Vanderbilt’s law faculty, Dean Serkin taught at Brooklyn Law School from 2005-13. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago, and New York University. He began his academic career at New York University School of Law, where he taught for two years as an acting assistant professor in its Lawyering Program. After earning his J.D. at the University of Michigan School of Law, where he was a Clarence Darrow Scholar, Dean Serkin was a law clerk for Judge John M. Walker Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and for Judge J. Garvan Murtha of the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont. Before joining the legal academy, he practiced law as an associate with Davis Polk & Wardwell.

Frank Ravitch teaches Torts I, Law and Religion, and Law and Interpretation at Michigan State University College of Law. His current research projects include an article suggesting a contextual approach to resolve conflicts between religious complicity claims and discrimination against members of the LGBTQ community. Professor Ravitch's career has included experience in private practice and on Capitol Hill. Since joining Michigan State University College of Law he has authored several books, numerous law review articles, essays, book reviews, and book chapters, as well as amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court. Professor Ravitch's articles, which have appeared in a number of highly regarded law reviews and peer reviewed journals, have primarily focused on law and religion in the U.S. and Japan, but he has also written about interpretive theory, civil rights law and disability discrimination. He has given numerous academic presentations nationally and internationally. In 2001, he was named a Fulbright scholar and served on the law faculty at Doshisha University (Japan), where he taught courses relating to U.S. constitutional law and law and religion.

Matthew Fletcher is a Foundation Professor of Law at Michigan State University College of Law and Director of the Indigenous Law and Policy Center. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Arizona Rogers College of Law, the University of Michigan Law School, the University of Montana Blewett School of Law, and Stanford Law School. He is a frequent instructor at the Pre-Law Summer Institute for American Indian students. He sits as the Chief Justice of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians Supreme Court and also sits as an appellate judge for the Colorado River Indian Tribes, the Hoopa Valley Tribe, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians, the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Indians, the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians, the Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska, and the Tulalip Tribes. He is a member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.