Professor Cynthia Godsoe featured in Fall 2019 AALS News

The American Association of Law Schools (AALS) featured Professor Cynthia Godsoe in “Spotlight on Sections: Section on Family and Juvenile Law” in its Fall 2019 Newsletter. Godsoe is currently chair of the AALS Section on Family and Juvenile Law, which promotes the development and exchange of information related to teaching and research in the fields of family and juvenile law.

Godsoe considers equality in childhood, birth, and access to reproductive freedom to be one of the most relevant topics in family and juvenile law today. “That is a huge concern going forward,” she said, “how different kinds of families and children are treated differently by the state in illegitimate ways.”

Godsoe is also an expert on criminal law, and much of her scholarship focuses on juvenile justice. She notes that juveniles who are prosecuted for sex offenses, for instance, make up about a quarter of the people on the sex offender registry.

“I think [family law is] one of the most radical and interesting places to explore changes that anticipate what will happen in other areas of constitutional law,” she said. “Family law in general is under-theorized, but is now hitting its stride. The field has shifted from the traditional idea of divorce and child custody to intersecting and cross-cutting topics.”

Godsoe teaches courses in family law, criminal law, children and the law, professional responsibility, and public interest lawyering. Her scholarship centers on the regulation of intimate behavior and gender roles through family and criminal law, encompassing topics including the path to marriage equality, the designation of victims and offenders in intimate violence, and the criminalization of non-conforming girls. Her recent works have appeared in the Yale Law Journal Forum, Tulane Law Review, and California Law Review Circuit, among others.

Read the Q&A here.