NAWJ Programs & Publications

Available Educational Materials, Publications, and Current Outreach Programs

Our materials are available at no cost, but we do charge for shipping and handling. To request specific titles, please send an e-mail to nawj@nawj.org listing the titles you want along with your mailing address.

• The Bankruptcy Card and How to Play It (revised 2007)
• Beyond Borders: Impact of International Law on U.S. Courts (Curriculum 2005)
• A Guide to the Transfer of Structured Settlements Annuities (2004)
• From Bar to Bench (Program Manual 2005)
• Justice for Immigrants: Removing Obstacles to Justice for Immigrants (2002)
• Genome Justice: Implications of New Genetics for Women and Vulnerable Populations (Video 2002, Curriculum 2005)
• Success Inside and Out
• Sentencing Women Offenders (Online 2001, updated 2003)
• Changing the Face of Justice: The History of the National Association of Women Judges (Video 2001)
• Color of Justice: Outreach to Encourage Students to Consider Legal and Judicial Careers (2001)
• The Storybook Project (2001, ongoing outreach program)
• Judicial Considerations When Sentencing Pregnant Substance Users (1996) (with and available from NJEP)
• Moving Beyond Battered Women’s Syndrome: A Guide to the Use of Expert Testimony on Battering and Its Effects (1995)
• Understanding Sexual Violence: The Judge’s Role in Stranger and Non-Stranger Rape and Sexual Assault Cases: A Self-Directed Video Curriculum (2001) (with and available from NJEP)
• Gender Fairness Strategies Project (2001) (with and available from NJEP)
• Gender Fairness in the Courts: Action in the New Millennium (2001) (with and available from NJEP)
• Promoting Gender Fairness Through Judicial Education: Guide to Issues and Resources (1989, 2002) (with and available from NJEP)

Past Publications from the National Association of Women Judges

• Medicine, Ethics and the Law: Pre-Conception to Birth (1991)
• Fabricated Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse in Custody Litigation (1993)
• Family Violence: Effective Judicial Intervention (Ltd. Supply, 1993)
• What’s a Judge to Do? Pregnant Substance Users and the Role of the Court (Ltd. Supply, 1993)
• Juvenile Violence: A Guide to Research (1996)
• Elder Abuse in the State Courts: Three Curricula for Judges and Court Staff (1997)
• When Bias Compounds: Insuring Equal Justice for Women of Color in the Courts (1998) (with and available from NJEP)

For more information or to order materials, please contact the National Office.

Please log into the Members Only section for information about this program.

That international law may play an important role in many seemingly unrelated state and federal cases is a surprise to most judges. Although the domestic rule of law observed by courts in the United States is heralded as the hallmark of a civilized and orderly society, judges also may resolve disputes by drawing upon international law. Most judges are unaware that international law often can assist them in resolving legal issues that arise in their courts.

Human rights treaties and other international mandates can provide legal relief in cases of violence or discrimination against women and children, as well as in matters related to racism, poverty, reproductive choice, police or state brutality and the treatment of the elderly. In all areas of the law, courts throughout the United States can strengthen their own deliberative processes if they broaden their responses to the legal problems they face. By looking at decisions from other constitutional courts around the world, and by reference to international agreements, provisions, conventions and customary law embodying widely held and accepted principles, judges in federal, state and local jurisdictions can enhance the delivery of justice in their courts.

NAWJ is seeking funding to develop a curriculum to educate judges about the scope and applicability of international law, emerging issues and trends, and the range of approaches to considering the impact of international law in American courts. NAWJ will present this polished curriculum to a broad audience of state and federal judges through special seminars, by offering its curriculum and training guide to state courts, federal courts and judicial education organizations for use in their educational conferences, and through internet distance learning technology.

The Hon. Leslie Alden, of the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Virginia, serves as Project Chair and will head a Judicial Advisory Committee on this topic.

A Guide to the Transfer of Structured Settlements Annuities is NAWJ’s new, first-of-its-kind guide for judges faced with approving transfers of structured settlement annuities. NAWJ developed the bench book in response to the increasing appearance in state courts of petitions to transfer structured settlements. For many judges, this is a new area of the law, and NAWJ determined that a comprehensive bench book would be of great assistance to them and to the parties. The bench book contains background information about structured settlements and their transfers, an analysis of the model act utilized by state legislators in adopting state laws, and a step-by-step explanation of a typical structured settlement transfer, including sample petitions and common disclosures. In addition, the appendix of the bench book contains a CD-ROM with the full texts of individual state laws. The Guide has been hailed as a most informative and useful tool for judges, and is essential to the fair and efficient dispense of justice. The Guide is available to NAWJ members free of charge upon request. Non-members may order a copy for $55.00 (plus shipping and handling) by clicking here.

From Bar to the Bench is designed to encourage women to consider judicial careers and to make the process of appointment and election to the bench more visible and accessible. Various alternative program components are presented to assist participants in understanding the process of pursuing a judicial career based on the unique requirements of each state. Program components address the "How" and "Why" of becoming a judge; ethical issues faced by judges, including those involved in campaigns for elective judicial office; gender bias in courts; minority perspectives; educational requirements; the process for the appointment and election of judges to various courts; and activities that will increase the chances of becoming a judge.

The program manual is available online.

Immigrants, and the judges who preside in cases involving immigrants, often face formidable challenges in the courtroom. Current immigration laws are both controversial and confusing. Judges typically do not understand the risks and possible consequences of their decisions in cases involving immigrants. In particular, they are not aware that immigration law currently provides both for the virtually automatic deportation of immigrants convicted of certain offenses including some misdemeanors, and for the eventual deportation of immigrants who are sentenced for certain periods of time. Similarly, judges often are not aware of the immigration consequences of everyday state court proceedings including domestic relations matters and disputes involving children.

Recognizing these problems, NAWJ has created, with support from the State Justice Institute and the Open Society Institute’s Program on Law and Society, a judicial education curriculum that explores: cultural and language issues that affect non-citizens in court; how criminal pleas and sentencing impact a non-citizen’s immigration status; and how judges can assist battered non-citizens petitioning for residency under the Violence Against Women Act. Judges have the opportunity to apply what they are learning in small-group adjudication clinics using a sample case study.

NAWJ is disseminating the judicial education curriculum, including a training guide, to a broad audience of state and federal judges and is sponsoring project seminars throughout the country. NAWJ also is making these training materials available to state courts, federal courts, and judicial education organizations for their educational conferences. To ensure broad access, even in the most remote areas of the country, the curriculum is available to judges through internet distance learning. A convenient bench booklet and bench card will be available soon. The Hon. Vanessa Ruiz, Associate Judge of the D. C. Court of Appeals, serves as Project Chair and heads a Judicial Advisory Committee on this project.

In a 1998 address to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer commented that courts must aim for decisions that approximately reflect the scientific ‘state of the art.’ As technology increasingly underlies both routine and complex litigation, he remarked that it would be helpful to develop training to better better equip judges to understand the ways of science. To that end, the Genome Justice Project of the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) aims to educate judges about the growing influence of genomics in courts, and the potential disparate impacts that it may have on gender, racial and ethnic groups, and vulnerable populations. NAWJ will deliver a polished judicial education curriculum to a broad audience of state and federal judges through a series of training sessions held across the country and through internet learning.

NAWJ completed the first step in this process in September 2001. With support from the Einstein Institute for Science, Health, and the Courts (EINSHAC), NAWJ convened a meeting of 20 expert judges and scientists from across the country to develop a curriculum that will be the first to address the disparate impact of genetic advances on women and vulnerable populations. The participants developed curriculum goals, determined the appropriate presentation format and presenters, and identified potential sites.

Now the Genome Justice Project is planning two pilot programs in 2004. The interactive training will address behavioral genetics, the intersection of environment with genetic predisposition in determining or predicting behavior, and the use of such evidence in criminal, insurance, employment discrimination, privacy and reproduction cases.

A half-day module of the full program was presented at NAWJ’s 24th Annual Conference in Minneapolis, in October 2002, and a video of that program is available. The Genome Justice project is co-chaired by Justice Ruth McGregor, Arizona Supreme Court, Associate Chief Justice Christine Durham, Supreme Court of Utah, Judge Judith McConnell, San Diego Superior Court, and Judge Gladys Kessler, U. S. District Court for D.C.

For additional information on this program, please click on the links below.

• Genome Justice Phoenix 1
• Genome Justice Phoenix 2
• Phoenix Genome Justice Pilot Summary Report
• Phoenix Genome Justice Pilot Agenda
• Genome Justice Genetic Primer

Success Inside and Out is a women’s conference for female prisoners within one year of release. It provides support and inspiration for their transition back into the community, and information on resources available to them upon reentry back into their communities in a effort to increase the likelihood of their success once their terms have been served.

The program also allows women judges the opportunity to participate in an activity within the prison which affords them the opportunity to observe the prison environment first hand and build relationships with corrections officials in a project where they are working together toward the same goal. A unique social innovation, Success Inside and Out additionally provides women judges and professionals in the community an avenue for participation in educational activities for women prisoners in a manner which does not present ethical challenges or conflicts of interest. Women judges may also serve as panelists and facilitators in break out sessions during the conference. The program is consistent with the goals of NAWJ’s Women in Prison Committee, and it is capable of being expanded to benefit young women in youth correctional facilities as well.

The program documents are available online.

During the last decade, the women offender population has nearly tripled in every sector of corrections. Changes in mandatory sentencing for drug offenders at the federal and state levels have resulted in larger numbers of women serving longer periods of time in correctional facilities. Sentencing Women Offenders provides judges with an opportunity to examine their own sentencing practices in relation to women offenders. Judges are encouraged to become leaders in assessing sentencing practices in their jurisdictions. The curriculum also offers current information, national trends and specific programs related to women offenders. Multidisciplinary teams including criminal justice officials and community leaders also find the curriculum useful. Hard copies of the curriculum are currently unavailable, but you may download it here.

From NAWJ’s inception in 1979 to its Conference in 2000, NAWJ’s growth is chronicled in an exceptional video, Changing the Face of Justice. Directed by Hon. Carolyn Engel Temin and Hon. Carol H. Arber, the film vividly describes how NAWJ has inspired and lead the American judiciary in achieving fairness and equality for women and vulnerable populations. Through the testimonies of NAWJ’s most active members, including founders Justice Joan Dempsey Klein and Justice Vaino Spencer, and ardent supporters Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the video highlights the progress of NAWJ’s successful efforts to provide cutting-edge judicial education, as well as professional and personal support for its members. Changing the Face of Justice also reveals how NAWJ gave birth to the International Association of Women Judges, and remains an important influence internationally. The video is available for $18, including postage.

To encourage girls and minority high school students to consider pursuing careers in the law and judiciary, NAWJ developed this highly effective program. Experienced judges and lawyers discuss law school and the requirements for admission, share their experiences including the reasons why they chose their careers, and answer questions in small groups. Students, judges and lawyers laud the project, and it has been reproduced simply and successfully around the country.

The program manual and templates are available online.

Updated information about The Storybook Project is currently underdevelopment. Check back soon for more information!

Please visit the NJEP web site for more information on this program.

The purpose of Moving Beyond Battered Women’s Syndrome: A Guide To The Use of Expert Testimony on Battering and Its Effects is to clarify the relationship of expert testimony to current substantive law, evidentiary provisions, and procedural rules. In particular, it addresses the use of expert testimony in cases in which women are coerced into crime or are charged with failing to protect their children from an abuser’s violence. The guide debunks the myth that there is a battered women’s defense, rather than expert testimony used to support a battered woman’s self-defense or duress claim. The guide includes a report, Trend Analysis: Expert Testimony on Battering and its Effects in Criminal Cases, which is the most comprehensive study of its kind. This report reviews case law nationwide (from 238 state courts and 31 federal courts) and presents findings on the following issues: 1) admissibility of expert testimony and its effects; 2) types of cases in which expert testimony is admitted; 3) showing necessary to introduce expert testimony; 4) ineffectiveness of counsel issues; 5) scope and relevancy of expert testimony; 6) expert testimony triggering adverse examination; and 7) case dispositions on appeal. The guide also includes relevant law review articles, a bibliography, and overviews of state statutes throughout the country.

Please visit the NJEP web site for more information on this program.

Please visit the NJEP web site for more information on this program.

With the National Judicial Education Program (NJEP) NAWJ and NJEP recently enhanced the Gender Fairness Strategies Project by publishing and disseminating, the Action in the New Millennium manual. This manual offers Gender Bias/Fairness Task Forces and Committees, and court administrators, a clear, comprehensive and effective guide for eliminating bias from the courts. Copies are $25 each. Workshops for representatives of Gender Bias/Fairness Task Forces and Committees occur in connection with NAWJ’s Annual Conferences. The next workshop will occur in Indianapolis in October, 2004. Please visit the NJEP web site for more information on this program.

This 200-page guide summarizes more than 40 substantive and procedural areas of the law, ranging from driving-while-intoxicated to forensic psychiatry. It provides extensive resources to both students and teachers including critical studies, videos, statistics, annotated bibliographies and model curricula. This guide was updated in 2002. Please visit the NJEP web site for more information on this program.