At a Glance
Professor of Law
Harvard University, AB 1979
Trinity College, Oxford University, MA 1981
University of Chicago, JD 1983
Office: 35 Cargill Hall
Mail: 400 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115
Tel: (617) 373-8921
Fax: (617) 373-5056
E-mail: m.davis@neu.edu
Martha F. Davis
Professor Davis teaches Women’s Rights Lawyering, Constitutional Law and Professional Responsibility. She is also a faculty director for the law school’s Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy.
Professor Davis has written widely on women’s rights, poverty and human rights. In addition to her numerous articles, she recently co-edited Bringing Human Rights Home, a three-volume work chronicling the US human rights movement. In 2008, Bringing Human Rights Home was named one of the “best books in the field of human rights” by the US Human Rights Network. Professor Davis’s book, Brutal Need: Lawyers and the Welfare Rights Movement, received the Reginald Heber Smith Award for distinguished scholarship on the subject of equal access to justice, and was also honored by the American Bar Association in its annual Silver Gavel competition. Recently, she filed an amicus brief arguing for the relevance of international law in a domestic force feeding case.
Prior to joining the law faculty in 2002, Professor Davis was vice president and legal director for the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund. As a women’s rights practitioner, she was counsel in a number of cases before the US Supreme Court, including Nguyen v. INS, a challenge to sex-based citizenship laws that Professor Davis argued before the court. Professor Davis has also served as a fellow at the Bunting Institute, as the first Kate Stoneman Visiting Professor of Law and Democracy at Albany Law School and as a Soros Reproductive Rights Fellow. During 2008-2009, Professor Davis is a visiting fellow at the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, and a non-resident fellow of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Professor Davis chairs the board of directors of the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative and serves on the editorial board of the Harvard School of Public Health’s publication Health and Human Rights.
Professor Davis has written widely on women’s rights, poverty and human rights. In addition to her numerous articles, she recently co-edited Bringing Human Rights Home, a three-volume work chronicling the US human rights movement. In 2008, Bringing Human Rights Home was named one of the “best books in the field of human rights” by the US Human Rights Network. Professor Davis’s book, Brutal Need: Lawyers and the Welfare Rights Movement, received the Reginald Heber Smith Award for distinguished scholarship on the subject of equal access to justice, and was also honored by the American Bar Association in its annual Silver Gavel competition. Recently, she filed an amicus brief arguing for the relevance of international law in a domestic force feeding case.
Prior to joining the law faculty in 2002, Professor Davis was vice president and legal director for the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund. As a women’s rights practitioner, she was counsel in a number of cases before the US Supreme Court, including Nguyen v. INS, a challenge to sex-based citizenship laws that Professor Davis argued before the court. Professor Davis has also served as a fellow at the Bunting Institute, as the first Kate Stoneman Visiting Professor of Law and Democracy at Albany Law School and as a Soros Reproductive Rights Fellow. During 2008-2009, Professor Davis is a visiting fellow at the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, and a non-resident fellow of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Professor Davis chairs the board of directors of the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative and serves on the editorial board of the Harvard School of Public Health’s publication Health and Human Rights.
Selected Publications
“Restoring Government Leadership on Human Rights at Home,” Mandate for Change, Hartman, ed., Lexington Books, 2009.
- “Progressive Lawyers and Human Rights: Using International and Comparative Law to Inform Domestic Decisions,” Progressive Lawyering, Globalization and Markets: Rethinking Ideology and Strategy. Dalton, ed. William S. Hein & Co., 2007.
- Bringing Human Rights Home: three-volume series on Human Rights in the United States, Co-editor and chapter author. Praeger, 2007.
- “Sexual Harassment,” Social Issues in America: An Encyclopedia. Ciment, ed. M.E. Sharpe, 2006.
- “The Spirit of Our Times: State Constitutions and Human Rights,” 30 New York University Review of Law & Social Change 259, 2006.
- “Access and Justice: The Transformative Potential of Pro Bono Work,” 73 Fordham Law Journal 903, 2005.
- “Preparing for the Worst: Addressing the Legal Needs of Disaster Victims,” 31 Fordham Urban Law Journal 959, 2004.
- “The International Convention on the Rights of the Child: A Catalyst for Innovative Child Care Policy” (with Powell), 25 Human Rights Quarterly 689, August 2003.
- “Legislating Patriarchy,” From Poverty to Punishment: How Welfare Reform Punishes the Poor. Delgado, ed. Applied Research Center, 2002.
- “The Ties that Bind: How Violence Perpetuates Women’s Poverty,” Family Violence and Welfare Reform: What are the Links? Brandwein, ed. Sage, 1999.
- “Life Without the Safety Net: When Women Facing Violence and Poverty Lose Welfare” (with Gable), Metropolitics, Winter 1997.
- “NOW is the Time: Mainstream Feminism’s Statements on Welfare Rights,” For Crying Out Loud: Women’s Poverty in the United States. Dujon and Withhorn, eds. South End Press, 1996.
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