Barbara J. Cox

Clara Shortridge Foltz Professor of Law


J.D. University of Wisconsin [cum laude]
B.A. Michigan State University 
[cum laude, political philosophy]

Courses Taught: Civil Procedure I & II; Property II; Comparative Issues in Gender, Family & Sexuality; Women and the Law

California Western's associate dean for academic affairs from 1997-2001, Professor Cox is a national authority on sexual orientation and the law, and women and the law. She has written numerous articles on interstate recognition of marriage and civil unions of same-sex couples. As a commissioner on the Madison Equal Opportunities Commission in Wisconsin, Professor Cox helped draft one of the earliest domestic partnership ordinances in the country. She has published articles on obtaining recognition for alternative families in journals such as the National Journal of Sexual Orientation Law and the Southern California Review of Law and Women's Studies.

Cox is past chair of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Women and the Law and the AALS Section on Gay and Lesbian Issues, and former deputy director of the AALS. She chairs the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the national Freedom to Marry organization, and completed six years on ABA Accreditation Committee in June 2011. 

Selected Publications

• "Why Appellete Courts Have Rejected the Argument That The Defense of Marriage Act Trumps the Parental Kidnappying Prevention Act"
• "Same Sex Couples Seek Federal Benefits and Interstate Recognition of Their Relationships in the INTERNATIONAL SURVEY OF FAMILY LAW 401 (Bill Atkin ed., 2010)
• "A Painful Process of Waiting:" The New York, Washington, New Jersey, and maryland Dissenting Justices Understand that "Same-Sex Marriage" is not What Same-Sex Couples are Seeking, 45 (1) California Western Law Review 139 (2008-09).
• "My Life-Long Commitment to Equal Justice and Civil Rights," in "Its Harder in Heels: Essays by Women Lawyers (Slotkin and Goodman, eds. 2007)
• Equal Rights are Now Promised Every Californiian, San Diego Union-Tribune (May 16, 2008)(discussing the California Supreme Court's In Re Marriage Cases opinion). 
• Some Ruminations about Marriage Equality and the Four Recent Supreme Court Cases, Tome Homann Law Association Newsletter 3-4 (Spring 2008).
• Book review, Same Sex, Different States:  When Same-Sex Marriages Cross State Lines by Andrew Kioppelman, 5 (1) Sexuality research and Social Policy Journal 106 (March 2008).
• Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston, 515 US 557 (1995) in Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (David Tanehaus, ed), MacMillan Reference (forthcoming 2008). 
• Cox, The 40th Anniversary of Loving v. Virginia:  It's Enduring Vitality, Los Angeles Daily Journal (June 12, 2007) (reprinted in Res Ipsa, March 2008).
• "AALS as Creative Problem Solver: Implementing Bylaw 6-4(a) to Prohibit Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation in Legal Education," 56 Journal of Legal Education 22
• "California Tracks National Discussion on Interstate Recognition of Same-Sex Couples’ Legal Relationships," 18 California Litigation 27 (2006).
• "Using an ‘Incidents of Marriage’ Analysis When Considering Interstate Recognition of Same-Sex Couples’ Marriages, Civil Unions, and Domestic Partnerships," 13 Widener Law Journal 699 (2004).
• "Adoptions by Lesbian and Gay Parents Must Be Recognized By Sister States Under the Full Faith and Credit Clause Despite Anti-Marriage StatutesThat Discriminate Against Same-Sex Couples," 31 Capital Law Review 751 (2003).
• "Interstate Validation of Marriages and Civil Unions," 30 Human Rights 5 (2003).
  Complete List of Publications

Professor Cox's Media Appearances