Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty
Carolyn Ramsey

Professor of Law
Criminal Law and Procedure; Legal History;
Gender, Law and Public Policy; Domestic Violence;
Criminal Procedure--Investigative Phase

University of Colorado Law School
431 Wolf Law Building
401 UCB
Boulder, CO  80309-0401
Phone: (303) 735-5028
E-mail: carolyn.ramsey@colorado.edu

Curriculum Vitae:  View (PDF format)

Educational Background:
J.D.   Stanford Law School   1998   with Distinction
M.A.   Stanford University   1991  
B.A.   University of California   1990   summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa

Bio:
Carolyn Ramsey joined the faculty of Colorado Law School in 2001. She teaches courses in criminal law, criminal procedure, gender issues, and legal history. She graduated from Stanford Law School with distinction in 1998 and served as a law clerk for Chief Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and Judge Paul J. Kelly, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. In addition to her law degree, Professor Ramsey received graduate training as a social historian at Stanford University. This background stimulates her interest in the way the law is used either to enforce or to create cultural norms. She is widely published on historical and modern aspects of criminal law, criminal procedure, and gender issues. In 2007, her article, Intimate Homicide: Gender and Crime Control, 1880-1920, won the Jules Milstein Faculty Scholarship Award at the University of Colorado Law School. In November 2011, she gave the 37th Annual Austin W. Scott, Jr. Lecture on "Intimate-Partner Violence and State Intervention: A New Historical Perspective." In addition to her recent work on public responses to intimate-partner violence, Professor Ramsey researches the legal history of criminal procedure and writes about modern criminal law reform.


Works In Progress

Houses of Pain: A Legal History of Intimate-Partner Violence, (working title of book-length project).

Articles

The Exit Myth: Family Law, Gender Roles, and Changing Attitudes Toward Female Victims of Domestic Violence, 20 Michigan Journal of Gender & Law (forthcoming 2013).
A Diva Defends Herself: Gender and Domestic Violence in an Early Twentieth-Century Headline Trial, 55 Saint Louis University Law Journal 1347 (2011) (invited symposium).
Domestic Violence and State Intervention in the American West and Australia, 1860-1930, 86 Indiana Law Journal 185 (2011).
Provoking Change: Comparative Insights on Feminist Homicide Law Reform, 100 Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 33 (2010).
In the Sweat Box: A Historical Perspective on the Detention of Material Witnesses, 6 Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law 681 (2009) (peer refereed).
Restructuring the Debate Over Fetal Homicide Laws, 67 Ohio State L. J. 721 (2006).
Intimate Homicide: Gender and Crime Control, 1880-1920, 77 Univ. Colo. L. Rev. 101 (2006).
Homicide on Holiday: Prosecutorial Discretion, Popular Culture, and the Boundaries of the Criminal Law, 54 Hastings L. J. 1641 (2003).
The Discretionary Power of "Public" Prosecutors in Historical Perspective, 39 American Criminal Law Review 1309 (2002).

Other Publications

Criminal Law: United States Law, in Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History (Stanley Katz et al. eds.) New York: Oxford University Press, (2009) (peer refereed).
Commentary: Was the Bill of Rights Irrelevant to Nineteenth-Century State Criminal Procedure?, 18 J. Contemp. Legal Issues 501 (2009) (peer refereed) (invited symposium).
Public Responses to Intimate Violence: A Glance at the Past, 121 Public Health Reports 460 (2006) (peer refereed).

Book Reviews

Review of Mike McConville and Chester L. Mirsky, Jury Trials and Plea Bargaining: A True History, 25 Law & History Rev. 446 (2007) (peer refereed).

Courses:

Spring 2013 Criminal Law LAWS 5503-803
Spring 2013 Gender Law LAWS 8765-001
Fall 2012 Criminal Procedure: Investigative Phase LAWS 6045-001
Spring 2012 Criminal Law LAWS 5503-801
Spring 2012 Gender Law LAWS 8765-001
Fall 2011 Criminal Procedure: Investigative Phase LAWS 6045-001
Fall 2010 Criminal Procedure: Investigative Phase LAWS 6045-001
Spring 2010 Criminal Law LAWS 5503-802
Spring 2010 Domestic Violence LAWS 7513-001
Fall 2009 Gender Law LAWS 8765-001
Spring 2009 Criminal Law LAWS 5503-801
Spring 2009 Gender Law LAWS 8765-001
Fall 2008 Criminal Procedure: Investigative Phase LAWS 6045-001