Curriculum VitaeBiography
Professor Stephens earned her BA degree in history from Ohio State University in 1971 and her JD degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1975. Upon graduation from law school, she clerked for two years for the Honorable John W. Peck on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. She then practiced law with the firm of Graydon, Head and Ritchey in Cincinnati for two years and from 1980 to 1984 served on the faculty of the University of Dayton School of Law. She began teaching at VLS in 1983 and joined its faculty a year later. During her tenure at VLS, she has also been a visiting professor at the University of Oregon School of Law and the University of Cincinnati College of Law, has taught at the University of Trento in Trento, Italy, and is faculty sponsor of the VLS/McGill University exchange program. She has served as a member of the Vermont Bar Association's Committee on Reform of the Judicial System, the Commission on the Vermont Lawyer, and the Vermont Supreme Court's Committee on Jury Policy.
Publications
Articles
Collective Criminality and Individual Responsibility: The Constraints of Interpretation, 37 Fordham International Law Journal 501 (2014).
Applying Human Rights Norms to Climate Change: The Elusive Remedy, 21 Colorado Journal of International Environmental Law & Policy 49 (2010).
Climate Change and Human Rights, published as a Background Paper in the Climate Legacy Initiative's Report: Recalibrating The Law of Nature with the Law of Humans: Climate Change, Human Rights and Intergenerational Justice (Climate Legacy Initiative 2009).
Spinning Sosa: Federal Common Law, The Alien Tort Statute and Judicial Restraint, 25 Boston University International Law Journal (2007).
The Right to Reproduce and International Law in Life, Technology and the Law: Proceedings of the International Forum for Scholars, Trento, Italy 2006 (2007).
Indigenous Peoples, Culturally Specific Rights, and Domestic Courts: A Response to Professor Fodella, 30 Vermont Law Review 595 (2006).
A Categorical Approach to Human Rights Claims; Jus Cogens as a Limitation on Enforcement? 22 Wis. Int'l. L.J. 245 (2004).
Beyond Torture: Enforcing International Human Rights in Federal Courts, 51 Syracuse L. Rev. 941 (2001).
The New Retroactivity Doctrine: Equality, Reliance and Stare Decisis, 48 Syracuse L. Rev. 1515 (1998).
Manipulation of Procedural Rules in Pursuit of Substantive Goals: A Reconsideration of the Impermissible Collateral Attack Doctrine, 24 Ariz. St. L.J. 1109 (1992).
Sovereignty and Personal Jurisdiction Doctrine: Up the Stream of Commerce Without a Paddle, 19 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 105 (1991).
Controlling the Civil Jury: Towards a Functional Model of Justification, 76 KY. L.J. 81 (1987-88). (Excerpted in, Materials on Civil Procedure 724-725 (Field, Kaplan & Clermont eds., Foundation Press 6th ed. 1990)).
The Single Contract as Minimum Contacts: Justice Brennan "Has It His Way," 28 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 89 (1986).
The Federal Court Across the Street: Constitutional Limits on Federal Assertions of Personal Jurisdiction, 18 U. Rich. L. Rev. 697 (1984).
Ancillary Jurisdiction: Plaintiffs' Claims Against Nondiverse Third Party Defendants, 14 Loyola U. Chi. L.J. 419 (1983).
Implementing Federal Energy Policy at the State and Local Levels: Every Power Requisite, 10 B.C. Envtl. Aff. L. Rev. 875 (1982-83).
Landlord and Tenants - Landlords Must Exercise Reasonable Care not to Subject Others to an Unreasonable Risk of Harm, 43 U. Cin. L. Rev. 218 (1974).