This course combines a scholarly and practice-oriented approach to understanding the legal response to domestic violence. Throughout the course, we will focus on the social context of battering, including how the experience of abuse is shaped by race, cultural identity, economic status, immigration status, sexual orientation, and disabilities. We begin with how the law recognizes domestic violence in relation to divorce, child custody, support, visitation, and the child protection matters. We will then cover the various legal remedies in both civil and criminal contexts and examine their efficacy. These include tort liability for batterers, federal remedies for survivors, such as the Violence Against Women Act, and the role of protective orders in both civil and criminal courts. Violence against women as a human rights violation, sexual assault law, and the role of the domestic violence movement are also introduced. The focus of this course is to examine current challenges and shortcomings in the legal response to domestic violence, then draft proposals for alternative strategies for systemic change.