Feminist Judgment Projects: England
A group of feminist socio-legal scholars wrote alternative feminist judgments of significant cases in English law across five areas of law: Parenting, Property & Markets, Criminal Law & Evidence, Public Law and Equality. Some judgments are written as a fictitious appeal and others as an additional judgment in the original case. Each judgment is accompanied by a commentary from the author explains the background to the decision, the issues involved and how the feminist approach differs. The judgments are published in: Rosemary Hunter, Clare McGlynn and Erika Rackley (eds), Feminist Judgments: From Theory to Practice (Hart Publishing, 2010).
Available Extracts:
Professor Clare McGylynn wrote the feminist judgment of R v A [No 2] [2001] UKHL 25, an abridged version of which was republished in a newspaper, and the full version can be accessed here.
Daniel Monk, ‘Re G (Children) (Residence: Same-Sex Partner)’
Reviews:
Joshua Rozenberg, Law Society Gazette (online), 25 October 2010
Penny Booth, Times Higher Education (online), 4 November 2010
Linda Roland Danil, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books
Renee Pistone, Law and Politics Book Review
Margaret Davies, ‘The Law Becomes Us: Rediscovering Judgment’ (2012) 20(2) Feminist Legal Studies 167–81
Margaret Davies, ‘Feminist Judgments’ on Jotwell
Commentary/Other resources:
Erika Rackley, ‘How Feminism Could Improve Judicial Decision-Making’, The Guardian (online), 11 November 2010.
In this podcast, barrister Elizabeth Woodcraft discusses the feminist judgment project with Rosemary Hunter and Rosemary Auchmuty.
Clare McGlynn and Baroness Ruth Deech discuss the Feminism Judgment Project on BBC Women’s Hour, 17 December 2010 (select the second chapter).
Rosemary Hunter, ‘Diversity and Legal Reasoning’ (2017) 7(2) feminists@law
Baroness Hale gave evidence at the Lords Constitution Committee inquiry into judicial appointments and recommended the Feminist Judgment Project to all Committee members: it can be viewed online here. She also discusses the value of the project in the ‘Fiona Woolf Lecture for the Women Lawyers’ Division of the Law Society: Women in the Judiciary’ (London, 27 June 2014)
Rosemary Hunter, ‘The Feminist Judgments Project’ (Seminar delivered at the Centre of Gender Studies, SOAS University of London, London, 21 February 2013)
Ilona CM Cairns, ‘The Content and Value of a Feminist Perspective of Criminal Law Legislative Reform’ (Working Paper No 4, Legal Research Series, University of Cork Centre for Criminal Justice and Human Rights, December 2012)
Rosemary Hunter, ‘The Power of Feminist Judgments?’ (2012) 20(2) Feminist Legal Studies 135
Rosemary Hunter, ‘Analysing Judgments from a Feminist Perspective’ (Paper presented at the national training day on Law, Gender and Sexuality: Sources and Methods in Socio-Legal Research, May 2014)
Rosemary Hunter, Sharyn Roach Anleu and Kathy Mack, ‘Judging in Lower Courts: Conventional, Procedural, Therapeutic and Feminist Approaches’ (2016) 12(3) International Journal of Law in Context 337