Decriminalizing Domestic Violence asks the crucial, yet often overlooked, question of why and how the criminal legal system became the primary response to intimate partner violence in the United States. It introduces readers, both new and well versed in the subject, to the ways in which the criminal legal system harms rather than helps those who are subjected to abuse and violence in their homes and communities, and shares how it drives, rather than deters, intimate partner violence. The book examines how social, legal, and financial resources are diverted into a criminal legal apparatus that is often unable to deliver justice or safety to victims or to prevent intimate partner violence in the first place. Envisioned for both courses and research topics in domestic violence, family violence, gender and law, and sociology of law, the book challenges readers to understand intimate partner violence not solely, or even primarily, as a criminal law concern but as an economic, public health, community, and human rights problem. It also argues that only by viewing intimate partner violence through these lenses can we develop a balanced policy agenda for addressing it. At a moment when we are examining our national addiction to punishment, Decriminalizing Domestic Violence offers a thoughtful, pragmatic roadmap to real reform.

This book seeks to rebalance the relationship between comparison and justification to achieve more effective equality and non-discrimination law. As one of the most distinguished equality lawyers of his generation, having appeared in over 40 cases in the House of Lords and the Supreme Court and many leading cases in the Court of Justice, Robin Allen QC is well placed to explore this critical issue. He shows how the principle of equality is nothing if not founded on apt comparisons. By examining the changing way men and women's work has been compared over the last 100 years he shows the importance of understanding the framework for comparison. With these insights, he addresses contemporary problems of age discrimination and conflict of equality rights.

This book captures the Indian state's difficult dialogue with divorce, mediated largely through religion. By mapping the trajectories of marriage and divorce laws of Hindu, Muslim, and Christian communities in post-colonial India, it explores the dynamic interplay between law, religion, family, minority rights and gender in Indian politics. It demonstrates that the binary frameworks of the private-public divide, individuals versus group rights, and universal rights versus legal pluralism collapse before the peculiarities of religious personal law. Historicizing the legislative and judicial response to decades of public debates and activism on the question of personal law, it suggests that the sustained negotiations over family life within and across the legal landscape provoked a unique and deeply contextual evolution of both, secularism and religion in India's constitutional order. Personal law, therefore, played a key role in defining the place of religion and determining the content of secularism in India's democracy.

Reproductive justice (RJ) is a pivotal movement that supplants the language and limitations of reproductive rights. RJ's tenets are that women have the human rights to decide if or when they'll become pregnant, whether to carry a pregnancy to term, and to parent the children they have in safe and healthy environments. Recognizing the importance of the rights at stake when the law addresses parenting and procreation, the authors in this book re-imagine judicial opinions that address the law's treatment of pregnancy and parenting. The cases cover topics such as forced sterilization, pregnancy discrimination, criminal penalties for women who take illegal drugs while pregnant, and state funding for abortion. Though some of the re-imagined cases come to the same conclusions as the originals, each rewritten opinion analyzes how these cases impact the most vulnerable populations, including people with disabilities, poor women, and women of color.

Confronting the patriarchal origins and male-dominated institutions of international law, over the last several decades serious thinking about gender and international law has developed into a flourishing discourse within its host discipline. From the lecture theatres and conferences of academia to the corridors of international institutions frequented by non-governmental organizations, diplomats, and the bureaucrats of international institutions, gender issues are now placed firmly on the international-law agenda. Indeed, scholarship on gender and international law is now an important and dynamic area of critique that continues to challenge the failures of the political, legal, and institutional frameworks of international law. As research in gender and international law continues to flourish, this new four-volume collection from Routledge's Critical Concepts in Law series brings together the most influential scholarship to date, gathering foundational and canonical theoretical work, together with innovative and cutting-edge applications and interventions. It provides an understanding of the development of the field of gender and international law, as well as highlighting areas of thought-provoking research to stimulate future developments in the field. The first volume in the collection ('Defining Gender and International Law') assembles key works to illustrate the development of the field and provide users with a clear understanding of the concepts, methods, and theoretical underpinnings of gender and international law. Volume II ('Doing Gender and International Law: Actors and Institutions') brings gender and international law to life as an action-orientated field, theoretically sophisticated, but focused on and contributing to changes in how international and national law-makers treat gendered issues. Volume III ('Key Legal Themes in Gender and International Law') provides an overview of the different legal themes that have engaged scholars analysing international law from feminist, women-centred, or gendered perspectives. The scholarship assembled in the final volume ('Critical Movements and Emerging Issues in Gender and International Law') collects work that encourages critical reflections about gendered analyses of contemporary issues in international law. It also highlights where increased attention is needed, or where current approaches by feminist international legal scholars might require further scrutiny. With a full index, together with a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the learned editors, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, Gender and International Law is an essential work of reference and will be welcomed by researchers, advanced students, practitioners, and policy-makers.

Sexual rules and regulations are among society's oldest yet it is only in recent decades that this once-stigmatized field has become the focus of scholarly attention. This volume, which includes some of the most thought-provoking and hard-to-find essays in the field, covers a diverse range of topics from sexual orientation and gender identity to intersexuality and commercial sex, and from HIV/AIDS and trafficking to polygamy. Through historical, political and critical-theoretical lenses, and through a global focus, the selections ask how we conceptualize the groups and acts subjected to sexual regulation and how regulations in the field implicate and produce understandings of sexuality and identity. By placing this variety of works together, Sexuality and Equality Law invites fresh insights into commonalities and synergies across regulatory arenas that are often isolated from one another. The volume's introduction situates all of these works in the broader field and offers readers an extensive bibliography.

This volume draws on several decades of advocacy for law reform to advance gender equality. The essays illustrate the evolution of dominant theoretical approaches and trace their application to core issues, such as the meaning of gender, family formation and roles, equality in the workplace, reproductive rights and violence. The selections are international in their range and include recent works that summarize foundational discussions as well as less well-known articles and essays which capture defining issues with enduring resonance. Taken together, these articles form the basis for discussions of recurring themes such as: how best to define and account for biological, social or cultural differences based on gender; how the law can recognize historic and ongoing gender subordination while supporting individuals' autonomy and agency; and the nature and role of women's sexuality. They exemplify the ongoing dialectic between well-intentioned reform and unintended consequences that characterizes ongoing efforts to advance equality based on gender.

An innovative collaboration between academics, practitioners, activists and artists, this timely and provocative book rewrites 16 significant Scots law cases, spanning a range of substantive topics, from a feminist perspective. Exposing power, politics and partiality, feminist judges provide alternative accounts that bring gender equity concerns to the fore, whilst remaining bound by the facts and legal authorities encountered by the original court. Paying particular attention to Scotland's distinctive national identity, fluctuating experiences of political sovereignty, and unique legal traditions and institutions, this book contributes in a distinctive register to the emerging dialogue amongst feminist judgment projects across the globe. Its judgments address concerns not only about gender equality, but also about the interplay between gender, class, national identity and citizenship in contemporary Scotland. The book also showcases unique contributions from leading artists which, provoked by the enterprise of feminist judging, or by individual cases, offer a visceral and affective engagement with the legal. The book will be of interest to academics, practitioners and students of Scots law, policy-makers, as well as to scholars of feminist and critical theory, and law and gender, internationally.

Gender quotas are a controversial policy measure. However, over the past twenty years they have been widely adopted around the world and especially in Europe. They are now used in politics, corporate boards, state and local public administration and even in civil society organizations. This book explores this unprecedented phenomenon, providing a unique comparative perspective on gender quotas' adoption across thirteen European countries. It also studies resistance to gender quotas by political parties and supreme courts. Providing up-to-date comprehensive data on gender quotas regulations, Transforming Gender Citizenship proposes a typology of countries, from those which have embraced gender quotas as a new way to promote gender equality in all spheres of social life, to those who have consistently refused gender quotas as a tool for gender equality. Reflecting on divergences and commonalities across Europe, the authors analyze how gender quotas may transform dominant conception of citizenship and gender equality.

A unique introduction to the constitutional arguments for and against the right to abortion In January 1973, the Supreme Court's opinion in Roe v. Wade struck down most of the country's abortion laws and held for the first time that the Constitution guarantees women the right to safe and legal abortions. Nearly five decades later, in 2022, the Court's 5-4 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturned Roe and eliminated the constitutional right, stunning the nation. Instead of finally resolving the constitutional issues, Dobbs managed to bring new attention to them while sparking a debate about the Supreme Court's legitimacy. Originally published in 2005, What Roe v. Wade Should Have Said asked eleven distinguished constitutional scholars to rewrite the opinions in this landmark case in light of thirty years' experience but making use only of sources available at the time of the original decision. Offering the best arguments for and against the constitutional right to abortion, the contributors have produced a series of powerful essays that get to the heart of this fascinating case. In addition, Jack Balkin gives a detailed historical introduction that chronicles the Roe litigation-and the constitutional and political clashes that followed it-and explains the Dobbs decision and its aftermath.

In the past fifteen years there has been a marked increase in the international scholarship relating to women in law. The lives and careers of women in legal practice and the judiciary have been extensively documented and critiqued, but the central conundrum remains: Does the presence of women make a difference? What has been largely overlooked in the literature is the position of women in the legal academy, although central to the changing culture. To remedy the oversight, an international network of scholars embarked on a comparative study, which resulted in this path-breaking book. The contributors uncover fascinating accounts of the careers of the academic pioneers as well as exploring broader theoretical issues relating to gender and culture. The provocative question as to whether the presence of women makes a difference informs each contribution.

Winner of the 2022 Association for the Rhetoric of Science, Technology, and Medicine (ARSTM) Book Award Winner of the 2022 Winifred Bryan Horner Outstanding Book Award from the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition What It Feels Like interrogates an underexamined reason for our failure to abolish rape in the United States: the way we communicate about it. Using affective and feminist materialist approaches to rhetorical criticism, Stephanie Larson examines how discourses about rape and sexual assault rely on strategies of containment, denying the felt experiences of victims and ultimately stalling broader claims for justice. Investigating anti-pornography debates from the 1980s, Violence Against Women Act advocacy materials, sexual assault forensic kits, public performances, and the #MeToo movement, Larson reveals how our language privileges male perspectives and, more deeply, how it is shaped by systems of power-patriarchy, white supremacy, ableism, and heteronormativity. Interrogating how these systems work to propagate masculine commitments to "science" and "hard evidence," Larson finds that US culture holds a general mistrust of testimony by women, stereotyping it as "emotional." But she also gives us hope for change, arguing that testimonies grounded in the bodily, material expression of violation are necessary for giving voice to victims of sexual violence and presenting, accurately, the scale of these crimes. Larson makes a case for visceral rhetorics, theorizing them as powerful forms of communication and persuasion. Demonstrating the communicative power of bodily feeling, Larson challenges the long-held commitment to detached, distant, rationalized discourses of sexual harassment and rape. Timely and poignant, the book offers a much-needed corrective to our legal and political discourses.