South African Family Law provides law students and practitioners with a thorough understanding of the principles of family law.

In a concise manner, the publication also includes discussion of the implications of the Constitution for Family Law. This book reflects the law as at 1 August 2015. Decisions up to the July 2015 law reports were considered for inclusion.

Since 1994 there has been a surge in private land ownership by low-income citizens in South Africa. Approximately a third of residential properties registered by the Deeds Office are previously State-subsidised houses. More than 12 500 000 people live in these homes, constituting a large base of individuals requiring legal services. Many of these new property owners live at the interface between the formal and informal economy. Standard property, succession and family law approaches are often ill-equipped to suitably address the many and distinctive (power) imbalances typical of this sector.

New legal strategies affordable to both lawyer and client need to be developed. This book discusses methods for developing pro-poor contracts and land tools for low-income clients. Prenuptial and cohabitation agreements, housing rights and land ownership are explored, since they are areas core to the sustainability of the private law.

Property in Housing unpacks the right of access to adequate housing (section 26 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996) from a property perspective. The purpose of the volume is to reassess how and to what extent property plays a role in the protection, promotion and fulfilment of this right.

The characteristics of access to ‘adequate’ housing – as articulated by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in its General Comment 4 – serve as an organising framework for the volume. It is within this framework that we explore how property law can be used and aligned to implement the right of access to adequate housing as a vehicle for large-scale transformative aims.

Themes that are used to explore the vigorous relationship between property and housing include the centrality of the home in housing versus proprietary conflicts; the extent to which property narrates the conception of adequate housing, absent dedicated legislative reform; and the instrumentality of property as a vehicle for transforming the housing sphere.

The property paradox in the context of the housing clause is threefold: the property institution must be curtailed to make way for housing interests; it must be utilised (with legislative measures and sometimes without) to do some of the section 26(1) heavy lifting – for instance, to provide secure tenure or ensure access to services; and it must foster a culture of regulation by way of the constitutional property clause (section 25), to provide the required access to the spaces that we envision adequate, at the costs that we consider reasonable.

The monograph first introduces the authors’ approach, methodologically and theoretically, with reference to the history of property in housing in South Africa, the limited juridical development of our understanding of ‘adequate’ housing in the constitutional dispensation, the way in which housing relates to other constitutional rights, and the characteristics of having adequate housing. The remainder explores each of the internationally recognised characteristics by drawing on property law – security of tenure, services, accessibility, habitability, affordability, location and cultural adequacy – as components of the organising framework to interpret the progressive realisation of the South African housing mandate and respecting its anti-eviction measures. The development of the normative and substantive content of the right of access to adequate housing lies in the space left incomplete by property law. As such, this monograph is a call to action for this development to be achieved in order to foster a democratic South Africa for all who live in it.

Property in Housing will be a valuable resource for subject specialists, researchers, advanced students, practitioners and the judiciary alike.

Real security law is where property law and credit law meet to regulate the rights that creditors have to property belonging to their debtors – either as agreed upon between the parties or as imposed by the law. Security rights facilitate affordable borrowing, investment in property and industry, and thus the promise of economic prosperity. Secured lenders are also empowered with stronger rights than other creditors and with more beneficial debt enforcement options. In our ever-changing economic and social context, a sophisticated system of law is necessary to maintain a fine balance between the rights of debtors, creditors, third parties and the general public – especially when things go wrong. Financial crises, rising consumer over-indebtedness and the fight against homelessness are but some important considerations that challenge this area of law.

Real Security Law covers all of the conventional forms of real security, such as the mortgage of land, the pledge of movables, general and special notarial bonds, security cessions, the landlord’s tacit hypothec and rights of retention. It also includes security mechanisms imposed by statutes, for example municipal charges, embargo powers, the instalment-agreement hypothec and statutory pledges.

The aim of this volume is to describe and analyse the current state of real security law in South Africa, starting with our common law foundation but with a particular focus on developments inspired by the Bill of Rights and other statutory and socio-economic changes in society. Therefore, the most recent developments in constitutional, statutory and case law are incorporated, and the aim is to strike a balance between legal theory, constitutional imperatives, commercial realities and the needs of practice.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Angry, opinionated, mouthy, aggressive, hysterical, mad, disordered, crazy, psycho, delusional, borderline, hormonal . . . Women have long been pathologized, locked up and medicated for not conforming to whichever norms or stereotypes are expected of them in that time and space. Sexy But Psycho is a challenging and uncomfortable book which seeks to explore the way professionals and society at large pathologize and sexualise women and girls. Utilising decades of research, real case studies and new data from her own work, Dr Taylor's book will critically analyse the way we label women with personality disorders. Why are women and girls pathologized for being angry about oppression and abuse? How have so many women been duped into believing that they are mentally ill, for having normal and natural reactions to their experiences? Sexy But Psycho argues that there is a specific purpose to convincing women and girls that they are mentally ill, as the world avoids addressing violence against women and their centuries of ignored trauma.

Women’s security in political, economic and social terms is directly linked to the pervasive problem of violence against women. Violence Against Women: Law, Policy and Practice seeks to understand this particular form of human rights violation, by situating violence against women in its historical, political, socio-economic and legal context in South Africa.

Whether in the private or public spheres, violence against women prevents women from realising a broad range of human rights that are central to full, inclusive and participatory citizenship. The authors of this volume reflect on the many forms of violence against women, the applicable laws and policies, and the challenges to effectively responding to this widespread violation of human rights.

Their contributions consider the role of law, policy and practice in relation to a broad range of themes including sexual violence, violence against women at the margins of systems and societies, and the impact on those who are working to defeat violence against women, whether as activists, practitioners or scholars.

'Stunning . . . Built like a thriller, moving, wise and illuminated on every page with love' -Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat When Carolyn Hays's child made clear to the family that they were all wrong, he was not a boy, but, in fact, a girl, the Hays shifted pronouns, adopted a nickname and encouraged her to dress as she felt comfortable. One ordinary day, a caseworker from the Department of Children and Families knocked on their door to investigate an anonymous complaint about the upbringing of their transgender child. It was this threat that instilled in them a deep-seated fear for their child's safety in the Republican state they called home. And so they uprooted their lives to the more trans-accepting Northeast United States, though they were never far from the hate and fear resting at the nation's core. Intimate, lyrical and thought-provoking, A Girlhood is an ode to Hays's brilliant, brave child, as well as a cathartic revisit of the pain of the past. It tells of the brutal truths of being trans, of the sacrificial nature of motherhood, and of the lengths a family will go to shield their youngest from the cruel realities of the world. Hays asks us all to love better, for children everywhere enduring injustice and prejudice just as they begin to understand themselves. A Girlhood is a celebration of difference, a plea for empathy, a hope for a better future, but moreover, it is a love letter to a child who has always known herself and is waiting for the rest of the world to catch up.

This unique book analyses the impact of international human rights on the concept of gender, demonstrating that gender emerged in the medical study of sexuality and has a complex and broad meaning beyond the sex and gender binaries often assumed by human rights law. Ekaterina Yahyaoui Krivenko skilfully illustrates the dynamics within the field of human rights which hinder the expansion of the concept of gender and which strategies and mechanisms allow and facilitate such an expansion. Gender and Human Rights surveys the development of human rights from the creation of the United Nations up to the present day and discusses key examples of the prohibition of violence and the regulation of culture and family in the context of human rights. This multidisciplinary study also incorporates additional perspectives from medical science, feminism and queer theory. This concise yet engaging book will be a valuable resource for scholars, students and activists working at the intersection of gender law and human rights law, providing a critical overview of the topic alongside strategies for future growth.

Feminist Frontiers in Climate Justice provides a compelling demonstration of the deeply gendered and unequal effects of the climate emergency, alongside the urgent need for a feminist perspective to expose and address these structural political, social and economic inequalities. Taking a nuanced, multidisciplinary approach, this book explores new ways of thinking about how climate change interacts with gender inequalities and feminist concerns with rights and law, and how the human world is bound up with the non-human, natural world. With contributions from leading scholars in law, feminism, human rights and politics, this book considers how equality is conceptualised experienced and used in policies, law and practice that are integral to climate justice. Chapters reveal how international and national policy and legal frameworks fall short on gender equality and climate justice. Overall, the book demonstrates that the climate crisis demands an ambitious and transformative approach to equality, including developing feminist ideas of care and social reproduction, to reconstruct law and policy towards a more just world for all. This ground-breaking book will be essential reading for scholars across many areas of law including environmental law, human rights, public international law, law and gender, and law and development. Its discussion of the international framework alongside in-depth case studies and assessments of women's mobilization strategies will also be highly relevant to social scientists, officials in international organizations, policymakers, lawyers and activists.

This unique book analyses the impact of international human rights on the concept of gender, demonstrating that gender emerged in the medical study of sexuality and has a complex and broad meaning beyond the sex and gender binaries often assumed by human rights law. Ekaterina Yahyaoui Krivenko skilfully illustrates the dynamics within the field of human rights which hinder the expansion of the concept of gender and which strategies and mechanisms allow and facilitate such an expansion. Gender and Human Rights surveys the development of human rights from the creation of the United Nations up to the present day and discusses key examples of the prohibition of violence and the regulation of culture and family in the context of human rights. This multidisciplinary study also incorporates additional perspectives from medical science, feminism and queer theory. This concise yet engaging book will be a valuable resource for scholars, students and activists working at the intersection of gender law and human rights law, providing a critical overview of the topic alongside strategies for future growth.

This casebook provides an overview of the main international and regional legal standards related to the human rights of women and explores their development and practical application in light of contemporary times, challenges, and advances. It navigates the nuances of the ongoing problems of discrimination and gender-based violence, and analyzes them in the context of modern challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the MeToo movement and its aftermath, the growth of non-state actors, environment and climate change, sexual orientation and gender identity, and the digital world, among others. Incorporating lessons learned from her experiences as a practitioner and a law professor, the author navigates and provides snapshots of priority issues and themes in the field of the human rights of women. In each chapter, students are encouraged to reflect and answer questions alluding to the intricacies, challenges, and advances in the protection and exercise of women's rights in modern times. The chapters also include many case judgments, decisions, views, and general recommendations adopted by universal and regional bodies and courts advancing the development of women human rights issues. This analysis is complemented by key scholarship, reports, and statements produced in the area of the human rights of women and its different features. Students of issues concerning human rights, women, gender equality, and international law will attain a thorough understanding of the field through this contemporary casebook.

Guardian's Best Paperback of the Month ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S and FINANCIAL TIMES' BOOKS OF 2020 'In intimate, often tender prose, Gevisser brings to life the complex movement for queer civil rights and the many people on whom it bears.' Colm Toibin, Guardian 'Powerful... meticulously researched' Andrew McMillan, Observer Book of the Week Six years in the making, The Pink Line follows protagonists from nine countries all over the globe to tell the story of how LGBTQ+ Rights became one of the world's new human rights frontiers in the second decade of the twenty-first century. From refugees in South Africa to activists in Egypt, transgender women in Russia and transitioning teens in the American Mid-West, The Pink Line folds intimate and deeply affecting stories of individuals, families and communities into a definitive account of how the world has changed, so dramatically, in just a decade. And in doing so he reveals a troubling new equation that has come in to play: while same-sex marriage and gender transition are now celebrated in some parts of the world, laws to criminalise homosexuality and gender non-conformity have been strengthened in others. In a work of great scope and wonderful storytelling, this is the groundbreaking, definitive account of how issues of sexuality and gender identity divide and unite the world today.

This casebook provides an overview of the main international and regional legal standards related to the human rights of women and explores their development and practical application in light of contemporary times, challenges, and advances. It navigates the nuances of the ongoing problems of discrimination and gender-based violence, and analyzes them in the context of modern challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the MeToo movement and its aftermath, the growth of non-state actors, environment and climate change, sexual orientation and gender identity, and the digital world, among others. Incorporating lessons learned from her experiences as a practitioner and a law professor, the author navigates and provides snapshots of priority issues and themes in the field of the human rights of women. In each chapter, students are encouraged to reflect and answer questions alluding to the intricacies, challenges, and advances in the protection and exercise of women's rights in modern times. The chapters also include many case judgments, decisions, views, and general recommendations adopted by universal and regional bodies and courts advancing the development of women human rights issues. This analysis is complemented by key scholarship, reports, and statements produced in the area of the human rights of women and its different features. Students of issues concerning human rights, women, gender equality, and international law will attain a thorough understanding of the field through this contemporary casebook.

'Long admired for her pioneering work on gender, neo-liberalism and human rights, in this volume Ratna Kapur builds on that scholarship to offer a bold and wide ranging set of arguments that will add immensely to the many current debates about human rights and their efficacy in this age of inequality. Kapur' s trenchant critique of rights and her vision of an alternative to the liberal concept of freedom offer strikingly original arguments that make this an indispensable volume for all who are interested in the future of human rights.' - Tony Anghie, National University of Singapore and University of Utah, US 'Gender, Alterity and Human Rights: Freedom in a Fishbowl is located within the best of critical theory traditions - thinking and rethinking orthodoxies around sexuality, rights and freedoms. Kapur not only deploys a late Foucauldian rethinking of freedom, but inherits the very spirit of intellectual engagement - of ''shak(ing) up habitual ways of working and thinking, dissipate(ing) conventional familiarities, to reevaluate rules and institutions'' (Foucault). It is a compelling, provocative read that will make its readers rethink what they think they already know.' - Brenda Cossman, University of Toronto, Canada 'Ratna Kapur is one of the most important international legal scholars working today. Gender, Alterity and Human Rights is brilliant, provocative and ground breaking - I cannot think of any other book published today that centers radically 'other' approaches to political and ethical agency as the epistemological anchor for analysis of international law. She advances this ambitious new ground by showing how dominant approaches to human rights and feminism are themselves invested in political subjectivities and agendas that seek to redeem international law and authorize global governance. With theoretical rigor and a radical sensibility, she quarries through material as diverse as human rights case law and Sufi poetry to excavate the plurality of ways in which freedom is envisioned, challenged and inhabited.' - Vasuki Nesiah, New York University, US Human rights are axiomatic with liberal freedom. This book builds on the critique of this mainstream and official position on human rights, drawing attention to how human rights have been deployed to advance political and cultural intents rather than bring about freedom for disenfranchised groups. Its approach is unique insofar as it focuses on queer, feminist and postcolonial human rights advocacy, exposing how such interventions have at times advanced neo-liberal agendas and new forms of imperialism, and enabled a carceral politics rather than producing freedom for their constituencies. Through a focus on campaigns for same-sex marriage, ending violence against women, and the Islamic veil bans in liberal democracies, human rights emerge as forms of governance that operate through normative prescriptions, which bind even as they purport to free, and establish a hierarchy of the human subject: who is human and who is not; who qualifies for rights and who does not. This book argues that the futurity of human rights rests in a transformative engagement with non-liberal registers of freedom beyond the narrow confines of the liberal fishbowl. This book will have a global appeal for students and academics concerned with international and human rights law, jurisprudence, critical legal theory, gender studies, postcolonial studies, feminist legal theory, queer theory, religious studies, and philosophy. It will appeal to political activists and policymakers in the global justice arena concerned with the freedom of disenfranchised groups, human rights, gender justice, and the rights sexual and religious minorities.

Sexual offences pose severe violations of human rights that necessitate criminal law intervention in every democratic society. Using a holistic and integrated approach, this book examines sexual offenses through criminal law and criminal procedure within different jurisdictions. Impunity or lenient punishment enjoyed by perpetrators appears as a fundamental concern and contribute to low(er) reporting rates. Attrition, from the perspective of criminal law, is not only caused by issues in criminal procedure, like a lack of victim support or insufficient evidence, but is primarily linked to the definition of sexual offences which is hugely influenced by society, culture, and political power. Stereotypes that are deeply rooted in society in the form of common myths such as: victim of sexual offences are always female(s), or sexual offences take place outside of marriage, or that the victim has an obligation to manifest a resistance, or a woman accepting a gift by a man shows she consented to sexual acts and many others that are impediment to combatting sexual violence. These myths are not just maintained by society, but they also affect the victim's decision to seek justice, as well as the judiciary's approach to victims and the police's attitudes towards victims. Using cases and legislation from Croatia, Greece, Italy, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Turkey, and comparing them to United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States, this book presents peculiarities stemming from society, culture, politics, historical facts and even religion, along with solutions to the global problems of sexual offenses. This book is of interest to scholars studying criminal justice, legal studies, sociology, and cultural studies

Gender Justice and the Law presents a collection of essays that examines how gender, as a category of identity, must continually be understood in relation to how structures of inequality define and shape its meaning. It asks how notions of "justice" shape gender identity and whether the legal justice system itself privileges notions of gender or is itself gendered. Shaped by politics and policy, Gender Justice essays contribute to understanding how theoretical practices of intersectionality relate to structures of inequality and relations formed as a result of their interaction. Given its theme, the collection's essays examine theoretical practices of intersectional identity at the nexus of "gender and justice" that might also relate to issues of sexuality, race, class, age, and ability.

Two LGBTQ affirmative US Supreme Court Rulings occurred in the second decade of the twenty-first century: the 2015 Obergefell ruling in support of same sex marriage, and the 2020 Bostock decision ruling that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is prohibited by Title VII. In The Politicalization of Trans Identity: An Analysis of Backlash, Scapegoating, and Dogwhistling from Obergefell to Bostock, Loren Cannon critiques the opinions of the court in both cases. Cannon carefully presents the evidence that transgender identity itself has become politicized post Obergefell and provides a thorough consideration of the ramifications of this politicization across the nation, especially in the form of proposed legislation and violence. Cannon argues that the politicization of trans identity can rightfully be understood as a backlash response to the Obergefell decision and increased LGBTQ equality. According to Cannon, aspects of the politicization can be characterized as scapegoating and as dog whistling. This book offers unique contributions to the understanding of these ideas, including a creative application of Rene Girard's theory of scapegoating. Lastly, Cannon argues that conceptually, virtue signaling needs to be paired with dog whistling to have the political result that the whistler intends.

Gender and Justice is a unique core textbook that introduces key concepts through case studies. Each chapter opens with a compelling case study that illustrates key concepts, followed by a narrative chapter that builds on the case study to introduce essential elements. Each chapter features pedagogical elements-learning objectives, key terms, review and study questions, and suggestions for further learning and exploration. In addition to the unique case study approach, this book is distinctive in its inclusion of LGBTQ experiences in crime, victimization, processing, and punishment. Gender and Justice also addresses masculinity and the role it plays in defining offenders and victims, as well as challenges posed by the gender gap in offending.

It contributes to the field of posthumanism through its application of posthuman feminism to international law Interdisciplinary approach. Will appeal to students and scholars with interests in legal, feminist, and posthuman theory, as well as those concerned with the contemporary challenges faced by international law.

This book considers how a phenomenon as complex as coercive control can be criminalised. The recognition and ensuing criminalisation of coercive control in the UK and Ireland has been the focus of considerable international attention. It has generated complex questions about the "best" way to criminalise domestic abuse. This work reviews recent domestic abuse criminal law reform in the UK and Ireland. In particular, it defines coercive control and explains why using traditional criminal law approaches to prosecute it does not work. Laws passed in England and Wales versus Scotland represent two different approaches to translating coercive control into a criminal offence. This volume explains how and why the jurisdictions have taken different approaches and examines the advantages and disadvantages of each. As jurisdictions around the world review what steps need to be taken to improve national criminal justice responses to domestic abuse, the question of what works, and why, at the intersection of domestic abuse and the criminal law has never been more important. As such, the book will be a vital resource for lawyers, policy-makers and activists with an interest in domestic abuse law reform.

Gender and Justice is a unique core textbook that introduces key concepts through case studies. Each chapter opens with a compelling case study that illustrates key concepts, followed by a narrative chapter that builds on the case study to introduce essential elements. Each chapter features pedagogical elements-learning objectives, key terms, review and study questions, and suggestions for further learning and exploration. In addition to the unique case study approach, this book is distinctive in its inclusion of LGBTQ experiences in crime, victimization, processing, and punishment. Gender and Justice also addresses masculinity and the role it plays in defining offenders and victims, as well as challenges posed by the gender gap in offending.

Women before the court offers an innovative, comparative approach to the study of women's legal rights during a formative period of Anglo-American history. It traces how colonists transplanted English legal institutions to America, examines the remarkable depth of women's legal knowledge and shows how the law increasingly undermined patriarchal relationships between parents and children, masters and servants, husbands and wives. The book will be of interest to scholars of Britain and colonial America, and to laypeople interested in how women in the past navigated and negotiated the structures of authority that governed them. It is packed with fascinating stories that women related to the courts in cases ranging from murder and abuse to debt and estate litigation. Ultimately, it makes a remarkable contribution to our understandings of law, power and gender in the early modern world. -- .

Although over the last two decades there has been a proliferation of gender studies, transgender has largely remained institutionalised as an 'umbrella term' that encapsulates all forms of gender understandings differing from what are thought to be gender norms. In both theoretical and medical literature, trans identity has been framed within a paradigm of awkwardness or discomfort, self-dislike or dysfunctional mental health. Marginal Bodies, Trans Utopias is a multidisciplinary book that draws primarily from Deleuze and post-structuralism in order to reformulate the concept of utopia and ground it in the materiality of the present. Through a radically new conceptualisation of the time and space of utopia, it analyses empirical findings from trans video diaries on the Internet belonging to transgender individuals. In doing so, this volume offers new insights into the everyday challenges faced by these subjectivities, with case studies focusing on: the legal/social impact of the UK's Gender Recognition Act 2004, boundaries of public and private as evidenced within public toilets, and the narrative of the 'wrong body'. Contextualising and applying Deleuzian concepts such as 'difference' and 'marginal' to the context of the research, Nirta helps the reader to understand trans as 'unity' rather than as a 'mind-body mismatch'. Contributing to the reading and understanding of trans lived experience, this book shall be of interest to postgraduates and postdoctoral researchers interested in fields such as Transgender Studies, Critical Studies, Sociology of Gender and Philosophy of Time.

Set in different national contexts (Brazil, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Laos, Norway, Thailand) and in different social science disciplines, the chapters of this volume aim at questioning anti-trafficking policies and their practical impact on sex work regulation. Many actors, from media to researchers, from nonprofit organizations to law enforcement agencies, from "experts" to "reality tourists", contribute to produce knowledge on trafficking and sexual exploitation and thus to institutionalize it as a category of thought and action; by naming and framing perpetrators and victims, they make trafficking "come true" as a public problem. The book pays particular attention to the way the international expertise produced by these different actors and institutions on sexual exploitation and sex work impacts local control practices, especially with regard to law enforcement. The fight against trafficking as it gets institutionalized and put into practice then appears as a way to reaffirm a gendered and racialized public order. Building analytical bridges between different national contexts and relying on contextualized fieldwork in different countries, the book is of great interest for academics as well as for practitioners and/or activists working on sex and gender issues and migration policies. Also, it resonates with a broader literature on the construction of public problems in sociology and political science.