Gender, Law and the State: Current Legal Issues (LAWS0231)

Feminist legal theory offers a challenge to conventional ways of understanding the form, meaning and function of law and it offers a critique of foundational assumptions about law.

This module first will examine feminist legal theory both in conceptual analysis and in practical argument. We will look, for example, at law’s theoretical underpinnings and its assumptions about the nature of the state and the individual.

We will then explore various areas of public and private law and examine law’s role in challenging, creating or reproducing gender relations. Sex-specific and sex-related legislation and policy will be analysed in the light of current debates within feminist theory.

Module syllabus

This module offers both theory and practical engagements with the law, international institutions such as the UN, and institutions of the state such as parliament, the bench, prisons and health services.

It assesses the contribution a feminist perspective can offer to understanding women’s engagement with these institutions, and with different national laws, human rights documents and international conventions. The module is taught by a number of tutors, each with specialist expertise in the subject area.

Recommended materials

There is no course text, although we will be referring to several chapters from V Munro (2007) Law and Politics at the Perimeter: Re-evaluating Key Debates in Feminist Theory Oxford: Hart Publishing.

Key information