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A Research Committee of
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Adam
Podgòrecki Prize
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Working Group on Gender and Law
The Working Group on Gender and Law replaces the former Working Group on Women and Law, though with a new agenda and set of concerns, reflecting the shift that has occurred in legal theory from the early scholarship on 'women and the law' to more a more recent focus on the gendered nature of law and the legal construction of gender. One of the projects of the Working Group has been to rethink key concepts in feminist legal theory. For example, the Working Group's 2005 meeting in Stilbay, South Africa, focused on the concepts of choice and consent. A collection of essays arising from this meeting has been produced, titled Choice and Consent: Feminist Engagements with Law and Subjectivity. It is edited by Rosemary Hunter and Sharon Cowan, and contains essays by Maria Drakopoulou (on a genealogy of the concept of consent), Louise du Toit, Sharon Cowan and Heather Douglas (on consent in rape law), Karin van Marle (on political consent), Anél Boshoff (on consent in family law), Gillian Calder (on choice and consent in relation to women's reproductive decisions and maternity rights), Hazel Biggs (on choice and consent in relation to end-of-life decision making), and Rosemary Hunter (on consent in civil procedure). The collection will be published by Routledge Cavendish in late 2007. In July 2006, the Working Group held a well-attended workshop at Onati on the subject of 'Revisiting Equality', organised by Sally Sheldon, Rosemary Hunter and Maria Drakopoulou. Papers presented at the workshop provided critical reflections on the concept of equality from historical, philosophical, socio-legal and doctrinal perspectives. Key questions addressed in the papers included: what is the history of the feminist use of 'equality' and what lessons are there for the future? What are the effects of the feminist pursuit of equality? What are the advantages and disadvantages of strategising in terms of equality? And, what potential is there to re-conceptualise equality, to mould it in a different form? The presentations were followed by lively discussions, which spilled well over their allotted sessions and into the lunch break and the evenings. Once again, an edited collection arising from the Workshop has been prepared, titled Rethinking Equality Projects in Law: Feminist Challenges. The MS has been submitted for publication as part of the Hart Publishing Onati International Series in Law and Society, and is currently being considered by the Board of Editors. The
Working Group has organised six sessions – five paper sessions and a roundtable
– as part of the Berlin law and society conference in
July 2007. The theme chosen for discussion at the Berlin meeting is
'Feminism and the production of knowledge'. The paper sessions are on: It also
organized a
Roundtable (Sat 28 July, 12.30) titled 'Diversifying Gender? Comparative
Feminist Legal Scholarship', a collaboration between the Working Group,
the Centre for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies at Humboldt University, and
Womedlaw, a organisation of women from the Euro-Mediterranean countries
concerned with issues of equality and diversity in the academic world. It discussed potential differences between feminist legal discourses on different
continents, asking questions such as: how are issues of law, gender and
diversity reflected in different legal, cultural, institutional and political
contexts? Which issues are on the cutting edge of feminist legal scholarship,
and why? Which theoretical frameworks are discussed, used, or considered
inappropriate? Where are the faultlines between mainstream and dissent? Which
goals do we pursue in research? How do we influence legal theories and
practices? What does feminist scholarship have to say in relation to
paradigmatic cases such as religious pluralism, domestic violence and
constructions of marriage? The Berlin meeting offered a rare opportunity to
discuss such topics in a truly international setting.
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