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"Preface" [2019] ELECD 96; in West, Robin; Bowman, G. Cynthia (eds), "Research Handbook on Feminist Jurisprudence" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) x

Book Title: Research Handbook on Feminist Jurisprudence

Editor(s): West, Robin; Bowman, G. Cynthia

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781786439680

Section Title: Preface

Number of pages: 5

Extract:

Preface
Contemporary feminist legal scholarship engages with law in both critical and normative ways: it aims to understand how law contributes to the subordination of women, and to articulate the ways in which law might be best used to end that subordination and thereby improve women's lives, consistent with law's commitments to justice. The body of work that has resulted has employed a range of theoretical points of departure for the critical dimension of this mission, including, among others, liberal theory, Marxism, pragmatism, postmodernism and the insights of critical race and gender studies, and has impacted a range of areas of law, including family law, antidiscrimination law, constitutional law, international law and criminal law, among others. After an introductory essay that provides an overview of these schools and their contributions, the chapters in this volume explore both the theoretical and normative dimensions of legal feminism. Part I explores legal feminism's major theoretical variants, with essays on liberal feminism, radical feminism, relational and vulnerability-based feminisms, socialist feminism, intersectional and critical race feminisms, postmodern feminism and sex-positive or queer feminisms. Collectively, the chapters in Part I explore legal feminism's internal debates and varying perspectives, which often follow from these often radically contrasting theoretical perspectives. Parts II through VII then explore feminism's critique and reconstruction of some of the major doctrinal areas of law that have to date been most impacted by feminist interventions. Part I begins with a chapter by Sylvia Law, one of the ...