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Why Feminist legal scholars should write judgments: Reflections on the Feminist judgments project in England and Wales

Rackley, Erika (2012) Why Feminist legal scholars should write judgments: Reflections on the Feminist judgments project in England and Wales. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, 24 (2). pp. 389-413. ISSN 0832-8781. (doi:10.3138/cjwl.24.2.389) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:76545)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/cjwl.24.2.389

Abstract

The Feminist Judgments Project was a collaboration in which a group of feminist legal scholars wrote alternative feminist judgments in significant legal cases in England and Wales. Rather than simply producing academic critiques of existing judgments, the participants, following in the footsteps of the Women's Court of Canada, engaged in a practical, "real world" exercise of judgment writing. By putting feminist theory into judgment form, the Feminist Judgments Project sought to harness the power and distinctiveness of judgment writing in order to demonstrate in a sustained and disciplined way how the cases could have been decided and how the judgments could be written differently. To date, academic commentary has primarily focused on the feminist substance of the alternative judgments or, more broadly, on what makes judgments feminist, rather than on the significance of feminist scholars writing judgments. Drawing on examples from the Feminist Judgments Project, this article argues that, in addition to seeing how feminist theoretical insights can (and should) play out "in practice," the Feminist Judgments Project and Women's Court also raise questions about the nature and possibilities of judgment writing for feminist legal scholarship. In considering the value of judgment writing as a form of feminist critical scholarship, the article takes up the presentation of the Feminist Judgments Project as a form of "academic activism" to argue that there are strong academic, educational, and political reasons why feminist legal scholars should write judgments.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.3138/cjwl.24.2.389
Subjects: K Law
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > Kent Law School
Depositing User: Sian Robertson
Date Deposited: 25 Sep 2019 15:06 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:26 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/76545 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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