FEMINIST JURISPRUDENCE AND ITS MANY CORNERS: BUILDING A SOCIO-LEGAL PERSPECTIVE IN THE INDIAN SOCIETY

This paper tends to explore the various branches of the Feminist Jurisprudence and its inter-section with the other disciplines. To understand the socio-legal nuances involved in the concept of achieving a gender just framework there is a need to analyze the vast scholarly literature available on the subject. Therefore, an attempt has been made to conceptualize the problem of gender inequality existing between the relations of men and women in the Indian society. And finally connecting the scope of this analysis for building a contemporary understanding of the concept of Gender Justice paradigm in the Indian scenario. KEYWORDS: Feminist Jurisprudence, Gender, Gender-relations, Intersectionality, Gender Justice.

Beyond Battered Women’s Syndrome

Feminist jurisprudence has amplified the voices of gender violence survivors long silenced by trauma and male-biased legal doctrine. In critiquing self-defense law’s treatment of survivors, some feminists pressed for recognition of a distinctive set of characteristics purportedly associated with survivors, termed “battered woman syndrome” (BWS). Intended to ameliorate the harsh effects of criminal law on survivors, BWS sought to explain why battered women responded as they did in terms that judges and juries might better relate to the legal requirements for self-defense. One argument is that the law of self-defense must be further recalibrated—beyond the problematic, operative lens of BWS—to better protect those who engage in survival crime. By instead utilizing “battering and its effects” as the framework for relevant evidence, the criminal justice system could become more responsive to survivors. Even beyond recalibrating the law of self-defense to better suit survivors, legal stakeholders can learn much from activists and feminist legal theory about pursuing gender and racial justice, by embracing diverse lenses to actually hear the raced, classed, and gendered narratives of survivors’ lives. Despite missteps with the development of BWS, feminist jurisprudence is gradually increasing understanding of, and empathy for, survival crime.

Research Handbook on Feminist Engagement with International Law

ABSTRACT This review analyzes the efficacy of the collection in engaging with international law through the lens of feminist jurisprudence. The editors have compiled a diverse collection that applies feminist thought to varying topics of international law, including economic topics that do not obviously lend themselves to feminist engagement, that demonstrates the benefits of such analysis. The handbook effectively illustrates the potential for feminist thought to apply broadly to international law topics and provides a path forward for continued engagement with feminist theories in international law.

Why women judges really matter: The impact of women judges on property law outcomes in Kenya

In this paper, I discuss the impact that women judges have made in property law outcomes in Kenya. The study shows that women judges were able to influence a feminist jurisprudence in matrimonial property and inheritance disputes peripherally even though they were not sitting in some of those cases – through trainings of other [male] judges and informal interactions with colleagues. I argue that there is need to focus lens on the collaborative and networking programmes of women judges to bring about institutional change as opposed to a focus on individual women judges. The findings suggest that studies that focus on individual [women] judges have far less potential to uncover the impact of collective efforts of women judges. Existing studies are based largely on Anglo-American positivist methodologies that are based on methodological individualism over collectivism. It is no wonder that the collective efforts of women judges under the auspices of the International Women Judges Association has received little to no scholarly attention.

Mendialogkan Hakikat Hukum dan Keadilan Pada Berbagai Aliran Pemikiran Hukum dalam Novel Les Miserables

Keadilan seharusnya terefleksikan dalam rumsan kata-kata hukum tertulis sebab ianya akan menjadi dasar bagi penegak hukum untuk mengambil tindakan dan bgi hakim untuk mengambil putusan. Ruh keadilan yang terkandung dalam hukum tertulis itu sudah seharusnya menginspirasi bagaimana hukum ditegakkan dan bagaimana putusan diambil. Tulisan ini mencoba merefleksikan berbagai alur dan tokoh dalam novel Les Miserable karya Victor Hugo dengan memandangnya dari perspektif berbagai aliran pemikiran hukum. Refleksi yang dilakukan menunjukkan bahwa sebuh peristiwa hukum dapat dikaji dengan menggunakan berbagai sudut pandang berdasarkan aliran-aliran pemikiran dalam ilmu hukum. Dalam analisis digunakan aliran pemikiran hukum alam, positivisme dan feminist jurisprudence. Mendialogkan berbagai aliran pemikiran ini membawa pada cara pandang tentang bagaimana seharusnya hukum dan keadilan dipersepsikan untuk kemudian dituangkan secara normatif sebelum diterapkan kepada masyarakat.

Woman-Initiated Divorce and Feminist Fiqh in Indonesia: Narrating Male Acts of Nushūz in Marriage

This article examines the issue of woman-initiated divorce (cerai gugat) for the controversial reason in Indonesian Islam known as nushūz suami or a husband’s disobedience in marriage. In contrast to the Indonesian Compilation of Islamic Law which applies nushūz (disobedience) to wives only, our arguments draw on feminist jurisprudence (fiqh) to show how nushūz also applies to husbands who do not fulfill marital obligations. A husband’s nushūz is overlooked by classical scholars and Indonesian Islamic Law alike, yet when understood in a Qur’anic feminist context, it gives a depth of understanding about women’s choice to divorce as part of a wider gender justice process and the ‘gendering’ of divorce. Based on women’s post-divorce narratives about nushūz, we propose a feminist fiqh understanding of gender equality situated in tawḥīd as a concept with the potential to form egalitarian-inspired persons (muslimah reformis) and ‘essential’ and ‘true’ justice (keadilan hakiki), through reading religious texts and producing knowledge and policies that include women’s experiences and voices along with those of men’s (mubādalah).