Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
The Irish project 'Irish Feminist Judgments: Judges' Troubles and the Gendered Politics of Identity' builds upon the work of the feminist judgment project completed at Durham and Kent and which integrated feminist theory and judicial method, re-writing influential judgments from feminist perspectives. The project will produce an anthology of re-written judgments from Northern/Ireland as well as innovative web resources with materials of use to both academics and civil society. Bringing together academic partners at institutions across the UK and Ireland including the Law Schools at Kent, LSE, UCD, UCC, Queen's Belfast, and the University of Ulster, with solicitors, barristers and civil society groups, the project creates a broad new community of Irish feminist scholars around an ambitious Northern/Irish Feminist Judgments Project. The project will create tangible resources which can be used to engender a societal dialogue about legal decision-making and social change, developing dynamic resources for future research and teaching in judicial studies. The project focuses on the gendered political roles of judges in contexts of transition from conflict, colonialism and religious patriarchy. 'This book provides a rich and expansive addition to the feminist judgments catalogue. The essays and rewritten judgments demonstrate powerfully how Northern/Irish judges have contributed to the gendered politics of national identity, and how the narrow subject-positions they have created for women and 'others' could have been so much wider and more open.' Rosemary Hunter.
Synopsis
This book builds upon the work of the feminist judgment project, completed at Durham and Kent, which integrated feminist theory and judicial method, re-writing influential judgments from a feminist perspective. The project produced an anthology of re-written judgments from Northern/Ireland, as well as innovative web resources with materials that will be of use to both academics and civil society. Bringing together academic partners at institutions across the UK and Ireland, including the Law Schools at Kent, LSE, UCD, UCC, Queen's Belfast, and the University of Ulster, with solicitors, barristers, and civil society groups, the project creates a broad new community of Irish feminist scholars around an ambitious Northern/Irish Feminist Judgments Project. A tangible resource has been created which can be used to engender a societal dialogue about legal decision-making and social change, developing dynamic resources for future research and teaching in judicial studies. This book focuses on the gendered political roles of judges in the context of transition from conflict, colonialism, and religious patriarchy. ***This book provides a rich and expansive addition to the feminist judgments catalogue. The essays and rewritten judgments demonstrate powerfully how Northern/Irish judges have contributed to the gendered politics of national identity, and how the narrow subject-positions they have created for women and 'others' could have been so much wider and more open.--Prof. Rosemary Hunter, School of Law, Queen Mary University London. Subject: Gender & the Law, Legal Education, Legal History]
Synopsis
The Northern/Irish Feminist Judgments Project inaugurates a fresh dialogue on gender, legal judgment, judicial power and national identity in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Through a process of judicial re-imagining, the project takes account of the peculiarly Northern/Irish concerns in shaping gender through judicial practice. This collection, following on from feminist judgments projects in Canada, England and Australia takes the feminist judging methodology in challenging new directions. This book collects 26 rewritten judgments, covering a range of substantive areas. As well as opinions from appellate courts, the book includes fi rst instance decisions and a fi ctional review of a Tribunal of Inquiry. Each feminist judgment is accompanied by a commentary putting the case in its social context and explaining the original decision. The book also includes introductory chapters examining the project methodology, constructions of national identity, theoretical and conceptual issues pertaining to feminist judging, and the legal context of both jurisdictions. The book, shines a light on past and future possibilities - and limitations - for judgment on the island of Ireland.
'This book provides a rich and expansive addition to the feminist judgments catalogue. The ... judgments demonstrate powerfully how Northern/Irish judges have contributed to the gendered politics of national identity, and how the narrow subject-positions they have created for women and 'others' could have been so much wider and more open.'
Professor Rosemary Hunter, School of Law, Queen Mary University London.
'The Northern/Irish Feminist Judgments Project is inspirational reading for anyone interested in feminism or Irish studies ... It is a model of how to conduct feminist enquiry. Its most innovative contribution to scholarship and politics is how the rewriting of landmark legal judgments from a feminist perspective allows us to imagine (and therefore begin to construct) a more egalitarian, a more just, future.'
Associate Professor Katherine O'Donnell, School of Philosophy, University College Dublin.
If you let it, this book will make you think. ... It made me think - it reminded me, I suppose - that legal writing can be wonderful: rigorous, creative, deeply observant, provocative. Read it and see what it makes you think.
Professor Th r se Murphy, School of Law, Queen's University Belfast