Introduction: feminist judgments as teaching resources

While academic scholarship generally offers various forms of commentary on decided cases, feminist judgment-writing projects have recently embarked on a new form of critical scholarship. Rather than critiquing judgments from a feminist perspective in academic essays, the participants in these projects have set out instead to write alternative judgments, as if they had been one of the judges sitting in court at the time. After introducing the UK Feminist Judgments Project and describing what is “different” about the judgments it has produced, the paper explains some of the ways in which these judgments have been used as teaching resources in UK law schools. The paper goes on to introduce the following four articles in this issue of the Law Teacher, which illustrate in greater detail particular pedagogical uses of the Feminist Judgments Project.     

Using feminist judgments in the property law classroom

This article describes how the Feminist Judgments book will be used as a resource for a new, compulsory LLB property law module. The module (which was still in the planning stages at the point of writing) takes the development of co-ownership law as its subject matter. Students will be guided to read cases that reveal both the evolution of different legal solutions to co-ownership disputes and the gendered situations of the parties concerned, and will be assessed in part by writing a judgment of their own. The feminist judgments will provide students with models of feminist analysis and judgment-writing. The aim is to bring feminist scholarship into the core curriculum and to learn useful critical, research and writing skills.     

Writing las dissertations,part one: the rationale for an experimential research project

This article describes the impetus for a research project conducted during 2002–2003 into our law students' experiences of undertaking a dissertation module. It also discusses the rationale for the particular methodology and approach we have used to conduct this research, and presents the results. A driving force behind this research project was not only the desire to obtain knowledge for its own sake but also the need to identify and enhance positive aspects of students' experience of this module. We decided to adopt a student led and experiential method of carrying out our research that focuses directly upon the students' lived-experience of engaging in dissertation writing. The rationale for this decision was our acknowledgement that, within the last decade, students are increasingly defining themselves as consumers of educational services and have a legitimate and indeed pivotal role in quality assurance strategies. We also recognised that adopting an experiential method of inquiry, informed by a phenomenological approach, should, in principle, help to empower students by acknowledging their autonomy and encouraging them to engage in critical reflection. Finally, applying this methodology would provide us with precisely the subjectively rich type of research data derived from the students' lived-experience that we sought. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Research-led teaching,vehicular ideas and the Feminist Judgments Project

This paper reports on the results of a survey of law teachers that asked about their understanding of research-led teaching. It argues that the findings of the survey suggest that research-led teaching is a vehicular idea. It explains the emergence of vehicular ideas as a consequence of the discrediting of the intellectual as authority figure producing definitive oracular ideas. Instead the intellectual acts as mediator, producing ideas that provoke conversations and facilitate problem solving. Vehicular ideas are criticised as insubstantial, depoliticising and failing to challenge dominant neo-liberal norms, but they are also recognised – like all ideas – as potentially disruptive to the status quo. The paper then argues that the Feminist Judgments Project is a useful example of a research project that can give substance to research-led teaching. However, what is required is a conscious and collaborative dialogue between researchers and teachers and a commitment to outcomes that promote critical thinking on the part of students.     

Building sustainable free legal advisory systems: Experiences from the history of AI & law

The enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI) as a source of solutions to problems is not new. In law, from the early 1980s until at least the early 2000s, considerable work was done on developing ‘legal expert systems.’ As the DataLex project, we participated in those developments, through research and publications, commercial and non-commercial systems, and teaching students application development. This paper commences with a brief account of that work to situate our perspective.The main aim of this paper is an assessment of what might be of value from the experience of the DataLex Project to contemporary use of ‘AI and law’ by free legal advice services, who must necessarily work within funding and other constraints in developing and sustaining such systems. We draw fifteen conclusions from this experience, which we consider are relevant to development of systems for free legal advice services. The desired result, we argue, is the development of integrated legal decision-support systems, not ‘expert systems’ or ‘robot lawyers’. We compare our insights with the approach of the leading recent text in the field, and with a critical review of the field over twenty-five years. We conclude that the approach taken by the DataLex Project, and now applied to free legal advice services, remains consistent with leading work in field of AI and law.The paper concludes with brief suggestions of what are the most desirable improvements to tools and platforms to enable development of free legal advice systems. The objectives of free access to legal information services have much in common with those of free legal advice services. The information resources that free access to law providers (including LIIs) can provide will often be those that free legal advice services will need to use to develop and sustain free legal advisory systems. There is therefore strong potential for valuable collaborations between these two types of services providers.     

Teaching Dissent in the Law School: Have Students Learned to Disagree?

This paper offers an analysis of the qualitative evidence obtained from a research project in relation to the teaching of a module on the Trials of Dissenters in the context of an undergraduate law degree. It will consider whether a pedagogically innovative course has encouraged and enabled undergraduate law students to think more creatively on the issues raised by specific historic trials and to be prepared to construct more critical and open ended arguments. The study of the Trials of Dissenters, we hoped, would encourage our students to dissent both from the standard model of legal education and from the acceptance of what lecturers say as “true”. We here consider the success of our project in relation to how students view dissent.     

The Hague judgments project: assessing its plausible benefits for the development of the Indian private international law

At present, India is not a signatory to any international treaty or Convention that regulates the disputes arising from the international jurisdiction of courts or the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in transnational civil or commercial matters. These aspects are, consequently, regulated by the country’s private international law as espoused via case-law, in the absence of any codification of the rules on the subject. This has, therefore, exposed the Indian legal system to the threat of being unpredictable, inconsistent or even obsolete in some respects as far as the governance of international civil and commercial disputes are concerned. The paper, accordingly, investigates the plausible role that the two instruments presently under the scope of the Hague Conference on Private International Law’s Judgment Project, namely, the Convention of 30 June 2005 on Choice of Court Agreements [the HCCA] and the recent Proposed Draft Text on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments [the Draft Convention], may have on the development of the Indian legal system. While the HCCA is already in force with three ratifications till date, the Draft Convention is merely in the form of a draft text that would hopefully see the light of the day, depending upon the consensus between the Members of the Hague Conference. Apropos, this paper identifies the loopholes in the relevant rules of the Indian private international law on the international jurisdiction of courts and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments and demonstrates the manner in which, these aspects may be addressed if the country endorses the two instruments under the Judgments Project.     

Getting the fish to see the water: an investigation into students’ perceptions of learning writing skills in academic modules and in a final year real client legal clinic module

In 2010 Tonya Kowalski described the problems faced by students entering clinic for the first time as a one step backward, two step forward phenomenon. Students appeared initially unable to transfer skills and knowledge learned in earlier academic and other settings to clinic but once they were immersed in clinic their skills development improved rapidly. Clinic is often presented as a “bridge to practice” and delivered as the capstone to more traditional elements of an undergraduate degree. However, even with an integrated approach like that at Northumbria Law School, a seamless transition to the skills required for clinic is challenging and gives rise to a constant review of how best to prepare students. Our research focused on legal writing and used focus groups to find out how students participating in the year four clinic at Northumbria University perceived and adapted their previous experiences of writing for use in the clinical context. It identifies strategies which should be considered for integration into non-clinical modules and in the clinical module itself to facilitate this transition from academic orientated writing to practice orientated writing.     

Working with law students to develop legal literacy materials

This paper sets out the findings of a teaching development project undertaken with undergraduate law students at the University of Leicester (UOL) in 2013–2014, funded by the Higher Education Academy (HEA). In the course of this project, students were actively involved in the design, development and delivery of five interactive workshops for primary school children, each built around a particular theme and each designed to help develop an aspect of the children’s legal literacy. The aims were to assess the impact on the learning experience of student participants; to assess whether it may be possible to incorporate this form of activity within the undergraduate curriculum and to assess whether it may be possible to create a sustainable model for use in the future, with new groups of students and a wider number of schools. The most positive outcomes of the project relate to the students’ self-reporting of the development of transferable skills and their reported increase in self-confidence, as a result of being involved in the project. The role of group work in the development of transferable skills is also evident. By far the weakest area was the demonstration and development of legal research skills. The authors reflect on these findings, and comment on some of the unforeseen benefits and challenges of the project, before drawing conclusions as to its future viability.     

Women's Violence Against Their Children

Feminist scholars have rarely ventured into the realm of child abuse research. The aim of this paper is to lay the foundation for a feminist understanding of women's violence against their children. It begins with an assessment of the fundamental nature of the oppression of women in society and within the family. It continues with a critical analysis of how conventional child abuse and family violence experts have attempted to explain the problem of violence against children in the family. Ultimately, this paper reveals that if one is genuinely interested in unlocking the secrets of maternal child abuse, then the key is a feminist perspective that provides insight into the lives of women in the patriarchy.     

我国女性主义法学研究的回顾与展望

女性问题的跨意识形态性、我国法律现代化进程的不可逆性与女性主义法学本身的批判性和进步性,决定了在我国开启以“性别与法律”为主旨的女性主义法学研究的重要理论和实践价值.目前,我国在研究的学科类别上,已形成法理学为主导,部门法共同参与的局面;在研究基地和社会影响上,已形成以中国社科院法学所为重镇,各地高校与研究机构积极参与和推动的格局;在研究问题上,已在认识论和法律事实两个层面形成多样议题.但是,法学认识论层面的研究不足、女性主义法学研究的边缘化、研究者尚未形成统一的研究立场和研究队伍学科背景单一等问题也掣肘着女性主义法学的发展.法学研究者需通过不断拓展法学认识论研究,积极结合中国现实吸纳新知、超越意识形态客观审视西方社会理论,加强与其他学科的合作等方式,共同推动我国女性主义法学研究的发展.     

美国女权主义法学平等与差异观研究

女权主义者由于受到后现代思潮的影响,否定统一、抽象的平等标准,不赞同把两性是否存在差异作为讨论平等问题的基点,但实际上后现代女权主义法学更加关注差异问题,并且拓展了差异的含义和范围。通过对平等与差异观的研究我们可以看出各女权主义法学流派之间并不是简单的批判和否定,从激烈纷繁的辩争中我们可以发现各流派关于平等和差异的讨论是一种辩证的否定之否定的关系。     

美国女性主义法学及其启示

女性主义法学以其独特的方法论剖析法律问题,提出女性问题方法、女性主义实际推论方法、提高觉悟方法以及用社会性别视角观察历史、文化、社会现象,从而展现出与以往法学理论研究的不同进路。女性主义法学是一种对女性及性别进行全方位认识的法学流派。其"硬核"已经并非单纯要求女性在婚姻、家庭、劳动就业和社会福利保障等方面享有与男性同样的权利,它更要求在分配和界定上述权利的过程中,乃至在以法律为核心的整个现代法治结构中加入女性的视角和女性的生存体验与思维方式,要求立法中的社会性别意识,从而使两性关系、婚姻、家庭乃至社会健康协调地发展。     

女权心理学及其对西方主流心理学的挑战

女权心理学是西方女权主义运动中的一股重要力量。女权心理学试图揭示西方心理学的内容和方法中的男性中心偏见 ,反对扭曲和病态化女性的经验与行为。在女性心理的研究中 ,它既反对夸大性别差异 ,也反对抹杀和取消性别差异。女权心理学质疑西方主流心理学的科学观和方法论 ,认为自然科学的经验实证范式不适合心理学 ,心理学不可能脱离社会文化的影响而进行价值中立的研究     

Understanding Dworkin through art: object-based learning and law

This article explores object-based learning (OBL), a burgeoning pedagogical approach in higher education. Object-based learning engages students’ pre-existing visual and conceptual literacy as a gateway to work through difficult threshold concepts. The article advocates this exciting learning model in law by articulating what it is, explaining how it can be applied through the example of teaching Dworkin in a jurisprudence module. The article introduces OBL approaches, details how it is relevant to jurisprudential teaching as well as its scope for application across legal teaching. It explains how such an approach moves away from transmission modes of teaching into transformational ones, accessing students’ abstract web of comprehension in conjunction with text-based learning to produce more imaginative and creative critical thinking skills.     

Studying women legal scholars: the challenges of life history

Biographies of prominent women often advance inquiries that lead to easy and uninteresting conclusions that their subject should be celebrated or ignored. In contrast, this article argues for more life histories of women legal scholars that bring out the complexity of their lives. It suggests three ways to execute this work that guard against the making of simple binary conclusions. First, it argues that these studies should be open inquiries that present a range of views of their subject, from both the past and present, and encourage audiences to form their own judgments. This approach will help both reader and scholar to recognise their biases. Second, it makes a case for treating legal scholars differently from pure educators, scholars or lawyers. It suggests that their unique role should inform the work’s central inquiries. Finally, it argues that unearthing a subject’s attitude towards feminism and feminist legal scholarship can be done in ways that strengthen the work’s contribution to the history of the discipline.     

“This case is about you and your future”: Towards Judgments for Children

A handful of ‘child-friendly’ judgments have emerged in the UK in recent years, attempting to adopt a child-centred approach to the decision-making stage of the legal process. Most notable is Sir Peter Jackson's judgment in Re A: Letter to a Young Person which, in taking the form of a letter to the child, has been applauded as a model of how to achieve ‘child friendly justice’. This article examines how and why the form and presentation of judicial decisions is an important aspect of children's access to justice, considering not just the potential but the duty of judges to enhance children's status and capacities as legal citizens through judgment writing. We identify four potential functions of judgments written for children (communicative, developmental, instructive and legally transformative), and call for a radical reappraisal of the way in which judgments are constructed and conveyed with a view to promoting children's access to justice.     

Decision Making at the Firm Level: The of a Criminal Legal Aid Case Management System

The Criminal Legal Aid System, in Scotland as in England, is under severe economic strain. A key element in the legal profession's response should be reliance on IT in improving the efficiency of criminal legal aid case management. This paper is a work-in-progress report on our involvement (under a Teaching Company Scheme Project) with a Glasgow criminal practice and their use of an existing case management and automation tool. Although the focus of the research is on improving the scope of the present system, our work has involved us in an exploration of decision-making processes at the level of the firm and the role of computerisation and automation at all levels in the firm. More specifically, our investigations focus on the interaction of the fee earners and paralegals in the use they make of information and how, applying management science techniques, they could improve on that use. This in turn led to a reconsideration of how the case management system uses information available to the differing levels of “decision makers” within the firm. This creates an interesting contrast with the “decision making” process at the level of adjudication.     

Fathers as carers in UK law and policy: dominant ideologies and lived experience

This article explores how working fathers are conceptualised within the UK’s work-family law and policy framework and whether a dominant ideology of fatherhood can be discerned. The socio-legal literature on men and masculinities is considered alongside established feminist theory on families, paid work and unpaid care to provide a backdrop to the analysis of current policy provision in this area. Three ‘ideal’ type ideologies of fatherhood are identified (‘absent’, ‘involved’ and ‘active’) which are used to critically examine the current legal framework. Despite claims to the contrary, the current framework supports and reaffirms the gendering of care so that the intransigence on the part of men and women to rebalance related responsibilities is unsurprising. The authors argue for a more care-centric approach to work-family policy in place of gender-specific normative modelling. A legal framework which enabled and encouraged all care providers to participate regardless of gender and biological relationship would not only improve the workplace experiences of women, but also enable men to develop and fulfil their care-giving aspirations and potential.     

Legal Feminism and Foucault – A Critique of the Expulsion of Law

Contemporary theorists have become increasingly receptive to the selective incorporation of Foucaultian theory within feminist frameworks. However, the reception of Foucault within feminist legal critique has been less enthusiastic. The most celebrated theorist to argue for the incorporation of Foucaultian insight within the feminist analysis of law is Carol Smart. While conceding the significant contribution of her work, this article will argue that her interpretation of the Foucaultian thesis on law is considerably more problematic. Illustrating the extent to which she adopts an unnecessarily pessimistic prognosis for the development of Foucault within legal analysis and reform, this article will examine an emerging counter-interpretation of Foucault that presents the possibility for a more promising application, seeking to provide a defence both of the utility of Foucault for feminist jurisprudence, and of the utility of legal reform strategies being exercised for feminist purposes.