Feminists have recently begun to challenge the powerful influence of the law on the social and cultural construction of women’s roles, identities, and rights. At the Boundaries of Law is a timely and path-breaking work that provides a series of non-technical, interdisciplinary explorations into the nature and effects of legal regulation on women’s lives. Together the essays examine the fertile – and radically revisionary – links between feminism and legal theory. But At the Boundaries of Law rejects the abstract ‘grand theorizing’ of traditional feminist legal theory, focusing instead on the concrete and material implications of the legal injustices endured by women. These essays emphasise the complex diversity of female experience, collectively arguing for legal theory and practice that both recognises and accommodates the concept of ‘difference’ – in gender, class, race and sexual orientation. At the Boundaries of Law also raises provocative questions about the methodology and future of feminist legal theory itself. In its rich variety of issues and approaches, this volume will command the interest not only of legal theorists, but of those interested in women’s studies, philosophy, politics, sociology and history. It is sure to set the future agenda for scholars, policymakers and anyone concerned with the role of law in society.

Annotation Feminists have recently begun to challenge the powerful influence of the law on the social and cultural construction of women's roles, identities, and rights. This timely work provides a series of non-technical, interdisciplinary explorations into the nature and effects of legal regulation on women's lives.

This book offers powerful analyses of the relationship between law and gender and new understandings of the limits of, and opportunities for, legal reform drawn from the experiences of women and from critical perspectives developed within other disciplines.

What is the link between the way in which women are viewed as an aberration within law - such that pregnant women initially had to be compared with sick men to claim unfair dismissal - and the view of women as monstrous within philosophy? This book uses the failure of women to fit within male models of both law and theory as a way to rethink legal questions,including the meaning of equality, freedom, justice and citizenship. This includes concern about the way in which queer theory and critical race theory - as well as issues of class - intersect with feminist theory today. It also raises issues about the relationship between political theory and practice and the productive intersection between debates within law, philosophy and feminism. This collection of essays on feminist legal theory therefore provides an interdisciplinary approach, drawn not only from law and philosophy, but also from cultural and womens studies. Feminism may still be on the margins of both law and philosophy, yet it has the ability to disrupt both. This book moves beyond a feminist critique of existing frameworks to the constructive project of reworking theory from within. It goes beyond debates of traditional jurisprudence to draw its tools from the growing body of work on feminist philosophy - including the writings of Luce Irigaray, Drucilla Cornell and Christine Battersby - which intersect both contemporary continental philosophy and critical legal theory.

Feminists have recently begun to challenge the powerful influence of the law on the social and cultural construction of women s roles, identities, and rights. At the Boundaries of Law is a timely and path-breaking work that provides a series of non-technical, interdisciplinary explorations into the nature and effects of legal regulation on women s lives. Together the essays examine the fertile and radically revisionary links between feminism and legal theory. But At the Boundaries of Law rejects the abstract grand theorizing of traditional feminist legal theory, focusing instead on the concrete and material implications of the legal injustices endured by women. These essays emphasise the complex diversity of female experience, collectively arguing for legal theory and practice that both recognises and accommodates the concept of difference in gender, class, race and sexual orientation. At the Boundaries of Law also raises provocative questions about the methodology and future of feminist legal theory itself. In its rich variety of issues and approaches, this volume will command the interest not only of legal theorists, but of those interested in women s studies, philosophy, politics, sociology and history. It is sure to set the future agenda for scholars, policymakers and anyone concerned with the role of law in society."

As a distinct scholarly contribution to law, feminist legal theory is now well over three decades old. Those three decades have seen consolidation and renewal of its central concerns as well as remarkable growth, dynamism and change. This Companion celebrates the strength of feminist legal thought, which is manifested in this dynamic combination of stability and change, as well as in the diversity of perspectives and methodologies, and the extensive range of subject-matters, which are now included within its ambit. Bringing together contributors from across a range of jurisdictions and legal traditions, the book provides a concise but critical review of existing theory in relation to the core issues or concepts that have animated, and continue to animate, feminism. It provides an authoritative and scholarly review of contemporary feminist legal thought, and seeks to contribute to the ongoing development of some of its new approaches, perspectives, and subject-matters. The Companion is divided into three parts, dealing with 'Theory', 'Concepts' and 'Issues'. The first part addresses theoretical questions which are of significance to law, but which also connect to feminist theory at the broadest and most interdisciplinary level. The second part also draws on general feminist theory, but with a more specific focus on debates about equality and difference, race, culture, religion, and sexuality. The 'Issues' section considers in detail more specific areas of substantive legal controversy.