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Summary Legal Philosophy: Study Unit 1
An extensive and elaborate summary of study unit 1 for Legal Philosophy 371.
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5. FEMINISMTheories
Critical Race Feminism
Use certain lines of thinking in critical legal studies.
Question legal objectivity, neutrality and rationality.
Commitment to exposing political and ideological nature of law – showing
indeterminacy and contradictions inherent in all legal rules, principles and
decisions.
Undermine assumptions of legal certainty.
Law is a reflection of dominant ideologies and assumptions in society.
Gender subordination of black women does not receive sufficient attention in
mainstream feminist theories.
Middle-class white experience very different htan experience of black working
class women.
Importance of black female identity.
Importance of intersection between race and gender oppression.
Crenshaw: the experiences of black women are sidelined
o By feminists & by anti-racism discourses
o E.g. Anital Hill controversy
Hill was a lawyer
Clarence Thomas = US Supreme Court judge (black but
conservative)
He had to be confirmed by the Senate, but controversy because
he was set to replace a black judge who was a liberal &
progressive judge
Hill makes claims of sexual harassment against Thomas
Big debate antiracism people split between 2 parties
Many say it is a historical opportunity for black man to
become judge
Feminists side with Hill
Big point of issue: she is a black women
, People tend to separate black women’s identities as
either black or femal
but this is problematic because a black womens
experience is unique because of both characteristics
together
o black women’s experience of rape: look at rape crisi centers, huge
differences betw centres in affluent parts & in the ghettos
(predominantly black)
the act of rape itself isn’t different, but the surrounding circum
are so different that they must be taken into account
when helping black victims in poor neighbourhoods, the people
working here cant just focus on act of rape & trial because these
people also have so many other connected problems (lack of
=housing, poverty etc)
centres have to spend lots of time making people conscious of
the services they provide, because many of these women are
culturally marginalised do not have the knowledge of the help
they can get as the affluent women have this knowledge
point: feminism should engage with the intersections betw race, sex, class &
other markers of disadvantage
Legal strategies and methods
Relevant to all schools.
Legal feminism is concerned with the way in which the law contributes to
women’s oppression – challenging law whilst using it.
Expose misleading nature of ideas such as objectivity and neutrality.
o Just like Critical Legal Theory.
Legal argumentation is a variation of Cartesion logics:
o Cartesion logic: “I think, therefore I am”.
o Knowledge is acquired by individual people through the exercise of
their faculties of reason.
o When knowledge is obtained through the correct processed reasoning
it will tend to be true, irrespective of identity of the knowers/subjects of
knowledge.
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