The Common Law Inside the Female Body

Explains why lawyers seeking gender progress from primary legal materials should start with the common law.

Anita Bernstein (Author)

9781316629185, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 December 2018

270 pages
22.9 x 15.3 x 1.5 cm, 0.39 kg

'The Common Law Inside the Female Body is a highly original work that anticipates a vital future for a pair of venerable jurisprudential traditions.' James A. Cox, Midwest Book Review

In The Common Law Inside the Female Body, Anita Bernstein explains why lawyers seeking gender progress from primary legal materials should start with the common law. Despite its reputation for supporting conservatism and inequality, today's common law shares important commitments with feminism, namely in precepts and doctrines that strengthen the freedom of individuals and from there the struggle against the subjugation of women. By re-invigorating both the common law - with a focus on crimes, contracts, torts, and property - and feminist jurisprudence, this highly original work anticipates a vital future for a pair of venerable jurisprudential traditions. It should be read by anyone interested in understanding how the common law delivers an extraordinary degree of liberty and security to all persons - women included.

Introduction: what is the common law inside the female body?
Part I. Condoned Self-Regard in the Common Law: 1. Saying no to what we don't want
2. Exceptions to condoned self-regard: prior voluntary conduct
3. Woman too my say no to what they don't want
Part II. What Follows: 4. Unwanted penetration
5. Unwanted pregnancy
6. Challenges, prospects, gored oxen.

Subject Areas: Torts / Delicts [LNV], Medical & healthcare law [LNTM], Jurisprudence & general issues [LA], Human rights [JPVH], Political science & theory [JPA]