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The law has been the major site of advocacy, reform efforts and social change in relation to a variety of complex social problems. Gendered violence is one of them. After nearly three decades of advocacy and law reform, what can we understand about current legal responses to, and engagement with, issues of gendered violence? This book aims squarely at critically analyzing legal responses to, interventions in, and remedies for violence against women, with an overarching aim of assessing the extent to which the law has been - or could still be - effectively utilized in the project to end violence in womena (TM)s lives. Drawing on Canadian, U.S. and UK jurisprudence and spanning a variety of contexts of gendered violence (including domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, and rape), Melanie Randall illustrates the persistent complexities and challenges surrounding legal understandings of and responses to violence against women.
List of contents
Part 1: Gender, Violence and the Law 1. Introduction: Mapping the Issues 2. Agency, Resistance and Violence in Women’s Lives Part 2: Legal Images of Gendered Violence in Intimate Relationships: The Complexities of Law's Responses 3. The Legal Politics of Consent: Sexual Assault Law, Gender and Autonomy 4. "Honest but Mistaken" Judicial Beliefs about Sexual assault in Spousal Relationships: The Assumption of "Continuous Consent" 5. Domestic Violence and the Construction of "Ideal Victims:" Assaulted Women’s "Image Problems" in Law Part 2: Engaging the State Accountability in Private Law, Public Law and the International Sphere 6. Private law, the State and the Duty to Protect: Tort Actions for Police Failures in Gendered Violence Cases 7. Equality Rights the Constitution and Violence against women in Intimate relationships: Reconceptualizing State Accountability For Ending Domestic Violence 8. Refugee Law and State Accountability for Violence Against Women: A Comparative Analysis of Legal Approaches to Asylum Claims based on Gender Persecution 9. State Responsibility for Ending Violence against Women: the Possibilities of International Law Part 4: Conclusion 10. Contradictions and Challenges: The Potential and Limits of Law (Conclusion)
About the author
Melanie Randall is Associate Professor of Lawat the University of Western Ontario. She held the Scotiabank Professorship with the Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children, at the University of Western Ontario from 1999-2004. Her current teaching and research interests are in the areas of sex discrimination and legal theory. Her publications include articles on the issue of women's autonomy rights, and on sexual violence in women's lives, including state accountability for responding to and remedying this violence, particularly through law.
Summary
The law has been the major site of advocacy, reform efforts and social change in relation to a variety of complex social problems. Gendered violence is one of them. After nearly three decades of advocacy and law reform, what can we understand about current legal responses to, and engagement with, issues of gendered violence? This book aims squarely at critically analyzing legal responses to, interventions in, and remedies for violence against women, with an overarching aim of assessing the extent to which the law has been – or could still be – effectively utilized in the project to end violence in women’s lives. Drawing on Canadian, U.S. and UK jurisprudence and spanning a variety of contexts of gendered violence (including domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, and rape), Melanie Randall illustrates the persistent complexities and challenges surrounding legal understandings of and responses to violence against women.
