Gender, Sexuality and Law: Selected Topics

The objective of this module is to enable students to apply knowledge of feminist legal theory and the study of gender and sexuality to a series of legal problems.

The module will provide an in-depth study of one, two or three issues relevant to gender and sexuality law reform primarily in the Global South. Through studying juxtaposing non-Western jurisdictions, legislative and judicial approaches, the module helps students develop in-depth and cross-regional understanding of topics.

The module focuses on legal developments in Asia, Africa and the Middle East and the impact of global governance on legal arrangements in non-Western states, exploring the application of transnational and postcolonial approaches. The module acts as part two to the module 'Gender, Sexuality and the Law: theories and methods' which is a prerequisite for this module.

The course will employ a range of theoretical perspectives generally covering the major schools of feminist theory, including radical, liberal and cultural feminisms, material, critical race, transnational, postcolonial and queer legal feminisms, to analyse a series of contemporary and changing issues and themes. Topics may include violence, sexuality, labour, care, discrimination, terrorism, marriage, conflict, peace or health.

Prerequisites

• Gender, Sexuality and Law: Theories and Methodologies

Objectives and learning outcomes of the module

• enable students to become well-versed in the application of theories on gender and sexuality to legal examples, with a specific focus on Asia, Africa and the Middle East
• demonstrate a thorough understanding of the theoretical insights of approaches to gender, sexuality and the law and their application to concrete feminist, queer, LGBTi and women's struggles for law reform
• explain specific feminist/gender/sexuality legal approaches in application to specific law reform contexts, both judicial and legislative
• analyse tensions across critical legal approaches and strands on gender and sexuality while situating these debates within larger legal issues around authority, power and interpretation - as well as the impact of legal enforcement, legal actors and legal pluralism with a focus on legal policy initiatives in the Global South
• demonstrate competence in 1-4 through the submission of written assessments

Workload

• Weekly 2-hour seminar

Method of assessment

• Poster: 20%
• Essay/Podcast: 80%

Suggested reading

• Halley, J. Split Decisions: How and Why to Take a Break from Feminism (Princeton University Press: 2006)
• Jones, Jackie, Grear, Anna, Fenton, Rachel Anne and Stevenson, Kim (eds), Gender, Sexualities and the Law, Routledge, 2013.
• Kapur, Ratna, Erotic Justice: Law and the New Politics of Postcolonialism, Routledge 2005
• Kotiswaran, Prabha, Dangerous Sex, Invisible Labour: Sex Work and the Law in India, Princeton, 2012.

Disclaimer

Important notice regarding changes to programmes and modules.