Book Reviews : MARTHA ALBERTSON FINEMAN AND NANCY SWEET THOMADSEN, At the Boundaries of Law: Feminism and Legal Theory. London: Routledge, Chapman and Hall, 1990, £14.99 paperback
| Author | Belinda Bennett |
| Published date | 01 June 1993 |
| DOI | 10.1177/096466399300200212 |
| Date | 01 June 1993 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
250
dialogue,
but
I
would
have
preferred
to
have
been
offered
something
more
coherent
and
less
idealistic
to
talk
about.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fineman,
Martha
L.
(1989) ’The
Politics
of
Custody
and
Gender:
Child
Advocacy
and
the
Transformation
of
Custody
Decision
Making
in the
USA’,
in
C.
Smart
and
S.
Sevenhuijsen
(eds),
Child
Custody
and
the
Politics of
Gender
.
London
and
New
York:
Routledge.
Smart,
Carol
(1989a)
Feminism
and
the
Power
of Law
.
London:
Routledge.
Smart,
Carol
(1989b)
’Power
and
the
Politics
of
Child
Custody’,
in
C.
Smart
and
S.
Sevenhuijsen
(eds),
Child
Custody
and
the
Politics
of
Gender
.
London
and
New
York:
Routledge.
JUDITH
CARLSON
Department
of Social
Policy &
Social
Planning
,
University
of Bristol
,
UK
MARTHA
ALBERTSON
FINEMAN
AND
NANCY
SWEET
THOMADSEN,
At
the
Boundaries
of
Law:
Feminism
and
Legal
Theory
.
London:
Routledge,
Chapman
and
Hall, 1990,
£14.99
paperback.
At
the
Boundaries
of Law
is
an
exciting
collection
of
essays
which
address
issues
of
major
concern
in
current
feminist
legal
studies
and
reflect
the
complexities
of
attempting
to
engage
in
feminist
legal
theory
and
utilize
feminist
methodology
in
the
face
of
the
overarching
influence
of
law’s
dominant
discourse.
The
book
contains
eighteen
essays,
arranged
into
one
of
six
different
thematic
groupings,
each
comprising
three
essays.
Women’s
experiences
have
always
occupied
a
central
place
in
feminist
theory.
Feminists
have
drawn
on
those
experiences
in
order
to
reveal
and
challenge
the
gendered
nature
of
dominant
discourses.
Drawing
on
this
tradition,
a
constant
theme
throughout
At
the
Boundanes
of
Law
is
that
of
coming
to
terms
with
the
disparity
between
the
meaning
of
women’s
experiences
to
women
and
the
(re)interpretation
of
those
experiences
in
legal
discourses.
The
essays
in
Part
I,
’Perspectives
from
the
Personal’,
deal
with
this
theme
in
a
very
immediate
way.
Kathleen
Lahey’s
essay
explores
legal
concepts
of
reasonableness
through
a
series
of
narratives
of
women’s
lives.
Patricia
Williams
addresses
the
intersections
between
experience
and
property
and
contractual
relations
with
reference
to
slavery
and
surrogacy,
while
Lucie
White’s
analysis
of
Mrs
G’s
welfare
hearing
critiques
the
concept
of
legal
relevancy.
The
essays
in
Part
II,
’The
Construction
of
Body
in
Law’,
explore
the
ways
that
women’s
experiences
are
(re)defined
in
masculine
terms.
Judith
Grbich
analyses
this
in
terms
of
sex
discrimination
legislation
and
compensation
for
injured
women;
Claudia
Card
endeavours
to
move
beyond
conceptualizations
of
lesbian
relationships
as
deviations
of
heterosexual
intercourse;
and
Kristin
Bumiller
dramatically
illustrates
the
means
whereby
dominant
notions
of
appropriate
behaviour
by
women
and
the
need
to
provide
objective
evidence
in
trials,
operate
against
women
in
rape
trials.
’Recognizing
Women’s
Pleasures
and
Pains’
is
the
theme
for the
essays
in
Part
III.
The
essays
in
this
Part
explore
women’s
experiences
in
the
specific
context
of
addressing
the
pleasures
and
pains
of
women.
Robin
West
looks
at
the
discrepancy
between
the
hedonic
lives
of
women
and
ideas
of
subjectivity
premised
on
autonomy;
Ruth
Colker
seeks
the
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