Learning the Lessons: What Feminist Legal Theory Teaches International Human Rights Law and Practice

Abstract:     
In the contemporary international moment, as the long-term impact of 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to shape and redefine international legal and political rules, this analysis pauses to reflect on the gendered elements which ground international legal norms. As an international legal scholar I focus on how feminist legal theory can be applied to the present, and how insights gleaned in domestic legal contexts (significantly though not exclusively within western states) are relevant to the experiences of women in multiple jurisdictional and cultural environments. My concluding observations are specifically drawn from societies emerging from war and repression, and ruminate on the experiences of women in those contexts.

Keywords: gender, rule of law, transitional justice, equality, public/private, social change, conflict, repression

Working Paper Series