Feminist Perspectives on Evidence

ISBN-13: 9781859415276 / Angielski / Miękka / 2000 / 300 str.

Mary Childs;Louise Ellison;Mary Childs

Opis

This text offers a collection of essays examining various aspects of the law of evidence. Each chapter provides a feminist critique of some aspect of evidence scholarship and evidence law. Much has been written about evidence, and almost as much about feminist legal theory, but this text is dedicated to the intersection of the two. The book fills a gap in the literature, offering a reconsideration of many different topics, especially areas of the law of evidence which have not yet been subjected to sustained feminist discussion.

Questions of evidence and proof are fundamental to the operation of substantive law and to our understanding of law as a social practice. The study of evidence involves issues of central concern to feminist scholars,including matters of epistemology, psychology, allocation of risk and responsibility.

Debates about evidence, like debates about feminism, involve questioning ideas of rationality and truth, as well as claims to knowledge both by and about men and women. Social constructions of gender are reflected both explicitly and implicitly in evidential rules and in the way in which evidence is received and understood by judges, jurors and magistrates.

Feminist evidence scholarship is a relatively new but rapidly developing field. This collection brings together previously unpublished work by feminist legal scholars from different jurisdictions. In these essays, they explore the contributions of feminist theory and methodology to the understanding of the law of evidence.

Spis treści

1. Evidence Law and Feminism 2. Gender, Epistemology and Ethics: Feminist Perspectives on Evidence Theory 3. Rape and the Adversarial Culture of the Courtroom 4. Gender Bias in the Hearsay Rule 5. The Privilege' in the Privilege Doctrine: A Feminist Analysis of the Evidentiary Privileges for Confidential Communications 6. Evidentiary Harassment: The Use of the Rules of Evidence in an Informal Tribunal 7. Resolution without Trial, Evidence Law and the Construction of the Sexual Assault Victim 8. Corroboration and Sexual Assaults in Scots Law 9. The Use of Sexual History Evidence in Rape Trials 10. Expert Distractions: Women who Kill, their Syndromes and Disorders 11. The Character of the Accused

O autorze

Mary Childs, Louise Ellison