Women, Judging and the Judiciary: From Difference to Diversity

ISBN-13: 9780415548618 / Angielski / Twarda / 2012 / 232 str.

Erika Rackley

Opis

Awarded the 2013 Birks Book Prize by the Society of Legal Scholars, Women, Judging and the Judiciary expertly examines debates about gender representation in the judiciary and the importance of judicial diversity. It offers a fresh look at the role of the (woman) judge and the process of judging and provides a new analysis of the assumptions which underpin and constrain debates about why we might want a more diverse judiciary, and how we might get one. Through a theoretical engagement with the concepts of diversity and difference in adjudication, Women, Judging and the Judiciary contends that prevailing images of the judge are enmeshed in notions of sameness and uniformity: images which are so familiar that their grip on our understandings of the judicial role are routinely overlooked.　Failing to confront these instinctive images of the judge and of judging, however, comes at a price. They exclude those who do not fit this mould, setting them up as challengers to the judicial norm. Such has been the fate of the woman judge.　But while this goes some way to explaining why, despite repeated efforts, our attempts to secure greater diversity in our judiciary have fallen short, it also points a way forward.　For, by getting a clearer sense of what our judges really do and how they do it, we can see that women judges and judicial diversity more broadly do not threaten but rather enrich the judiciary and judicial decision-making. As such, the standard opponent to measures to increase judicial diversity - the necessity of appointment on merit - is in fact its greatest ally: a judiciary is stronger and the justice it dispenses better the greater the diversity of its members, so if we want the best judiciary we can get, we should want one which is fully diverse. Women, Judging and the Judiciary will be of interest to legal academics, lawyers and policy makers working in the fields of judicial diversity, gender and adjudication and, more broadly, to anyone interested in who our judges are and what they do.

Women, Judging and the Judiciary explores continuing debates about gender representation in the judiciary and, more specifically, the importance of judicial diversity, in order to provide a fresh look at the role of the (woman) judge and the process of judging. There has been considerable debate and policy development in recent years around the issue of judicial diversity and, in particular, the need to appoint more women to the judiciary. Nevertheless, progress to date has been painfully slow, and the number of women judges, especially at senior levels, remains minuscule. This book builds on prevalent concerns with increasing judicial diversity, with enhancing the position of various underrepresented groups within the judiciary, and with constitutional reform more generally, to provide a new analysis of the assumptions which underpin, and constrain, current debates about how to achieve these aims. Providing the the first critical theoretical engagement with the concepts of ‘diversity’ and ‘difference’ in the context of adjudication, Erika Rackley considers the extent to which prevailing images of the judge are enmeshed in notions of sameness and uniformity: images which are so familiar and two-dimensional that their grip on our imaginative and cognitive processes are routinely overlooked. Failing to confront such instinctive images of the judge and of judging, our understandings and interpretations are as much derived from such preconceptions as they are from what is conventionally considered to be rational thought. And, whilst deploying literary examples and techniques as a means of identifying and disrupting the hold that particular images and narratives of the judge and judging have on us, Women, Judges and the Judiciary not only explains why attempts at judicial inclusiveness and difference fail, it also pursues a deeper understanding of what judicial diversity might mean.

Recenzje

"... the qualitative examples that are contained in the book are englightening and do engage the reader." - Bobbie A. Walker, St. Catherines ON

Spis treści

1. Positioning the Woman Judge; 2. Delivering Diversity in the Legal Profession; 3. Appointing Judicial Diversity; 4. Representations of the Woman Judge: Revisiting the Little Mermaid; 5. Difference and the Default Judge; 6. Making the Case for Judicial Diversity

O autorze

Rackley, Erika