International Law: Modern Feminist Approaches; With a Foreword by Mary Robinson

(Paperback)

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Over the last 10 years, feminist scholars and activists have turned their attention, and energies to the international realm as both an area seemingly immune to feminist critique and as an arena within which to mobilize for greater rights for women. Feminist scholarship has developed in the areas of international law, international relations and development, bringing a feminist perspective to bear on disciplines otherwise characterised by male dominance. At the same time, feminist activists have emerged as an effective organisational force at the international level, securing substantial gains in human rights and international legal protection for women. The result has been that women's rights, and feminist international activism, has become something of a globalisation phenomenon, and a mainstay of a new activist international order. Within this larger movement of feminist activism and literature, feminist international lawyers have begun to develop diverse critiques of international law and policy. Drawing on various theoretical perspectives and displaying a commitment to interdisciplinarity, feminist international lawyers have sought to interrogate both the foundations and the practice of international law, while offering new insights into the future directions of the discipline. This literature intersects with feminist scholarship on development and international relations, but crucially represents an attempt to develop a nuanced critique of international legal structures otherwise missing from the development studies and IR fields. In a global order in which international legal structures are assuming greater significance, feminist international lawyers are particularly well placed to offer detailed analyses of globalisation and the rule of law, and of the future direction of international political and legal systems. Feminist Perspectives on International Law draws together a number of leading international scholars working in the fields of feminist theory and international law to provide a critical consideration of the scope and direction of the feminist project in international law. This volume offers a timely assessment of new developments in international law, including recent developments in the areas of human rights, international criminal law, environmental law, and economic institutions.

Reviews

stimulating feminist analyses of the international legal orderA well-written and forward-moving piece of scholarship. -- Nicole LaViolette * Social and Legal Studies, volume 16(1) *
provides the reader with a valuable analysis of feminist international lawhelps the reader to reflect not only on where the discipline of feminist international law has arrived today, through a process of deepening and widening, but also on where it should go in the future. -- Christa Tobler * Netherlands International Law Review *
This important collection succeeds in its aim of offering a 'snap-shot' of modern feminist approaches to international law, and would be useful to both students and scholars in this areaan excellent introduction to feminist analyses of international law for those new to this field. -- Kirsten Campbell * Feminist Legal Studies *
Unlike many other collections of readings, this one cannot be critized for a lack of theoretical or conceptual coherence What follows is what is promised - stimulating feminist analyses of the international legal orderBuss and Manji have asembled an impressive group of academics to produce a well-written and forward-moving piece of scholarshipthe essays take the reader on a wide-ranging tour of international feminist scholarship This is a well-edited collection, with all contributions being of consistent quality in terms of substance, research and form. -- Nicole LaVialette * The Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice, vol 24(2), *
...the book succeeds in opening a much-needed conversation among international legal feminists about where we've been and where we're going, and most importantly, how we might reinvent the strategies for getting there. -- Treva Braun * African Journal of International and Comparative Law *

Author Bio

Doris Buss is Assistant Professor of Law, Carleton University, Canada. Ambreena Manji is a Reader in Law at Keele University.