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The article aims to complicate efforts to make law fit or catch up to social practices. It scrutinizes the ‘reflective claim’ using the case study of recognition of parenting by lesbian couples. Reforms in the United Kingdom’s Human Embryology and Fertilisation Act 2008 and the Canadian province of Quebec’s civil code are compared with empirical work from the social sciences on lesbians’ family practices. The reflective claim rests on problematic ideas about social practices and law. Since law is always blunt and incomplete, choices must be made as to which practices it should aim to recognize. Furthermore, the impact of heterosexist and homophobic conditions on lesbian families means that observable practices may not be a suitable model for gay-affirmative reforms. As advanced in the literature, the reflective claim overlooks law and society’s complex interaction, including how reform will not merely reflect but also alter practices. It fails to do justice to law reform’s normative character, obscuring its costs and positive potential

This paper defends a contextualist approach to epistemic injustice according to which instances of such injustice should be looked at as temporally extended phenomena (having developmental and historical trajectories) and socially extended phenomena (being rooted in patterns of social relations). Within this contextualist framework, credibility excesses appear as a form of undeserved epistemic privilege that is crucially relevant for matters of testimonial justice. While drawing on Miranda Fricker's proportional view of epistemic justice, I take issue with its lack of attention to the role that credibility excesses play in testimonial injustices. I depart from Fricker's view of the relation between credibility excesses and credibility deficits, and I offer an alternative account of the contributions that undeserved epistemic privileges make to epistemic injustices. Then, through the detailed analysis of To kill a mockingbird, I elucidate the crucial role played by the social imaginary in creating and sustaining epistemic injustices, developing an analysis of the kind of social blindness produced by an oppressive social imaginary that establishes unjust patterns of credibility excesses and deficits.

In this dissertation, I argue that the exemption of prisons from the rule of law fosters abusive institutional practices that reveal the race and gender dynamics of sexual abuse in prison and in the outside world. The first article, Beyond Modesty: Privacy in Prison and the Risk of Sexual Abuse, shows that Fourth Amendment privacy offers little protection against the cross-gender searches and surveillance that expose women prisoners to sexual abuse by male guards. It proposes a reinterpretation of Fourth Amendment privacy that would recognize a constitutional right to be free from the fear, risk and reality of prison sexual abuse. The second article, Impunity: Sexual Abuse in Women's Prisons, shows that an edifice of constitutional, statutory and common-law rules confers near-complete institutional immunity against nearly all prisoner claims of custodial sexual abuse. These immunity rules parallel those of historical status regimes which excluded low-status litigants from courts on the basis of race and gender, such as civil death, slavery, segregation and the common law of marriage and rape--with similar results: low-status women of color are exposed to systematic and institutionalized sexual abuse, and are prevented from seeking protection or redress from the courts. The third article, Our Prisons, Ourselves: Race, Gender and the Rule of Law, develops these insights in men's prisons. In the absence of enforceable external rules, staff and administrators often adopt a gendered practice of institutional governance that requires prisoners to prove their manhood by fighting, and penalizes unmanly men by allowing others to rape them. These unlawful gendered practices are obscured by a false but powerful racialized narrative: most people inside and outside prison believe, inaccurately, that prison rape is mainly black-on-white. By casting sexual violence as a "complex and intractable" race relations problem for which administrators are not to blame, the racial narrative bolsters the rationale for exempting prison administration from the rule of law. Thus the perception (and reality) of unchecked prison violence supplies a reason for courts not to interfere with the unlawful institutional policies that foster it.

Adopted by the UN General Assembly on 13 September 2007, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples affirms the “minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of the indigenous peoples of the world.” The Declaration responds to past and ongoing injustices suffered by Indigenous peoples worldwide. It provides a strong foundation for improved relationships with states, and for the full recognition of the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples. Despite this, Canada was one of the few countries to oppose the Declaration. The contributors to this collection analyze the development of the Declaration, recall the triumph of its adoption, and illustrate the hopes and actions for its implementation. The discussion moves beyond Canadian borders to the international stage, providing accessible information and guidance on the Declaration and how it can be used to advance human rights. Policy makers, Indigenous communities, politicians, academics, lawyers, human rights advocates, NGOs, and anyone interested in the significance of the Declaration will find this to be a valuable resource. Contributors include Indigenous leaders, legal scholars and practitioners, state representatives, and representatives from NGOs, with extensive knowledge of and experience in Indigenous peoples’ human rights law, policy, and practice.

Cet article vise à rendre compte des enjeux sexués sous-jacents à la mise en place de la coparentalité en France, notamment à partir du développement du dispositif de la médiation familiale, en relation avec la problématique des violences masculines dans le cadre de la famille. En effet, un ensemble de dispositifs légaux récemment promulgués redéfinissent les rapports entre les parents (notamment les pères) et les enfants après une séparation ou un divorce. Au-delà des rapports de filiation, ces réformes juridiques pèsent également sur les rapports entre ex-conjoints : des rapports traversés par les inégalités de genre et marqués, dans certains cas, par l’emprise et la violence que les hommes exercent sur les femmes.

Après un bref survol de l’histoire récente de la criminalisation de l’avortement au Canada, l’auteure présente les divers projets de loi privés touchant d’une façon ou d’une autre le droit à l’avortement, principalement le projet no C-484 sur l’homicide foetal, pour en saisir les conséquences sur le droit canadien et sur l’autonomie des femmes pendant leur grossesse. Ces projets de loi se situent à l’intérieur d’une stratégie des opposants à l’avortement qui a essentiellement pour objet de faire reconnaître en droit canadien un droit à la vie et à la sécurité aux foetus et de remettre en question le libre choix des femmes en la matière. Suit une discussion sur l’instrumentalisation du droit pénal à des fins de contrôle social de questions d’ordre éthique. Le texte se termine par une réflexion concernant l’intérêt de l’État dans la protection des foetus. L’auteure soutient que toute intervention étatique doit se faire dans le respect des droits constitutionnels des femmes, soit leur droit à la vie, à la santé et à la liberté.

Le projet de loi C-3, déposé à la Chambre des Communes le 11 mars 2010, fait suite à l’arrêt McIvor du 6 avril 2009 de la Cour d’appel de la Colombie-Britannique (CACB). Ce jugement déclare que les dispositions de la Loi sur les Indiens relatives à l’inscription et à la transmission du statut d’Indien contreviennent à l’article 15 de la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés. Plus précisément, le jugement vise l’article 6 de la Loi sur les Indiens auquel des amendements ont été apportés en 1985 par le projet de loi C-31. À l’époque, de nombreuses voix avaient déploré les discriminations résiduelles de ce projet de loi. Vingt-cinq ans plus tard, le Parlement du Canada se penche enfin sur ces discriminations, s’évertuant à apporter des corrections bien tardives et insuffisantes.

Detrimental effects of climate change can be felt in the short-term through natural hazards, such as landslides, floods and hurricanes; and in the long-term, through more gradual deg radation of the environment. The adverse ef fects of these events are already felt in many areas, including in relation to, inter alia, ag riculture and food security; biodiversity and ecosystems; water resources; human health; human settlements and migration patterns; and energy, transport and industry. In many of these contexts, women are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than men—primarily as they constitute the majority of the world’s poor and are more dependent for their livelihood on natural re sources that are threatened by climate change. Furthermore, they face social, economic and political barriers that limit their coping ca pacity. Women and men in rural areas in developing countries are especially vulnerable when they are highly dependent on local natural resources for their livelihood. Those charged with the responsibility to secure water, food and fuel for cooking and heating face the greatest challenges. Secondly, when coupled with unequal access to resources and to decision-making processes, limited mobility places women in rural areas in a position where they are disproportionately affected by climate change. It is thus important to identify gender-sensitive strategies to respond to the environmental and humanitarian crises caused by climate change.1

Black women are generally displaced as victims of rape. The police response to the sexual assault of black women in general and lower-class black women in particular is illustrative of how sexual ideologies help construct complex social hierarchies that in turn structure rights. How the law currently deals with rape places black women outside of the narrative frames that legitimate entitlement. Rape continues to stand in for, and effectively obscure, other social, political, and economic concerns. Unpublished and often ignored, the rape narrative is a ripe site to supply oppositional interpretations of national experience and transmit some of the structural problems in the criminal justice system. Pulling from over two thousand “real” rape cases of low-income black women ignored and not investigated in Philadelphia between 1995 and 2000, this article reads black female rape narratives as case studies in order to discuss the way personal narratives of rape victims are structured by competing and overwhelming sociolegal narratives that undercut their reception. As the fastest growing prison population, the presence of the law to punish black women stands in stark contrast to the absence of the law to protect them.

26CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMMEDans cet article, l’auteure partage ses expériences de travail sur les questions environnementales, particulièrement sur celles qui concernent l’eau. Comme mère, comme membre d’un clan, comme membre des Premières Nations et comme professeure, l’auteure se sent responsable du partage de ses connaissances. Cette réflexion est basée sur son travail avec les aînées et les tenants du savoir traditionnel en Ontario, surtout de celui qui se rapporte à l’eau. L’information part de deux projets majeurs dans lesquels elle a été impliquée.

Les positions féministes libérales et radicales sont à l'origine de la plupart des travaux relatifs à la prostitution. La première appelle au droit de se prostituer, tandis que la seconde considère la prostitution comme une exploitation. La binarité de ce débat mène à sa stérilité, puisque ne pouvant s'entendre sur la meilleure perspective d'analyse ou sur l'option législative à privilégier, la lutte pour les droits des personnes prostituées est paralysée par une bataille pour l'accès à l'espace public. Or, afin de pouvoir faire la promotion d'une option législative particulière en matière de prostitution, tout en partageant l'espace public avec les adversaires de cette même option, les parties du débat devraient s'engager dans une démarche visant à contribuer éthiquement au débat, sans pour autant renoncer à leur position. Ainsi, afin de briser cette dichotomie, Majo Hansotte fournit un outil méthodologique efficace, celui des « intelligences citoyennes ». À l'aide de l'exemple de la loi suédoise en matière de prostitution, il devient plus facile de voir comment il est possible de critiquer une loi ou une position idéologique, sans devoir y renoncer. Ainsi, l'intelligence argumentative nous permet d'analyser les arguments sur la prostitution et ceux utilisés pour promouvoir la loi suédoise. Ensuite, l'intelligence narrative nous permet de voir comment les récits des personnes prostituées sont récupérés à des fins politiques. L'intelligence prescriptive, pour sa part, relève les perspectives d'avenir portées par la loi. Finalement, l'intelligence déconstructive, en nous invitant à chercher les codes et les lieux d'enfermement contenus dans le langage sur la prostitution et dans les lois, permet l'ouverture à d'autres formes de militantisme pour défendre les droits des personnes prostituées. En appliquant cette démarche au débat sur la prostitution à l'aide de l'exemple de la Suède, la possibilité d'un débat plus éthique est donc envisagée. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Prostitution, loi suédoise en matière de prostitution, espace public, intelligences citoyennes

From Ellen Gabriel to Tantoo Cardinal, many of the faces of Aboriginal people in the media today are women. In the Days of Our Grandmothers is a collection of essays detailing how Aboriginal women have found their voice in Canadian society over the past three centuries. Collected in one volume for the first time, these essays critically situate Aboriginal women in the fur trade, missions, labour and the economy, the law, sexuality, and the politics of representation. (Midwest).

Les lois sur la parité constituent un terrain privilégié pour analyser comment le droit produit des normes sociales de genre. À partir de l’analyse des débats parlementaires et des conflits d’interprétation juridique sur la notion d’égalité des sexes, cet article explore les normes de genre sous-jacentes aux différentes expertises juridiques mobilisées par les parlementaires. Il montre comment ces différentes expertises s’appuient sur des représentations normatives du genre opposées et préconisent des traitements politiques de ces rapports sociaux radicalement différents puisqu’il s’agit, d’un côté, de légitimer et reproduire leur caractère inégalitaire et, de l’autre, au contraire, de les transformer. Il conclut en posant la question du rôle du droit dans la transformation des rapports sociaux et la conception du pouvoir qui en résulte.

Ce document fournit une évaluation critique de quelques questions actuelles touchant l'accès à la justice au Canada, en s'intéressant particulièrement à la justice pénale. Les auteures décrivent les tendances récentes relevées dans les ouvrages sur la justice pénale au Canada et dans d'autres pays de common law apparentés, notamment les États-Unis, le Royaume-Uni, l'Australie et la Nouvelle-Zélande; et la création de procédures de justice réparatrice pour compléter ou remplacer les approches conventionnelles de la justice pénale. Dans l'ensemble, le document se veut une recension non exhaustive de la documentation spécialisée, accompagnée d'un commentaire critique sur les tendances actuelles en matière de justice pénale. Il renferme des suggestions d’études empiriques et d'autres projets de recherche destinés à évaluer les besoins futurs.

Inside the Academy and Out demonstrates that the pedagogical and theoretical insights offered by lesbian/gay/queer studies can have relevance to a broader social sphere. The essayists represented here come from a wide range of disciplines, including English, education, philosophy, sociology, and women's studies. Their essays are divided into two broad areas: 'Pedagogy and Research' and 'Spheres of Action.' Taken together, they explore teaching and research theory, examining their implications in areas such as AIDS education, social services, law reform, and popular culture.

Après un quart de siècle de néoféminisme, on connaît encore mal la recherche féministe et l’ampleur du travail accompli par ces chercheuses. Les auteures examinent ici les travaux qui ont porté sur la famille, la conciliation travail-famille et sur l’emploi, ceux qui ont documenté des aspects particuliers de la santé des femmes et de la violence conjugale ainsi que les nombreuses études produites dans le domaine de l’éducation. Elles mettent également en lumière les changements et les résistances révélés par les recherches dans le champ religieux, le champ politique, celui du droit de même que dans le domaine des communications. Ce faisant, elles rendent manifestes les caractéristiques de la recherche féministe québécoise, notamment les liens établis par les chercheuses entre théorie et pratique, recherche et action. Des textes de Pierrette Bouchard, Anita Caron, Renée Cloutier, Christine Corbeil, Huguette Dagenais, René B.-Dandurand, Francine Descarries, Louise Guyon, Thérèse Hamel, Geneviève Martin, Karen Messing, Josée Néron, Ann Robinson, Armande Saint-Jean, Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay et Manon Tremblay.

This book examines a key question that has divided feminists for decades: is censoring pornography good or bad for women? The book makes a powerful case that increasing government power to censor sexual expression, beyond the limits that the First Amendment sensibly permits (for example, outlawing child pornography) would do more harm than good for women and others who have traditionally been marginalized due to sex or gender. The book explains how the very anti-porn laws pushed by some feminists have led to the censorship of LGBTQ+ and feminist works, and it examines the startling connections between anti-porn feminists and right-wing fundamentalists. The book lays out the multiple current assaults on sexual expression, which continue to come from across the ideological spectrum. It shows that freedom for such expression remains an essential prerequisite for the equality, safety, and dignity of women and sexual/gender minorities.

When is rape not a crime? When it's pornography--or so First Amendment law seems to say: in film, a rape becomes "free speech." Pornography, Catharine MacKinnon contends, is neither speech nor free. Pornography, racial and sexual harassment, and hate speech are acts of intimidation, subordination, terrorism, and discrimination, and should be legally treated as such. Only Words is a powerful indictment of a legal system at odds with itself, its First Amendment promoting the very inequalities its Fourteenth Amendment is supposed to end. In the bold and compelling style that has made her one of our most provocative legal critics, MacKinnon depicts a society caught in a vicious hypocrisy. Words that offer bribes or fix prices or segregate facilities are treated by law as acts, but words and pictures that victimize and target on the basis of race and sex are not. Pornography--an act of sexual domination reproduced in the viewing--is protected by law in the name of "the free and open exchange of ideas." But the proper concern of law, MacKinnon says, is not what speech says, but what it does. What the "speech" of pornography and of racial and sexual harassment and hate propaganda does is promote and enact the power of one social group over another. Cutting with surgical deftness through cases of harassment in the workplace and on college campuses, through First Amendment cases involving Nazis, Klansmen, and pornographers, MacKinnon shows that as long as discriminatory practices are protected as free speech, equality will be only a word.

The interest in understanding and analyzing the situation of native women within the penal process is recent and seems to be limited by the inordinate attention paid by researchers to the overrepresentation of native women. This article is an account of the findings and analyses made to date in this recent sector of research. It presents an inventory of the principal data concerning the confrontation of native women with the penal process. It proposes a synthesis of the principal analyses of the problems of native women with the system of justice by presenting a critical analysis of the socio-structural model of LaPrairie.