BOOK REVIEW

FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES ON TORT LAW

Edited by Janice Richardson and Erika Rackley

Routledge: Taylor & Francis

ISBN: 978 0 415 61920 2

www.routledge.com


BECAUSE WE ARE ALL FEMINISTS (WELL, MOST OF US!), THIS IS AN IMPORTANT BOOK

An appreciation by Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers

¬A feminist is 'one who believes in social and economic equality for women.' This is, at least, one dictionary definition of the word with which most people would agree, including those who charmingly pay lip service to female equality while not really agreeing with it, but who take umbrage if they are ever challenged to admit it.

How intriguingly odd then that one aspect of women's equal status which is rarely challenged effectively is equality before the law. It's automatically assumed, at least in the UK and other common law jurisdiction, that men and women will be treated equally by the legal system and granted, most participants in the legal process do try to treat men and women equally. But there are failures -- and it's this uneven justice toward women which this book sheds light upon and attempts to address.

There are ten essays, or 'perspectives' in this book, plus a foreword and introduction, written by a select and erudite group of feminist academics, including tutors, lecturers and law professors. Most hail from the UK, with some from overseas, namely Australia and Canada, including one from the University of British Columbia and one from Osgoode Hall, the law faculty at the University of Toronto.

You may or may not find yourself agreeing with the majority of points they put forward, but, either way, it will certainly occur to you to wonder whether tort (a civil wrong) in particular is in fact 'gender neutral' or whether it in fact discriminates.

As the editors claim, a feminist perspective on tort claims that the status quo 'in fact takes the male body and lifestyle as the norm to the detriment of women.' Well, that makes you stop and think, especially when the editors further contend that 'feminist perspectives have the power to challenge the neutrality of existing arrangements that treat the horrors that men suffer as more worthy of protection.'

Ooops! Now you may well stop and think even harder, especially if you're a practitioner likely to find yourself in front of a judge who, with the best will in the world and perhaps unwittingly, makes a decision that could be life changing for a female client of yours and not in a good way.

One of the contributors to this compilation, for example, refers to some US judges who, say in a case of personal injury, might assess loss of future earnings from a female claimant in terms of female earnings rather than male earnings, which with few exceptions are usually higher. You needn't be a feminist to have your consciousness raised in such matters and without starting to wonder if this sort of situation is fair.

According to research referred to by another contributor 'tort law...has been developed largely without women and the harms they suffer in mind', including, of course, sexual assaults, some of which are documented in the excellent essay, 'Tort Claims for Rape' -- that's the crime with the shocking 6% conviction rate in the UK's criminal courts. Small wonder that victims, especially abroad, are increasingly resorting to suing their attackers in the civil courts.

This and a myriad of other issues are examined critically and, for the most part objectively in this book, which also contains a wealth of reading lists for your further research. As commented on in the foreword, this collection 'continues a rich and varied tradition of critical legal enquiry which takes the boundaries of our knowledge and understanding of tort law towards new and rarely travelled terrain.' The publication date is November 2011.

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