There is growing interest in feminist scholarship among international lawyers and recognition of the value that feminist analysis can bring to the study of Law.  This interest group is a network of individuals committed to feminist approaches who together can develop and share their research and generate ideas for regular meetings and thematic seminars. We encourage members and non-members to comment and send ideas via the contact page.Thank you.

Call for Papers

5th ESIL Biennial Conference: Interest Group Workshops

13th September 2012, Valencia Spain

 

 

 

 

“Regionalism and Feminism: How regionalism impacts on women’s lives”

 

 

This is a call for papers for the interest group workshops that will take place on the morning of 13th September 2012 as part of the 5th ESIL Biennial Conference. The interest group on Feminism and International Law is organising a panel to consider the contribution feminist theory and methodology can make to questions raised by conference theme: regionalism and international law.

This meeting of the interest group on Feminism and International Law will provide participants with an opportunity to explore the impact of regionalism on women’s lives. In particular, participants will explore whether the fracture and fragmentation of international law is mirrored in the fragmentation of feminist thought. The question of whether a uniquely ‘European’ feminism exists – and the implications of this for women in Europe and beyond – is foremost in our minds. There will also be an opportunity in this session to look in depth at the meaning of regional legal institutions and tribunals, such as the European Court of Human Rights, to women’s lives.

 

 

Abstracts of no more than 300 words in English or French should be submitted directly to troy.lavers@le.ac.uk with the author’s title, contact information and organisational affiliation. The deadline for submitting abstracts is Friday 18th May 2012.  We anticipate that scholars who contribute to the workshop maybe interested in publishing their papers jointly in a good quality peer reviewed journal, and publication plans will be discussed at the meeting.

 

 

Please note that is you wish to attend the meeting of the Feminism and International Law Interest Group you do not have to register for the full ESIL conference. There will also be an opportunity at the end of the panel for a discussion on future events of the interest group.

Female circumcision, universal jurisdiction and equality before the law by Nicolás Zambrana-Tévar

A couple from Gambia who lives in Alcañiz (Aragon, Spain) has been condemned to 6 (the father) and 2 (the mother) years in prison, respectively, for being responsible, alone or with the help of unknown accomplices, of the circumcision of their daughter, who is now two years old (please see Decision Nº26, of 15 November 2011 / Sentencia Nº26 de 15 de noviembre de 2011; http://www.heraldo.es/uploads/documentos/documentos_ablacionjpg_2baa227c.pdf). It is the first case of this kind in Spain that reaches the stage of oral proceedings. There have been other cases before this one but they have all been stayed after it has been determined, in the course of the investigatory stage, that the facts had taken place abroad, taking also into account the difficulties encountered in finding out the identity of those responsible for the atrocity. In this case, it has been considered proven that the female circumcision was carried out in Spain. The Spanish 1994 Criminal Code punishes the severance of the genitals (in males or females) with up to 12 years in prison and the withdrawal of the children’s custody, which is subject to the plea of the Prosecutor. The tribunal has been more lenient with the mother because it has considered proven that she did not know that female circumcision was illegal in Spain. The tribunal has not given any importance to the defence’s arguments that the father was bound “by the weight of tradition”. Furthermore, the tribunal has underscored that this is an attack against a woman’s rights and sexuality and can also lead to trauma and infections of different kinds. Interesting for international lawyers is the fact that Spanish courts have universal jurisdiction to adjudicate in cases of female circumcision, no matter the nationality of the victim nor of the perpetrator, nor the place where the facts take place. This was the case prior to a 2009 legal reform which, according to many, did away with universal jurisdiction in Spain because, after the aforementioned reform, some sort of link with Spain is also required for Spanish courts to have jurisdiction. In the case of the Gambian couple, the Prosecutor alleged and proved that the circumcision took place in Spain, so the rules on universal jurisdiction have not been invoked. Nevertheless, the couple insisted that the facts had taken place in Gambia and that those responsible where the girl’s grandparents. Furthermore, the Spanish constitution, as so many others, contains a specific precept on equality before the law. Could the Spanish rules on universal jurisdiction for female circumcision be against that principle of equality and be, therefore, unconstitutional, for being only applicable to victims who are women and not to male castration? This may not be the case after theSpanish Constitutional Court issued a judgement in 2009 which considered to be constitutional a 2004 statute which punished slightly more heavily domestic violence against women than against men. We will have to wait until another female circumcision case arises in order to see if this issue of the unconstitutionality of universal jurisdiction rules is considered.

Founded in 1985, the same year as the equality guarantee of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into force, the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law has been publishing ground-breaking, multi-disciplinary scholarship on the impact of law on women’s social, economic and legal status for twenty-five years.

Please see the attached TOCJWL 23:1C of CJWL 23:1,  Special Issue: “Regulating Decent Work for Domestic Workers” .