Feminist Perspectives on Evidence (Feminist Perspectives)

✍ Scribed by Childs et al

• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 301
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Questions of evidence and proof are fundamental to the operation of substantive law and to our understanding of law as a social practice. The study of evidence involves issues of central concern to feminist scholars,including matters of epistemology, psychology, allocation of risk and responsibility. Debates about evidence, like debates about feminism, involve questioning ideas of rationality and truth, as well as claims to knowledge both by and about men and women. Social constructions of gender are reflected both explicitly and implicitly in evidential rules and in the way in which evidence is received and understood by judges, jurors and magistrates. Feminist evidence scholarship is a relatively new but rapidly developing field. This collection brings together previously unpublished work by feminist legal scholars from different jurisdictions. In these essays, they explore the contributions of feminist theory and methodology to the understanding of the law of evidence.

✦ Table of Contents

Series Editors’ Preface......Page 6
List of Contributors......Page 8
Acknowledgments......Page 10
CONTENTS......Page 12
Table of Cases......Page 14
Table of Legislation......Page 22
Table of Abbreviations......Page 24
1 EVIDENCE LAW AND FEMINISM......Page 28
2 GENDER, EPISTEMOLOGY AND ETHICS: FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES ON EVIDENCE THEORY......Page 40
3 RAPE AND THE ADVERSARIAL CULTURE OF THE COURTROOM......Page 66
4 GENDER BIAS IN THE HEARSAY RULE......Page 86
5 THE ‘PRIVILEGE’ IN THE PRIVILEGE DOCTRINE: A FEMINIST ANALYSIS OF THE EVIDENTIARY PRIVEGES FOR CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS......Page 106
6 EVIDENTIARY HARASSMENT: THE USE OF THE RULES OF EVIDENCE IN AN INFORMAL TRIBUNAL......Page 132
7 RESOLUTION WITHOUT TRIAL, EVIDENCE LAW AND THE CONTRUCTION OF THE SEXUAL ASSAULT VICTIM......Page 154
8 CORROBORATION AND SEXUAL ASSAULTS IN SCOTS LAW......Page 176
9 THE USE OF SEXUAL HISTORY EVIDENCE IN RAPE TRIALS......Page 194
10 EXPERT DISTRACTIONS: WOMEN WHO KILL, THEIR SYNDROMES AND DISORDERS......Page 218
11 THE CHARACTER OF THE ACCUSED......Page 238
Bibliography......Page 264
Index......Page 290