Feminist Perspectives on Contemporary International Law

The essays in this volume analyse feminism's positioning vis-à-vis international law and the current paradigms of international law. The authors argue that, willingly or unwillingly, feminist perspectives on international law have come to be situated between 'resistance' and 'compliance'. That is, feminist scholarship aims at deconstructing international law to show why and how 'women' have been marginalised; at the same time feminists have been largely unwilling to challenge the core of international law and its institutions, remaining hopeful of international law's potential for women. The analysis is clustered around three themes: the first part, theory and method, looks at how feminist perspectives on international law have developed and seeks to introduce new theoretical and methodological tools (especially through a focus on psychoanalysis and geography). The second part, national and international security, focuses on how feminists have situated themselves in relation to the current discourses of 'crisis', the post-9/11 NGO 'industry' and the changing discourses of violence against women. The third part, global and local justice, addresses some of the emerging trends in international law, focusing especially on transitional justice, state-building, trafficking and economic globalisation.

1. Introduction
Sari Kouvo and Zoe Pearson
PART ONE: FEMINIST THEORY AND METHOD IN INTERNATIONAL LAW
Navigating Feminisms: At the Margins, in the Mainstreams or Elsewhere? Reflections on Charlesworth, Otomo
and Pearson
Vanessa Munro
2. Talking to Ourselves? Feminist Scholarship in International Law
Hilary Charlesworth
3. Searching for Virtue in International Law
Yoriko Otomo
4. Feminist Project(s): The Spaces of International Law
Zoe Pearson
PART TWO: FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES ON NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
Three Feminist Critiques of Varying Feminist Capitulations to Crisis-Hegemony. Reflections on Otto, Mertus and
Grahn-Farley
Anna Grear
5. Remapping Crisis through a Feminist Lens
Dianne Otto
6. Road Blocks, Blind Spots, Speed Bumps: A Feminist Look at the Post-9/11 Landscape for NGOs
Julie Mertus
7. The Politics of Inevitability: An Examination of Janet Halley's Critique of the Criminalisation of Rape as Torture
Maria Grahn-Farley
PART THREE: FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES ON GLOBAL AND LOCAL JUSTICE
From the Margins to the Mainstream and Back Again: Problems and Paradoxes of Feminist Engagement in
Global and Local Justice. Reflections on Nesiah, Kouvo, Andersson, and Thomas
Alice Edwards
8. Missionary Zeal for a Secular Mission: Bringing Gender to Transitional Justice and Redemption to Feminism
Vasuki Nesiah
9. Taking Women Seriously? Conflict, State-building and Gender in Afghanistan
Sari Kouvo
10. Trafficking in Human Beings: Vulnerability, Criminal Law and Human Rights
Ulrika Andersson
11. Women Workers Take Over Power at the Margins: Economic Resistance, Political Compliance
Dania Thomas
12. Concluding (or Beginning?) Thoughts: Postcards to the Future
Sari Kouvo and Zoe Pearson

“...contains high-level, cutting-edge research that will be of interest to all those working in the field of international law. This collection of essays reflects the sophisticated nature of contemporary feminists' engagement with international law. The standard of the contributions is consistently high, and overall the book raises a number of important questions about the future of feminism and international law and points to a range of international law spaces, both large and small, that are open to radical re-understandings. Bringing together eminent writers with a great variety of scholarly interests, it also demonstrates the utility of inter-disciplinarity to feminist thought and methodology.” –  Loveday Hodson, European Journal of International Law, Volume 24, Issue 4, 2013 and globallawbooks.org

“...a worthwhile work by some of the world's leading feminist theorists [that] offers a challenging and thought-provoking account.” –  Ramona Vijeyarasa, The International Journal of Transitional Justice Volume 7