Φεμινισμός και δίκαιο: σύγχρονες τάσεις της Αμερικανικής φεμινιστικής νομικής σκέψης

Abstract

This article presents the main schools of thought that have prevailed in American Feminist Jurisprudence. ‘Feminist Legal Studies’ is one of the names given to characterize a new and much-promising interdisciplimary field which has flourished in the United States over the last twenty years. Its contemporary representatives have set out to establish interrelating networks between Law and Feminism, producing a rich body of work, both theoretical and empirical. This text aims to record the most characteristic samples of writing in Feminist Legal Theory. What constitutes common grounds for the various tendencies that have emerged is the effort to bring about an amelioration of the social status of women, as well as the consensus that this amelioration can be accomplished using the tools of Legal Science. Thus, in the legislative field, feminist legal thought: (a) proposes new theoretical modesl, which are structured in ways that take into account women’s difference before the law, and (b) provides for the expansion of the principle of gender equality, so that all remaining vestiges of women’s unequal legal treatment are uprooted. Lastly, in the domain of administration of justice, the new discipline offers judges the means that will assist them in overcoming the very real danger of gender bias, which can distort judgments and lead to miscarriages of justice.