Feminist Jurisprudence, the Australian Legal System and Intimate Partner Sexual Violence: Fiction over Fact

Jessica White and Patricia Easteal
Additional contact information
Jessica White: School of Law and Justice, University of Canberra, University Drive, Bruce, ACT 2617, Australia
Patricia Easteal: School of Law and Justice, University of Canberra, University Drive, Bruce, ACT 2617, Australia

Laws, 2016, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-18

Abstract: In this paper we briefly focus on intimate partner sexual violence (IPSV) and the Australian legal response, using recent Court judgements and Heather Wishik’s feminist jurisprudence framework for inquiry to guide investigation. The key questions being asked are: (1) What have been and what are now all women’s experiences of IPSV addressed by the substance and process of rape law? (2) What assumptions, descriptions, assertions and/or definitions of consent, corroboration and reporting does the law make in IPSV matters? (3) What is the area of mismatch, distortion or denial created by the differences between women’s life experiences of IPSV coercion and the law’s assumptions or imposed structures? (4) What patriarchal interests are served by the mismatch? The paper concludes with consideration of the limitations and benefits of law reform by reflecting on the findings of the paper.

Keywords: partner rape mythology and law; IPSV myths and law (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D78 E61 E62 F13 F42 F68 K0 K1 K2 K3 K4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/5/1/11/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/5/1/11/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlawss:v:5:y:2016:i:1:p:11-:d:64866

Access Statistics for this article

Laws is currently edited by Ms. Heather Liang

More articles in Laws from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().