Undergraduate Module Descriptor

LAW3011: Gender, Sexuality and Law

This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.

Module Aims

The aim of this module is to introduce you to the concepts of sex, gender and sexuality and to highlight their (often uneasy) relationships with the law. The module will foster your critical engagement with the law which will be useful in many other modules as well as your future career. The module is based on your engagement with cutting edge issues backed by up to date scholarship in the areas of law, gender and sexuality. These include genital modification, gay adoption, trans-bodies, domestic violence and civil partnerships. Thus this module also aims to familiarise you with the fascinating theoretical background to aid their critique of the law. The workshops and lectures will foster your critical thinking and encourage you to challenge traditional legal reasoning. The module emphasises student interaction with a focus on presentations, debates and group work in a supportive workshop environment.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills	1. Demonstrate a critical awareness of contemporary sex, gender and sexuality issues and how these issues influence/impact upon law; 2. Critically evaluate theories and techniques regarding gender and sex;
Discipline-Specific Skills	3. Demonstrate detailed/comprehensive knowledge of legal concepts and their contextual/social/political implications; 4. Define complex legal problems, identify their relative significance and select appropriate methods for investigating and critically evaluating them; 5. Select, integrate and present coherently and reflectively, orally and in writing, relevant law and legal/theoretical arguments;
Personal and Key Skills	6. Work independently and to manage time efficiently in preparing for scheduled learning activities, exercises and assessments; 7. Manage relevant learning resources/ information/ learning strategies and to develop own arguments and opinions with minimum guidance; 8. Communicate and engage in debate effectively and accurately, in a manner appropriate to the discipline/ different contexts;

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Whilst the module's precise content may vary, it is envisaged that the syllabus will include all/some of the following topics:

1) Understanding sex and gender

What is sex?
What is gender?

2) Law as Masculinity?

The masculine bias of law
Public/private divide
Autonomy and Equality
The masculine bias of the legal profession

3) Autonomy and Private Violence

Intimate partner violence
Sexual violence
Sadomasochism
Pornography

4) Sexing the Body

Intersexualities (sexing the child)
Regulating Transsexual Bodies

5) Challenging Heteronormativity

Civil Partnerships and same-sex marriage
Same-sex parenting

6) Gendering Justice

Women as Criminals
Women Who Kill
Prostitution

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
28.5	121.5	0

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning & Teaching Activities	20	20 x 1 hour lectures
Scheduled Learning & Teaching Activities	4.5	3 x 1.5 hour workshops
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	4	4 x 1 hour drop-in clinics to discuss summative assessment
Guided independent study	55	Individual reading and lecture preparation
Guided independent study	20	Workshop preparation
Guided independent study	40	Assessment preparation
Guided independent study	6.5	Formative assessment

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Feminist Legal Theory [in] McCoubrey & White's Textbook on Jurisprudence, James Penner and Emmanuel Melissaris, 2012
Jones, J. Grear, A. Fenton, R. A. & Stevenson, K. (ed.) Gender, Sexualities and Law. 2011. Oxon: Routledge.
Jackson, E and Lacey, N. Introducing Feminist Legal Theory in Introduction to Jurisprudence and Legal Theory: Commentary and Materials.
Finley, L. Reshaping Women’s Silence in Law: The Dilemma of the Gendered Nature of Legal Reasoning. 1989. Notre Dame L. Rev. Vol. 64, No.5, pp. 886-891
Fineman, M. The Autonomy Myth, 2005.
Barker, N. Sex and the civil partnership act: the future of (non) conjugality? Feminist Legal Studies. 2006. Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 241-259.
Fineman, M. A. The Neutered Mother. U. Miami L. Rev. Vol. 46. No. 3, pp. 653-670.
Fox, M. & Thomson, M. Foreskin Is a Feminist Issue, Australian Feminist Studies, 2009, Vol. 24, No. 60, pp. 195-210.
Sharpe, A. N. Endless Sex: The Gender Recognition Act 2004 and the Persistence of a Legal Category. Feminist Legal Studies. 2007. Vol. 15, No. 1, pp.57-84.
Naffine, N. The Body Bag, in Sexing the Subject of Law, 1997
Nicolson, D (2005) ‘Demography, discrimination and diversity: a new dawn for the British legal profession,’ International Journal of the Legal Profession, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp.201-228.
V. Bettinson and C. Bishop, “Is the creation of a discrete offence of coercive control necessary to combat domestic violence?” Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, 2015, 66(2): 179–97.
C. Bishop, ‘The Limitations of a Legal Response’ in Hilder and Bettinson, Domestic Violence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Protection, Prevention and Intervention (2016)
N. Naffine, 1994 “Possession: Erotic Love in the Law of Rape”. Modern Law Review. 57(10) pp. 10-37.
N. Gooch (2005) “The Feminisation of the Male Rape Victim”, UCL Jurisprudence Review 12 pp. 196-213.
L. Ellison and V. Munro (2013). “Better the Devil You Know? ‘Real Rape’ Stereotypes and The Relevance of a Previous Relationship in (Mock) Juror Deliberation”, International Journal of Evidence & Proof, Vol. 14 pp. 299-322.