Undergraduate Module Descriptor

LAW3011: Gender, Sexuality and Law

This module descriptor refers to the 2020/1 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. Teaching sessions 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 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 Skills1. 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 Skills3. 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 relevant law and legal/theoretical arguments;
Personal and Key Skills6. Work independently and to manage time efficiently in preparing for scheduled learning activities 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;

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.