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Smashing the Binary? A new era of legal gender registration in the Yogyakarta Principles Plus 10
Get PDFThis article analyses the potential of Principle 31 of the Yogyakarta Principles plus 10 to smash the gender binary. Principle 31 proposes several innovations with regards to the registration of people’s gender on official documents and/or in state registries. In order to understand the practical meanings of these innovations, the article inspects exemplary jurisdictions that have realised some of the Principle’s suggestions. Queer and feminist theories serve as the normative framework to understand how Principle 31 smashes the static binary gender registration in the form of F and M. Moreover, relying on developments in international law helps to comprehend the context in which Principle 31 was created and its innovative nature. The four central reforms proposed by Principle 31 are discussed in independent sections in the article. They include the elimination of gender markers, unconditional gender recognition laws, the introduction of non-binary legal gender categories and the elimination of the public gender registration. The article concludes that all of these four measures face specific limitations in how they smash the gender binary, but, as a whole, they trouble the naturalised understanding of dichotomous (legal) gender relations. Finally, Principle 31 alerts to the necessity of reducing the naturalised state control over people’s gender assignment, while making sure that where the state (still) has control, it valorises gender diversity outside of a binary frame
'The Best of Times and the Worst of Times': Reflections on Developing a Prison-Based Business Law and Tax Clinic in the Midst of a Global Pandemic
Get PDFThe Silver Lining in the Black Cloud of COVID-19
Get PDFLittle did we imagine that the effects of COVID-19 would ultimately make us a stronger and more accessible clinic. The sudden halt of providing in-person services clouded the entire University of Exeter clinical programme with uncertainty. However, we could not simply stop our clinical provision – we had existing clients that still needed assistance, as well as students who were taking the clinic as a module. Furthermore, we wanted to continue servicing the community. To consider converting to a remote service, there are fundamental questions a university clinical programme must address: Why does the clinic exist? What are the goals of the clinic and can they still be achieved by a remote service? This paper outlines the process of converting our in-person clinic to a remote service, by detailing steps taken such as developing a remote operating student training manual, establishing a new case triage system, utilising Zoom sessions, and developing a user focused website. It reflects upon the process of finding effective ways of communicating and collaborating with students and clients, while managing and mitigating the potential barriers to technology. Both the successes and the challenges taught us more about the human connection and the human experience. Ultimately, the lessons learned from a swift shut down to reopening a fully remote clinic made us better organised, better communicators, and more accessible for clients. Once we safely return to in-person meetings, the value gained in providing a remote service will remain embedded in our offering, committing us to a hybrid service of in-person and remote meetings to provide a better service to our clients. For the next academic year, our strengthened service enables us to move seamlessly between a fully remote service and our new hybrid model with minimal disruption, should COVID-19 continue to cast a dark cloud
The Silver Lining in the Black Cloud of COVID-19
Get PDFLittle did we imagine that the effects of COVID-19 would ultimately make us a stronger and more accessible clinic. The sudden halt of providing in-person services clouded the entire University of Exeter clinical programme with uncertainty. However, we could not simply stop our clinical provision – we had existing clients that still needed assistance, as well as students who were taking the clinic as a module. Furthermore, we wanted to continue servicing the community. To consider converting to a remote service, there are fundamental questions a university clinical programme must address: Why does the clinic exist? What are the goals of the clinic and can they still be achieved by a remote service? This paper outlines the process of converting our in-person clinic to a remote service, by detailing steps taken such as developing a remote operating student training manual, establishing a new case triage system, utilising Zoom sessions, and developing a user focused website. It reflects upon the process of finding effective ways of communicating and collaborating with students and clients, while managing and mitigating the potential barriers to technology. Both the successes and the challenges taught us more about the human connection and the human experience. Ultimately, the lessons learned from a swift shut down to reopening a fully remote clinic made us better organised, better communicators, and more accessible for clients. Once we safely return to in-person meetings, the value gained in providing a remote service will remain embedded in our offering, committing us to a hybrid service of in-person and remote meetings to provide a better service to our clients. For the next academic year, our strengthened service enables us to move seamlessly between a fully remote service and our new hybrid model with minimal disruption, should COVID-19 continue to cast a dark cloud
Feminist Judicial Decision-Making as Judicial Decision-Making: A Legitimate and Valuable Approach?
Get PDFFeminist legal scholars argue that the rigid, formalist approach towards judicial decision-making is potentially harmful to the lives, experiences, and interests of women. In critically analysing a feminist re-judgement within Feminist Judgments From Theory to Practice, this dissertation argues that the Feminist Judgments Project represents a legitimate and valuable approach, which effectively re-imagines judicial decision-making in line with women’s interests. This dissertation reinforces feminist judicial decision-making as a more responsive form of judgment making particularly for vulnerable and marginalised women whom regularly experience and are subjected to traditional judicial approaches. Further, the dissertation argues that feminist judicial decision-making constitutes a legitimate and valuable approach despite considerable criticism levelled at this methodology and judges who openly hold feminist beliefs. The dissertation positions the Feminist Judgments Project within the context of the legal realist approach to judicial decision-making, which serves as a critique of the formalist approach to judicial decision-making. The dissertation's analysis of the feminist re-judgment of R v Dhaliwal (R v D)[1] aims to promote the Feminist Judgments Project’s methodological approach as a mode of judicial best practice. This dissertation concludes that feminist judicial decision-making is a legitimate and valuable approach which recognises social inequalities and amplifies marginalised communities, whilst also remaining faithful to legal conventions
The Case For Animal Protection Curricula in Schools in Hong Kong
Get PDFIn a city like Hong Kong where animal protection laws replicate outdated British legislation from the early 1900s, extensive educational measures must be taken to raise students’ collective awareness of animal welfare and rights, in order to meet the pressing environmental, social, and moral demands of a rapidly developing society. This article argues that the study of animal protection in Hong Kong school curricula is essential to raising future generations of responsible and empathetic community leaders and members. Not only can such curricula encourage students to make well-informed, healthy, and environmentally-conscious choices as consumers, it also challenges the speciesist “hidden curricula” perpetuated in schools, developing students’ critical and independent thinking skills and empowering them to regain ownership over and accountability for their decisions. It instils empathy in students towards animals, as well as vulnerable groups in society that share a similar narrative of oppression and exploitation, such as women and ethnic minorities. This article refutes the critique of animal protection curricula being a form of indoctrination by challenging the notion that any education system can be truly value-free
The Ghosts Around the Coasts: Anarchy and Equity in Transboundary River Basins
Get PDFPlease see attached files for oral presentation
Book Review: The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: A Commentary (Edited by Ilias Banketas, Michael Ashley Stein and Dimitris Anastasiou) (OUP 2018)
Get PDFInnovation and Disruption: Exploring the Potential of Clinical Legal Education
Get PDFIt’s a great privilege to deliver this year’s Susan Campbell Oration. I, like many others, had the pleasure of working with Sue on a range of activities. In 2007, Sue conducted a review of the La Trobe Law School Clinical program which was instrumental in helping ensure the program remained an integral aspect of the La Trobe University law course. I hope what I have to say honours Sue’s memory and her contributions to legal education and clinical legal education in particular2. My focus in this presentation is on how Australian clinical legal education responds to the various innovations and disruptions occurring in the legal arena. The scope and breadth of innovations is mindboggling. There are many predictions about what the future holds for the legal profession, from gloom and doom to utopia, and there is a growing body of literature discussing the implications for the legal profession and legal education. In reality, it is impossible to envisage what the legal world will look like in ten years let alone thirty and that poses a real challenge for those involved in legal education, including clinical legal education. How best to prepare today’s students for the unknown future? Given that I have no expertise in digital technology and am certainly not a futurologist my comments relate to those areas about which I have some background: access to justice, social security and clinical legal education. I briefly outline the variety and scope of innovations occurring in the legal world, discuss two related aspects namely access to justice and government decision making, using the example of Robodebt, and then examine the potential for clinical legal education in these disruptive times. I argue that clinical legal education is well placed to take a more central role in Australian law schools and the training of 21st century legal workers.