There's Feminism in Those Judgments

Abstract

This Essay enlists the other contributions to this Symposium to honor the extraordinary transnational phenomenon of Feminist Judgments, a growing set of multi-authored volumes that find progressive potential in decisional law. Although The Common Law Inside the Female Body is a very different work, this Essay identifies common ground between this book and Feminist Judgments. The modus operandi of Feminist Judgments is to rewrite published judicial decisions to steer their results or their rationales in a feminist direction; The Common Law Inside the Female Body celebrates judge-made law as it is, in an unaltered state. That difference noted, the Feminist Judgments movement and my paean to the common law agree on where to go and what to take on the journey. Both share a commitment to reason, precedent, narrative, judge-written primary materials, grievances articulated and heard in court, fidelity to the rule of law, and undoing the subordination of women.