Abstract
Against the trend of roll-backs of pro-feminist initiatives by right-wing governments, feminist-led reforms to the law of murder deserve accolades as hard-fought feminist victories. For three decades, feminist analysts have critiqued the operation of provocation defences in intimate partner femicide cases. Their work has been rewarded with the implementation of reforms in several anglophone jurisdictions that have abolished or curtailed that defence. This article focuses on the revolutionary impact of the reform implemented in England and Wales. It argues for the continuing purchase for feminist legal scholars of a methodology championed by Carol Smart in her seminal 1989 text, Feminism and the Power of Law. She counselled feminist law scholars to read law as a site for contesting law’s truth about gendered relationships. This methodology has not only been critical in exposing the misogyny and injustice embedded in traditional provocation by infidelity defences; it also enables researchers to chart shifts in law’s discursive constitution of truth in the post-reform era.
Highlights
Introduction and ApproachAt a time when, as Margaret Thornton laments, there has been a roll-back of pro-feminist initiatives by right-wing governments, this article reports on a rare 21st-century feminist legal victory, one that has flown under the radar as the Me Too movement dominates the headlines
As Margaret Thornton laments, there has been a roll-back of pro-feminist initiatives by right-wing governments, this article reports on a rare 21st-century feminist legal victory, one that has flown under the radar as the Me Too movement dominates the headlines
Feminist analysts have critiqued the operation of provocation defences in intimate partner femicide cases
Summary
As Margaret Thornton laments, there has been a roll-back of pro-feminist initiatives by right-wing governments, this article reports on a rare 21st-century feminist legal victory, one that has flown under the radar as the Me Too movement dominates the headlines. Feminist analysts have critiqued the operation of provocation defences in intimate partner femicide cases. Their work has been rewarded with the implementation of reforms in several anglophone jurisdictions that have abolished or curtailed that defence. Focusing on the revolutionary impact of the reform implemented in England and Wales, I will argue for the continuing purchase for feminist legal scholars of a methodology that has been critical in exposing the misogyny and injustice embedded in traditional provocation by infidelity defences. I shall suggest that, as Daniela Alaattinoğlu and I argue in Contesting Femicide—Feminism and the Power of Law Revisited (Howe and Alaattinoğlu 2019), a book honouring Carol Smart’s seminal text (1989), her counsel to contest law’s truth about gendered relationships by reading law as an important site for engagement and contestation has continuing relevance today
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