Core Readings and Current Issues
T. Brettel Dawson
4th Edition, 2002
Preface
In
this fourth edition, I have again faced the challenge of selecting material to
address “core” approaches and “current issues” from a thriving and burgeoning
body of literature related to women and the law in Canada. I thank those who have granted permission
for the inclusion of portions of their work. For research purposes, readers
should consult the full text of materials in their original place of
publication to counteract the constraints of my editorial pen and the need to
exclude footnotes and endnotes.
In
this edition, I have sought to more explicitly trace our progress in engaging
with law over time. This must in some ways be an attempt at reassurance. With
the confidence of youth, I firmly believed 20 years ago as I began my academic
career that we knew what was wrong and how to fix it and had such energy, that
surely everything would be made ‘right’ before long. I recall the incredulity
with which I realized not so long ago that our progress was rather slower and
more incremental and uneven that I had imagined! However, the pragmatism of
experience also sustains me as I realize that we are continually building on
and challenging the work done before us (even challenging it). I have also lost
some of my certitude that we can know what to do and how to improve our society
in a grand vision; being engaged in a carefully reflective and well-researched
process of civil debate and passion for justice for all peoples in a
sustainable world seems not only the best we can hope for but a preferable
alternative.
The
materials also continue to place greater emphasis on primary legal materials in
the form of legislation, judicial opinions and policy documents to provide more
applied coverage of the issues examined and a more complete reference to some
key documents in the field. What the
law is and how it has changed more fully inform critical approaches to the
subject. I have tried to integrate
‘theoretical understandings’ of law from feminist perspectives throughout the
material and in relation to examination of specific issues. Themes and ideas
that inform feminist engagement with law will, therefore be layered throughout
a reading of the text as well as in the ‘frameworks’ section on approaches and
debates. This is largely because the book aims to examine core and current
issues in the field rather than providing a complete analysis of feminist legal
theory. Hopefully, sufficient basis will be provided for advanced or
specialized study in theory. I have also begun to explore ideas about
alternative models of dispute resolution and ‘problem-solving jurisprudence’.
At this point, though, time and space has permitted me to only introduce some
questions in this area. Finally, a major innovation in this edition has been
the inclusion of a link to a ‘virtual casebook’. Given the vast and expanding
range of women’s experience with seeking legal and social change, a practical
problem I have always faced is how to address this body of material without
losing the thematic focus of the text.
With the steady growth of internet-based resources, it seemed timely to
provide linkages to this broader set of material through including a ‘virtual casebook’
located on the internet and kept up to date over the course of the edition. See
www.lawsite.ca/femlaw
I
have also sought to expand the focus of legal action to consider the range of
strategies available in seeking legal change. In the second and third editions,
I identified one of my goals as being to “examine equality theories and claims
more fully”. In this edition, this
remains an important goal, given the rapid evolution of a distinctively
Canadian equality jurisprudence. My thinking in this area has been immeasurably
enriched by my interaction over the last several years with Justice Donna
Hackett of the Ontario Court of Justice with whom I have collaborated on the
social context education project for judges in Canada and from conversations with
Rosemary Cairns Way, Diana Majury, Richard Devlin, Catherine Frazee, Sheilah
Martin and David Lepofsky among others. The interaction of international laws
and norms with domestic (Canadian) law and policymaking processes has again
been opened for consideration. I thank Marilyn Waring, a pioneering thinker and
activist, for reminding me of the importance of international law in our
thinking about legal frameworks and strategies.
As
noted in earlier editions, this book has its roots in materials prepared by
Mary Jane Mossman for the Law, Gender, Equality course she introduced at
Osgoode Hall Law School in the early 1980s. Those original materials introduced
me to the systematic study of legal issues relevant to women and made available
a whole new intellectual paradigm. I acknowledge with respect and love, the
mentorship of Mary Jane Mossman who has continued to influence my work and make
a profoundly important contribution to legal education and social justice in
Canada. The intellectual community of
many other wonderful colleagues has also been sustaining: Susan Boyd, Diana Majury, Rosemary Warskett,
Claire Young and Hans Mohr, are but a few of those to whom I owe thanks. My
intrepid research assistants for this edition was Grant Holly.
As
before, the materials are structured to move through a learning cycle. This
learning cycle derives from the wisdom of Maria Harris in her provocative and
profoundly human book, Women and Teaching (New York: Paulist Press,
1988). In this book, she talks about
the rhythm of teaching: “the core of things is not substance, it is rhythm:
movement, ongoing discovery, continuing unfolding” (at 15). She outlines a four stage process learning
which is centred on women’s lives: Remembering (histories/core information);
Mourning (analysis/anger/reaction); Artistry (response/action/social change);
and Birthing (imagining/recreating). I
thank Mary Angela MacDonald for introducing this book to me. And indeed, I
acknowledge with continuing awe, the
overarching contribution of her love and support.
Any
errors or infelicities of expression or edition remain my responsibility. I
welcome feedback about this edition and comments and suggestions for inclusion
in future editions.
T. Brettel Dawson,
Carleton
University,
Chelsea,
June 2002.