Will Tort Law Have Its #Me Too Moment?
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Martha Chamallas
Abstract
Using tort law’s treatment of claims for domestic violence and sexual assault as examples, this essay identifies prominent features of a feminist historical approach to law to demonstrate how gender inequality is reproduced over time, despite changes in legal doctrine. When informed by feminist theory, history can function as a critique of past and present regimes of inequality, highlighting the various techniques of exclusion and marginalization that emerge to prevent law from redressing serious, recurring injuries suffered disproportionately by women. The essay explores two such techniques: sexual exceptionalism that treats gender-related torts differently than other harms and the adoption of ostensibly neutral rules that have a disparate impact on women and marginalized groups. The essay speculates as to whether the #MeToo movement can provide the momentum to produce a break from the past, particularly with respect to third-party claims holding employers and other institutional defendants responsible for sexualized harms.
© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Torts Panel Papers
- Foreword: The Role of History in Tort Theory
- A Lost Search for a Generic Tort Action Protecting “Peace of Mind”
- History, Theory, and Tort: Four Theses
- Will Tort Law Have Its #Me Too Moment?
- Research Articles
- Technological Triggers to Tort Revolutions: Steam Locomotives, Autonomous Vehicles, and Accident Compensation
- The MacPherson-Henningsen Puzzle
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Torts Panel Papers
- Foreword: The Role of History in Tort Theory
- A Lost Search for a Generic Tort Action Protecting “Peace of Mind”
- History, Theory, and Tort: Four Theses
- Will Tort Law Have Its #Me Too Moment?
- Research Articles
- Technological Triggers to Tort Revolutions: Steam Locomotives, Autonomous Vehicles, and Accident Compensation
- The MacPherson-Henningsen Puzzle
