Page 8 - Klinika nr 39–40 (44–45)/2025

WPŁYW KLINIK NA PRZYSZŁOŚĆ SPOŁECZNĄ

This shows that issues of equality, equal treatment, and equality of changes achieved through female-led activism for gender equality.
opportunity for both men and women are among the most difficult Overall, feminist jurisprudence examines law in its broad sense,
issues facing society and, above all, the law. To deal with them, it i.e., it examines legal language, applied methods of legal argumen-
is necessary not only to be widely informed but also to be particu- tation, the practice of law and the whole process of its application
larly sensitive to manifestations of gender discrimination. Thus, from a female (gender) point of view. Critical thought that chal-
the introduction of gender studies programmes into the university lenges traditional and consequently oppressive axioms for women
curriculum should be compulsory and should become a significant relating to the making, interpretation and application of law is
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part of legal education and courses taught at law faculties , which thus a fundamental feature of feminist legal theory.
would consider issues of feminist legal theory, critically examining It would be a mistake, however, to indicate that it is one homoge-
existing law, its interpretation and its application. In today’s social nous theory or school. Within feminist jurisprudence, many femi-
and legal reality, such programmes can and should be taught as nist theories of law, directions of critical thought about the law, its
part of various legal courses. Moreover, it should occupy a special shape, methods of interpretation and application, and the meth-
place as part of the clinical teaching in all legal clinics in Poland. odology of interpreting the law, are emerging. As G. Maroń rightly
Given the above, this article will first present, in general terms, notes, „The non-monolithicity of feminist jurisprudence is a result
the concept of feminist jurisprudence. Then, it will expound se- of the non-monolithicity of feminism tout court” .
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lected examples of the changes that feminist jurisprudence has Being aware of the non-monolithic nature of feminist jurispru-
achieved by critically analysing its content and the already applied dence, this term will be used in this text to refer to all schools,
practice. This article will try to show how (and why) it is impor- rather than to one particular feminist legal theory. This is because
tant to integrate critical feminist analysis of law into a legal ed- I agree with the assertion that „leaving aside the differences, some-
ucation, both when lecturing on legal theory as well as in the in- times radical, between the various feminist theories of law, their
troduction to the practice of law. Therefore, the examples given common – to necessarily put it laconically – identity should be
will refer both to the manifestations of discrimination contained considered to be the evaluation, critique and demands for change
in the normative content of the law itself, but, above all, to those in the law and legal practice made from the perspective of women
manifestations that result from the interpretation of the meaning as a class, their needs, expectations and experiences” .
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attached to the law in its practice. The following presentation is However, before presenting the characteristics of the feminist
thus intended to encourage those who teach law to apply and teach school of law and its methodology, it is necessary to briefly out-
the achievements of feminist legal criticism into their theoretical line the history of women’s emancipation and the stages of change
and practical instruction. brought about by the so-called three waves of feminism. It is im-
This text employs theoretical research methods, i.e., the linguistic possible to talk about feminist jurisprudence without presenting
and logical method and, to a narrow extent, the historical method. the social movement that is the source of the emergence and de-
When discussing the theoretical issues at hand, both source ma- velopment of all feminist schools and theories in various disci-
terials and the relevant literature on the subject, primarily in plines and scientific fields.
the field of feminist jurisprudence, were considered . In philosophical discourses around feminist theory, it was noted
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as early as the enlightenment that „as a result of this symbolic
The concept of feminist jurisprudence combination of femininity with weakness and the inferior side of
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Feminist jurisprudence is, most broadly, a theory of law. It is humanity – woman becomes a victim of social practices and insti-
a legal school that emerged in the second half of the twentieth tutions geared toward her exclusion from the world of privileges
century, first in common law countries and then throughout Eu- reserved for men, and philosophy is one example of this phenome-
rope and the world , and which was a consequence of the social non” . Despitethe numerous women’s voices appearing as early as
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the beginning of the fifteenth century , their emancipatory claims
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12 See M. Płatek, How to teach about sexual offences using rape as an example, only began to bring about slow systemic change in the twentieth
KLINIKA 2025, No 39–40 (44–45)/2025. century, and this was almost exclusively due to the women them-
13 Feminist methodology is an element of the feminist theory of law (generically 20
referred to interchangeably in the Anglo-Saxon literature as feminist jurispru- selves and their prolonged struggle for their rights . The demands
dence or feminist philosophy of law, (see on this subject, for example, the text
by G. Maroń, Feminist Jurisprudence as a Contemporary School of Law, Zeszy-
ty Naukowe Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego, Legal Series 2014, notebook 82, pp. 16 Ibidem, p. 87.
87–111) and assumes that power and the meaning of gender is a construct of 17 Ibidem, p. 88.
culture, not nature. By adopting this position and applying feminist methodology, 18 J. Bator, Feminism, postmodernism, psychoanalysis, Gdańsk 2001, p. 30.
law and social institutions of power are subjected to evaluation, redefinition and, 19 The writer and women’s rights activist Christine de Pizan published her most
consequently, also reform. Feminist jurisprudence assumes an interdisciplinary prominent works Le Livre de la Cité des Dames (The Book of the City of Women)
approach to law and social relations. This means that different perspectives are and Le Trésor de la Cité des Dames (The Treasure of the City of Women) around 1405.
taken into account when analysing the law, e.g. sociological, economic, philosoph- Marry Wollstonecraft’s book, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, was first
ical, psychological or political. Feminist methodology, feminist jurisprudence or published in 1792 (Polish translation of A Cry for Women’s Rights, 2011).
feminist legal theory was by uch. Reaume defined from a positive and negative 20 „In Simone de Beauvoir’s philosophy, the aim of equality, should be to valorise
perspective. The author considers that „Feminist legal criticism is, from the neg- women as subjects of Western philosophy and culture, to show that, like men,
ative side, an analysis of how some or all women have been excluded from the for- they are capable of being transcendent, abstract subjects. „Empowerment” re-
mation and application of the law; while from the positive side, an argumentation quires at the same time „liberating” women from the trap of corporeality, both at
concerning whether and how it is possible to include women [in the law]”. the theoretical level (recognising that women have the same intellectual capacities
14 Feminist jurisprudence is otherwise known as feminist legal theory or feminist as men) and at the practical level (by allowing women to control their own bodies,
philosophy of law. among other things by controlling reproduction) S. de Beauvoir, Druga płeć, War-
15 G. Maroń, Feminist jurisprudence as a contemporary law school, Zeszyty Nau- saw 2003; quoted in M. Grabowska, Od „gender” do „transgender”: evolution of
kowe Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego 2014, notebook 82, pp. 87 et seq. the gender category in social science and international law, at tea.org.pl, p. 7.

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