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Abstract

Law and Violence Against Women: Cases and Materials on Systems of Oppression by Beverly Balos and Mary Louise Fellows departs dramatically from traditional modes of teaching and learning the law. Instead of surveying what the law is and how it may (and may not) be used, the authors present the social problem of violence against women, primarily through accounts of the experiences and reactions of women to the violence used against them and the social systems' responses to it. Against this dramatic background of women's stories, Balos and Fellows address what the law is and ought to be, how it became what it is, why the approach to violence against women under prevailing law is limited and often counterproductive, and what strategies have been tried to overcome those obstacles. They work from the premise that violence against women is a widespread problem because, historically and culturally, we have permitted such violence to define women's place and, accordingly, the law developed not to forbid violence against women but to channel it. They offer substantial support for this premise in historical materials and analysis of the operation of the law. The authors scrupulously present views and experiences of women diverse in many ways, including race, class, sexual orientation, physical and mental abilities, education, age and their degree of awareness about oneself, others and the world.

Publication Title

Clinical Law Review

Volume

1

Issue

3

First Page

665

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