Gender, Sexuality and Law

Module title	Gender, Sexuality and Law
Module code	LAW3011
Academic year	2020/1
Credits	15
Module staff	Dr Charlie Bishop (Convenor)

Duration: Term	1	2	3
Duration: Weeks	12

Number students taking module (anticipated)	70

Module description

Gender, sex and sexuality are the organising concepts upon which our society is based, yet these have fundamentally changed over the last 50 years. Currently in the UK a 10% pay gap exists between genders; over 300,000 men are 'stay-at-home dads'; an estimated 1 in 4000 are receiving treatment for gender-dysphoria and around 1.4% of UK society identifies as LGBT. Conversely, children’s genitals are routinely modified to fit into law’s binary understandings of gender and despite the mounting evidence of the prevalence of intersexualities (those with ambiguous genitalia) legally a person is still constructed as either man or woman. Yet how do you think the law interacts or should interact with these changing social concepts of gender and sexuality? How does/should the law regulate and construct genders that we assume to be natural?

In this module you will be given the opportunity to critique how law regulates the naturalisation and construction of these concepts and will be asked to reflect on what it means to be a man or a woman in contemporary society. Through a range of teaching sessions, you will tackle these thought-provoking and often emotionally-charged issues and explore the different theoretical approaches that fuel these debates including feminism, masculinity studies and queer theory. You will be encouraged to make group presentations on a range of topics to really engage with this critique of the law and to facilitate group discussion around these highly controversial yet prevalent issues surrounding sex, gender and sexuality.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The aim of this module is to introduce you to the concepts of sex, gender and sexuality and to highlight their (often uneasy) relationships with the law. The module will foster your critical engagement with the law which will be useful in many other modules as well as your future career. The module is based on your engagement with cutting edge issues backed by up to date scholarship in the areas of law, gender and sexuality. These include genital modification, gay adoption, trans-bodies, domestic violence and civil partnerships. Thus this module also aims to familiarise you with the fascinating theoretical background to aid their critique of the law. Teaching sessions will foster your critical thinking and encourage you to challenge traditional legal reasoning. The module emphasises student interaction with a focus on presentations, debates and group work in a supportive environment.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

1. Demonstrate a critical awareness of contemporary sex, gender and sexuality issues and how these issues influence/impact upon law;
2. Critically evaluate theories and techniques regarding gender and sex;

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

3. Demonstrate detailed/comprehensive knowledge of legal concepts and their contextual/social/political implications;
4. Define complex legal problems, identify their relative significance and select appropriate methods for investigating and critically evaluating them;
5. Select, integrate and present coherently and reflectively relevant law and legal/theoretical arguments;

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

6. Work independently and to manage time efficiently in preparing for scheduled learning activities and assessments;
7. Manage relevant learning resources/ information/ learning strategies and to develop own arguments and opinions with minimum guidance;
8. Communicate and engage in debate effectively and accurately, in a manner appropriate to the discipline/ different contexts;

Syllabus plan

Whilst the module's precise content may vary, it is envisaged that the syllabus will include all/some of the following topics:

1) Understanding sex and gender

What is sex?
What is gender?

2) Law as Masculinity?

The masculine bias of law
Public/private divide
Autonomy and Equality
The masculine bias of the legal profession

3) Autonomy and Private Violence

Intimate partner violence
Sexual violence
Sadomasochism
Pornography

4) Sexing the Body

Intersexualities (sexing the child)
Regulating Transsexual Bodies

5) Challenging Heteronormativity

Civil Partnerships and same-sex marriage
Same-sex parenting

6) Gendering Justice

Women as Criminals
Women Who Kill
Prostitution

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
28.5	121.5	0

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning & Teaching Activities	20	20 x 1 hour lectures
Scheduled Learning & Teaching Activities	4.5	3 x 1.5 hour workshops
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	4	4 x 1 hour drop-in clinics to discuss summative assessment
Guided independent study	55	Individual reading and lecture preparation
Guided independent study	20	Workshop preparation
Guided independent study	40	Assessment preparation
Guided independent study	6.5	Formative assessment

Formative assessment

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Essay	750 words	1-8	Written. General feedback highlighting common errors.

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
100	0	0

Details of summative assessment

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Essay and reflective commentary	100	3,750 words	1-8	Written or oral. General feedback highlighting common errors.

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
Essay and reflective commentary	Essay and reflective commentary (3,750 words)	1-8	August/September Re-assessment period.

Re-assessment notes

Students resubmitting their essays will have to choose a different topic and/or title to the essay that they submitted originally.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Feminist Legal Theory [in] McCoubrey & White's Textbook on Jurisprudence, James Penner and Emmanuel Melissaris, 2012
Jones, J. Grear, A. Fenton, R. A. & Stevenson, K. (ed.) Gender, Sexualities and Law. 2011. Oxon: Routledge.
Jackson, E and Lacey, N. Introducing Feminist Legal Theory in Introduction to Jurisprudence and Legal Theory: Commentary and Materials.
Finley, L. Reshaping Women’s Silence in Law: The Dilemma of the Gendered Nature of Legal Reasoning. 1989. Notre Dame L. Rev. Vol. 64, No.5, pp. 886-891
Fineman, M. The Autonomy Myth, 2005.
Barker, N. Sex and the civil partnership act: the future of (non) conjugality? Feminist Legal Studies. 2006. Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 241-259.
Fineman, M. A. The Neutered Mother. U. Miami L. Rev. Vol. 46. No. 3, pp. 653-670.
Fox, M. & Thomson, M. Foreskin Is a Feminist Issue, Australian Feminist Studies, 2009, Vol. 24, No. 60, pp. 195-210.
Sharpe, A. N. Endless Sex: The Gender Recognition Act 2004 and the Persistence of a Legal Category. Feminist Legal Studies. 2007. Vol. 15, No. 1, pp.57-84.
Naffine, N. The Body Bag, in Sexing the Subject of Law, 1997
Nicolson, D (2005) ‘Demography, discrimination and diversity: a new dawn for the British legal profession,’ International Journal of the Legal Profession, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp.201-228.
V. Bettinson and C. Bishop, “Is the creation of a discrete offence of coercive control necessary to combat domestic violence?” Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, 2015, 66(2): 179–97.
C. Bishop, ‘The Limitations of a Legal Response’ in Hilder and Bettinson, Domestic Violence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Protection, Prevention and Intervention (2016)
N. Naffine, 1994 “Possession: Erotic Love in the Law of Rape”. Modern Law Review. 57(10) pp. 10-37.
N. Gooch (2005) “The Feminisation of the Male Rape Victim”, UCL Jurisprudence Review 12 pp. 196-213.
L. Ellison and V. Munro (2013). “Better the Devil You Know? ‘Real Rape’ Stereotypes and The Relevance of a Previous Relationship in (Mock) Juror Deliberation”, International Journal of Evidence & Proof, Vol. 14 pp. 299-322.

Key words search

Gender, Sexuality, Law, Violence, Heteronormativity, Transsexual, Feminism.

Credit value	15
Module ECTS	7.5
Module pre-requisites	None
Module co-requisites	None
NQF level (module)	6
Available as distance learning?	No
Origin date	15/02/2012
Last revision date	12/08/2020