1st Edition

To Speak as a Judge Difference, Voice and Power

By Sandra Berns Copyright 1999
    250 Pages
    by Routledge

    250 Pages
    by Routledge

    First published in 1999, this volume explores the nature of adjudication in the common law tradition from a feminist postmodernist perspective. The author accepts and celebrates the ‘choices’ open to the judge and argues that without choice, judgment cannot be properly judicial. The first full length feminist exploration of the role of the judge and the nature of law and legality, To Speak as a Judge is grounded in the process of adjudication and its rhetorical nature. It draws upon significant contemporary cases to explore the narrativity of law and the ways in which rhetoric and judicial understandings of the nature of law determine narrative style.

    1. Speaking and Judging. 2. Authority and the Voice of the Other. 3. Speaking Law and Rendering Judgement. 4. The Subversive Moment. 5. Free Will and the Judge as Subject. 6. From Polyvocality to Narrative Coherence. 7. Texts, Authority and the Force of Law. 8. Judgment as Rhetoric. 9. To Speak as a Judge/Woman: A Different Voice? 10. Justice, Finally.

    Biography

    Sandra Berns, Faculty of Law, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia