FRS 002E — Sec. 001 —
(2 units) — CRN 52925 — R 10:00am – 12:30pm — 2004 King
Hall
Feminist Legal Theory
Instructor: Lisa Pruitt, School of Law
Description: This course will expose students to an overview
of women's legal history and to various strands of feminist legal theory. The
strands of theory discussed will include liberal, radical, cultural, anti-essentialist,
and post-modern feminism. The goal of the seminar is to provide students with
tools that will enable them to think critically about gendered aspects of legal
institutions and legal doctrines. It is also aimed at providing students with
some rudimentary knowledge of how the law regulates women's lives.
Format: The course will meet for two and one-half hours each
week for eight weeks. Students will be required to read Martha Chamallas, Introduction
to Feminist Legal Theory (2d ed. 2003). The professor will present the materials
and lead the course discussion during the first few weeks of the seminar, but
course meetings during the second half of the quarter will be structured around
student presentations based on the reading assignments. These student presentations
will be followed by a general discussion of the materials for the given week.
At the end of the course, each student must write an 8-10 page paper on some strand
of feminist legal theory. The student may link his or her theoretical discussion
to a particular legal issue related to women, e.g., prostitution, pornography,
reproductive freedom, sexual violence. Grading: Participation
in weekly discussions (25%), in-class presentation on reading assignment for one
class (25%), and final paper assignment (50%).
About the Instructor: Lisa Pruitt is an Acting Professor in the
School of Law, Martin Luther King, Jr. Hall. Her research interests include feminist
legal theory, women and the law, torts, and the sociology of the legal profession.
She is currently writing about women's use of the tort of defamation to redress
communicative injuries. Prior to joining the UC Davis law faculty in 1999, Pruitt
worked as an attorney in both The Netherlands and the United Kingdom. She also
worked as a gender consultant at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
She holds a PhD in Laws from the University of London, where her dissertation
provided a feminist critique of various communicative torts.