Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2021
What does the study of the exercise of judicial discretion by judges reveal about advancing gender through adjudication? In this chapter, the author claims that, in jurisdictions of the Global South, this question cannot be limited to a study of judges or of the exercise of discretion. The focus must extend beyond the study of individual judges and/or their judgments to a study of the system of adjudication, that is to say, the laws, legal institutions and the legal and political culture within which they operate. Nine different emblematic cases involving gender justice that came before Sri Lankan courts are studied. Some of these cases were adjudicated upon by women judges while some were not. The author read the selected jurisprudence from this lens to explain advances and retreats from gender justice in adjudication. She argues that unlike in the Global North, posing the woman question of judges in the Global South, led to misleading answers regarding women’s inclusion and representation in adjudication. The analysis suggests that any link between women judges and gender justice is tenuous. The ways in which the system of adjudication operates, that is the legal institutions, the law and the legal and political culture within which disputes are resolved, better explains the possibilities and limits of gender justice in adjudication.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.