FEMINIST LEGAL METHODS: THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS, ADVANTAGES, AND POTENTIAL PROBLEMS

Feminist legal theory can be regarded as a significant challenge to traditional and dominant legal doctrine along with Critical Legal Studies (hereafter, CLS). Even though feminist legal theory has shared similar concerns and commitments as CLS, it differs therefrom in numerous significant ways. In this sense, feminist legal methods have been adopted by feminist legal theorists not only to analyze and to seek reform of existing legal approaches, but also to maintain feminist legal theory’s distinctiveness. From this point of view, Katherine Bartlett’s classic article, Feminist Legal Methods,1 poses a useful point of departure for those who wish to understand and critically consider the nature and value of feminist legal methods. In this article I attempt to analyze the principal theoretical assumptions of feminist legal methods, placing special emphasis upon identifying and discussing their strengths and weaknesses with reference to Bartlett’s theoretical framework.