Scottish Feminist Judgments Project launches new podcast
Fri 21 August 2020
Is the law neutral, and does it serve us all equally? That is the central question of the new podcast series launched this week by the Scottish Feminist Judgments Project (SFJP).
The Scottish Feminist Judgments Podcast is a three-part series examining judgments from the project’s book, Scottish Feminist Judgments – (Re)Creating Law from the Outside In, and builds on the work to rewrite historical cases through a gendered lens.
Gabrielle Blackburn, who produced the series, came up with the idea after attending an SFJP presentation in 2018. While not having a legal background, she wrote in a blog post about the podcast for the YWCA Scotland: “The injustices presented in these stories felt familiar. So did the frustration at the glaring unfairness that had to be explained and reasoned at great length before being heard. I understood the core of the arguments they were making, and they were exciting.”
The presentation struck a chord with Blackburn and she decided to make a podcast about the project. Now, two years later, the podcast is available.
The first episode examines the case of Drury v HM Advocate, and covers the impact of history and cultural legacies on our present-day legal system by focussing on a case involving femicide. Episode 2 will look at the domestic abuse case, Ruxton v Lang, to discuss the effects of silencing women’s stories and lived experiences in court. Episode 3 focuses on a financial provision on divorce and the valuation of unpaid work in the case, Coyle v Coyle, and looks at how laws that have the potential to be egalitarian can sometimes be applied in a way that hinders that potential.
“My hope is that these podcasts will help raise awareness about the role that perspective and lived experience play in shaping how law and other systems of power operate,” said Dr Chloë Kennedy, one of the SFJP co-ordinators.
“Through making legal judgments - and their implications - easier to understand, I hope that the podcast will also empower people from non-legal backgrounds to think critically about whose interests law serves and whose interests it marginalises.”
Episode one launched on Thursday, 20 August 2020, and can be found on the SFJP Podcast page.