Theorizing the more responsive state: transcending the national boundaries of law

Authors

Laura Spitz, University of New Mexico - School of LawFollow

Format

Book Chapter

Book Title

Transcending the Boundaries of Law: Generation of Feminism and Legal Theory

Editor

Martha Albertson Fineman

First Page

305

Last Page

319

Files

Description

Literature theorizing the state typically focuses on the nation-state as the locus of state power and authority, bounded by territorial and/or geopolitical borders. Within legal scholarship, an even narrower focus is common: the state as adjudicatory apparatus. Yet it may be more productive to shift the conceptual lens to embrace a wider and less vertical conception of state power. Thus, this chapter takes Fineman’s invitation to begin the task of theorizing a “more responsive state” in the US, by looking beyond the US, and putting two groups of scholars in conversation with one another: feminist legal theorists on the one hand, and integration theorists, including governance theorists, on the other. Ultimately, I suggest that feminist legal scholars might usefully begin (re)theorizing the state by engaging with the process of North American integration (and with integration theorists) to explore integration’s emancipatory or progressive potential for responding to the sorts of inequalities Fineman identifies. At the same time, and just as importantly, integration theories will be made more relevant and more robust if they engage with feminism and feminist insights.

ISBN

9780415481380

Publication Date

2011

City

New York

Publisher

Routledge

Disciplines

Law | Law and Gender

Recommended Citation

Spitz, Laura. "Theorizing the more responsive state: transcending the national boundaries of law." Transcending the Boundaries of Law: Generation of Feminism and Legal Theory (2011): 305-319. https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/law_facbookdisplay/199