The Common Law Inside the Female Body
We welcome Subotnick Professor of Law , Brooklyn School of Law, for a Margot E. Halpenny Memorial Lecture, which is part of the Annie Macdonald Langstaff series.
Abstract
鈥淪aying No to What We Don鈥檛 Want鈥� opens The Common Law Inside the Female Body, a book in progress. Anita Bernstein does not disagree with critics who say that the common law is conservative, elitist, hard to look up and pin down, under-interested in distributive justice, and over-interested in protecting property. Nor will she deny that for centuries the common law oppressed wives. And yet this venerable, backward-looking, tradition-minded jurisprudence is a powerful force against the subordination of women. 鈥淪aying No to What We Don鈥檛 Want鈥� shows how thoroughly the common law stands up for individuals, possessors of female bodies included, whenever they object to an interference.
The speaker
Professor Bernstein is an authority on tort law and feminist jurisprudence, as well as professional responsibility and products liability. Her previous books are on torts, products liability, and whether marriage as a legal category ought to be abolished. Bernstein has been recognized as one of the most highly cited scholars in the field of Torts and Products Liability.
Margot E. Halpenny Memorial Lecture
Margot E. Halpenny, BA'72, LLB'76, was a member of the Ontario Bar and spent the last ten years of her career working for Noranda as legal counsel. After her passing, donations poured in from friends in her honour. Her family felt that these donations would be properly directed to 平特五不中's Law Faculty, given Margot鈥檚 educational background and the family鈥檚 strong affiliation with 平特五不中. The Margot E. Halpenny Memorial Lecture honours her memory.
This talk is organized in collaboration with the Paul-Andr茅 Cr茅peau Centre for Private and Comparative Law.
A request for accreditation for 1.5 hours of continuing legal education for jurists has been made to a recognized provider.
