Abstract
This concluding chapter reflects on the arguments made in the preceding chapters before briefly commenting on the urgency of reform. It discusses the insights that can be drawn from analysing legal problems through a vulnerability lens, illustrating the need to place the state’s role at the centre of any debate. While academics have debated some of these issues for decades, matters have now reached a critical level that demands an immediate reconceptualisation of the state’s relationship to its citizens. The global COVID-19 pandemic has placed our universal embodiment under the spotlight and has highlighted the unsustainability and fragility of the liberal model of autonomous personhood. A new approach is urgently needed.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Barlow, A., Hunter, R., Smithson, J., & Ewing, J. (2017). Mapping Paths to Family Justice: Resolving Family Disputes in Neoliberal Times. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Coyle, S. (2013). Vulnerability and the Liberal Order. In M. A. Fineman & A. Grear (Eds.), Vulnerability: Reflections on a New Ethical Foundation for Law and Politics. Farnham: Ashgate.
Elizabeth, V., Gavey, N., & Tolmie, J. (2012). “...He’s Just Swapped His Fists for the System” The Governance of Gender Through Custody Law. Gender & Society, 26(2), 239.
Finchett-Maddock, L. (2018). Nonlinearity, Autonomy and Resistant Law. In S. Wheatley & T. Webb (Eds.), Complexity Theory & Law: Mapping an Emergent Jurisprudence. Abingdon: Routledge.
Fineman, M. A. (2008). The Vulnerable Subject: Anchoring Equality in the Human Condition. Yale Journal of Law & Feminism, 20(1), 1.
Fineman, M. A. (2013). Equality, Autonomy and the Vulnerable Subject in Law and Politics. In M. A. Fineman & A. Grear (Eds.), Vulnerability: Reflections on a New Ethical Foundation for Law and Politics. Farnham: Ashgate.
Fineman, M. A. (2017). Vulnerability and Inevitable Inequality. Oslo Law Review, 4(3), 133.
Grear, A. (2011). The Vulnerable Living Order: Human Rights and the Environment in a Critical and Philosophical Perspective. Journal of Human Rights and the Environment, 2(1), 23.
Haataja, A., & Nyberg, A. (2006). Diverging Paths? The Dual-Earner/Dual-Carer Model in Finland and Sweden in the 1990s. In A. L. Ellingsæter & A. Leira (Eds.), Politicising Parenthood in Scandinavia: Gender Relations in Welfare States. Bristol: Policy Press.
Harvey, D. (2007). A Brief History of Neoliberalism. New York: Oxford University Press USA.
Kohn, N. A. (2014). Vulnerability Theory and the Role of Government. Yale Journal of Law & Feminism, 26, 1.
Macintyre B. (2020). After Coronavirus: The World Will Never Be the Same…In Some Ways It May Be Better. The Times, June 9. Available at https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-world-will-never-be-the-same-in-some-ways-it-may-be-better-zf02nk6bf. Accessed 4 August 2020.
Mackenzie, C., Rogers, W., & Dodds, S. (2014). Introduction. In C. Mackenzie, W. Rogers, & S. Dodds (Eds.), Vulnerability: New Essays in Ethics and Feminist Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mant, J., & Wallbank, J. (2017). The Mysterious Case of Disappearing Family Law and the Shrinking Vulnerable Subject: The Shifting Sands of Family Law’s Jurisdiction. Social & Legal Studies, 26(5), 629.
Marvel, S. (2016). Response to Tuerkheimer-Rape on and Off Campus: The Vulnerable Subject of Rape Law: Rethinking Agency and Consent. Emory Law Journal Online, 65, 2035.
Miles, J. (2003). Property Law v Family Law: Resolving the Problems of Family Property. Legal Studies, 23(4), 624.
Office for National Statistics. (2020). Parenting in Lockdown: Coronavirus and the Effects on Work-Life Balance. Available at https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/parentinginlockdowncoronavirusandtheeffectsonworklifebalance/2020-07-22. Accessed 4 August 2020.
Smith, O. (2014). Litigating Discrimination on Grounds of Family Status. Feminist Legal Studies, 22(2), 175.
Summers, H. (2020). UK Society Regressing Back to 1950s for Many Women Warn Experts. The Guardian, June 18. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2020/jun/18/uk-society-regressing-back-to-1950s-for-many-women-warn-experts-worsening-inequality-lockdown-childcare#:~:text=The%20coronavirus%20pandemic%20is%20threatening,%25%20to%2045%25%20during%20lockdown. Accessed 4 August 2020.
Thompson, S. (2019). A Millstone Around the Neck? Stereotypes About Wives and Myths About Divorce. Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, 70(2), 179.
Travis, M., & Garland, F. (2018). Legislating Intersex Equality: Building the Resilience of Intersex People Through Law. Legal Studies, 38(4), 587.
Wallbank, J., & Herring, J. (2013). Vulnerabilities, Care and Family Law. Abington: Routledge.
Williams, J. C., Blair-Loy, M., & Berdahl, J. L. (2013). Cultural Schemas, Social Class, and the Flexibility Stigma. Journal of Social Issues, 69(2), 209.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gordon-Bouvier, E. (2020). Concluding Thoughts. In: Relational Vulnerability. Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61358-7_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61358-7_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-61357-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-61358-7
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)