Feminist Legal Group Manifesto
Since we announced on 3 July 2020 that this blog was going to be curated by a collective of UK solicitors and barristers we have received an enormous amount of interest and also suggestions as to which topics we might consider covering. We had a feeling that there might be an interest in feminist interrogation of the law and how it works, or fails to work for women. We had no idea that there would be quite so much interest however. In the first 48 hours we gained 4000 new followers on Twitter and our Twitter announcement garnered 2,500 likes. We are still receiving suggestions at the time of writing and intend to collate them into a separate blog post.
We intend to address some of the questions and suggestions you have put forward but please note that we are all working lawyers and this is a labour of feminism which fits around our working and family lives. Nothing in this blog is a substitute for seeking independent legal advice and we do not intend to provide advice; instead we are considering legal principles and feminist concerns as they relate to the law.
We welcome any and all potential feminist blog posts and will consider publishing each on its merits. Our only stipulation is that the writer must be a practising lawyer and we request that male contributors co-author pieces with female lawyers. We would like to use this opportunity to provide a platform for female legal commentators whilst recognising that there are areas of law where there a fewer female lawyers such as in sports law. We greatly value the input of the male lawyers who have already contributed to our Twitter thread and hope that they will take this opportunity to co-author blog submissions.
To keep posts succinct and accessible we aim to stick to 700 – 1000 words.
Moderation Policy
We welcome robust debate on all sides of any topic that we raise here, but we are determined to keep the tone of this blog calm and respectful. Comments are moderated and will be either edited, or not published, if in our view they are written in a manner that risks undermining that aim. That will include content that falls well short of abuse, personal attacks or hate speech: there will be a great deal that you would be free to say (for example) on Twitter or Facebook, but not here. Please write here as you would speak to a valued and respected colleague whom you are hoping to persuade to your view.
In other words, there will be quite rigorous “tone policing” on this blog. We hope you understand our reasons for that, even if you would draw some of the lines in different places. We’ll try to be reasonably consistent, but the blog is moderated by a small group of busy volunteers, and we won’t always have time to reach a consensus – so we’re bound to do it imperfectly.
About the Authors
We are a collective of practising lawyers – solicitors and barristers – who are interested in feminist analysis of law, and legal analysis of feminism. Between us we have a wide range of specialist areas. We hope to provide an accessible and informative commentary.
In case it’s not obvious, the views expressed here are our various individual views, and not to be attributed to anyone else – whether by reference to where we work, any appointments any of us may hold, who we have dinner with, who cuts our hair, or any other random or non-random association.