Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Criminal Law Opinions

“Is it possible to be both a judge and a feminist?” Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Criminal Law Opinions answers that question in the affirmative by rewriting seminal legal opinions that address critical dimensions of criminal law jurisprudence, from sexual assault law and provocation to cultural defenses and the death penalty.

Today, one in three Americans has a criminal record. Mass incarceration and over-criminalization have become the norm, with jails cycling through roughly ten million people each year. At the same time, sexual assaults are rarely prosecuted, domestic violence remains pervasive, and the distribution of punishment—and, by extension, justice—appears not only racialized and class-based, but also deeply gendered.

Movements such as #MeToo and #SayHerName have brought renewed attention to these injustices, yet fundamental change remains elusive. Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Criminal Law Opinions asks: How might our understanding of justice look different when examined through a feminist lens?

This groundbreaking collection offers an answer by reimagining how landmark criminal law decisions could have been written and interpreted through feminist perspectives.