Women and the Epistemology of Corporations Law

In order to effect changes to law school culture, it is critical that the central epistemological assumptions of legal education be challenged. Gender analysis is valuable for corporations lawyers because it provides a way to challenge the epistemology which is fundamental to corporate law scholarsh...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Peta Spender
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Bond University 1995-01-01
Series:Legal Education Review
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.53300/001c.6046
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author Peta Spender
author_facet Peta Spender
author_sort Peta Spender
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description In order to effect changes to law school culture, it is critical that the central epistemological assumptions of legal education be challenged. Gender analysis is valuable for corporations lawyers because it provides a way to challenge the epistemology which is fundamental to corporate law scholarship. This article proposes to locate the participation of women in corporations law. In doing so, it suggests that the “knowledge” of corporations law which is taught in Australian law schools masks the experiences of women in this area. When one begins to explore the issue of gender and corporations law, one’s immediate impression is that women are invisible. The protagonists in both corporate activity and corporations law always seem to be men. Corporations law is based upon a philosophy of liberal autonomy which has as its basic premise the self-interested male. The law has sought to preserve the liberal philosophy in this area and has regulated behaviour only when individual self-interest has caused certain kinds of quantifiable harms. Implicit and explicit in the law of corporations are such values as competition, hierarchy aggression and strict classification of roles.
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spelling doaj.art-af7d3f94379f403b91b16260246d56af2024-03-20T22:13:21ZengBond UniversityLegal Education Review1033-28391839-37131995-01-0162Women and the Epistemology of Corporations LawPeta SpenderIn order to effect changes to law school culture, it is critical that the central epistemological assumptions of legal education be challenged. Gender analysis is valuable for corporations lawyers because it provides a way to challenge the epistemology which is fundamental to corporate law scholarship. This article proposes to locate the participation of women in corporations law. In doing so, it suggests that the “knowledge” of corporations law which is taught in Australian law schools masks the experiences of women in this area. When one begins to explore the issue of gender and corporations law, one’s immediate impression is that women are invisible. The protagonists in both corporate activity and corporations law always seem to be men. Corporations law is based upon a philosophy of liberal autonomy which has as its basic premise the self-interested male. The law has sought to preserve the liberal philosophy in this area and has regulated behaviour only when individual self-interest has caused certain kinds of quantifiable harms. Implicit and explicit in the law of corporations are such values as competition, hierarchy aggression and strict classification of roles.https://doi.org/10.53300/001c.6046
spellingShingle Peta Spender
Women and the Epistemology of Corporations Law
Legal Education Review
title Women and the Epistemology of Corporations Law
title_full Women and the Epistemology of Corporations Law
title_fullStr Women and the Epistemology of Corporations Law
title_full_unstemmed Women and the Epistemology of Corporations Law
title_short Women and the Epistemology of Corporations Law
title_sort women and the epistemology of corporations law
url https://doi.org/10.53300/001c.6046
work_keys_str_mv AT petaspender womenandtheepistemologyofcorporationslaw