Challenging Legal Core Values, livre ebook

• The book presents the first ethnographic study of a new consent-based rape law in Sweden, which challenges established legal practices and core concepts of the modern legal institution, in an international context where such laws are currently about to be or are recently launched in several countries.

• The book involves the multidimensional viewpoints of judges in district and appeals courts, prosecutors, complainants’ legal counsels, and defence lawyers, all of which present both similar and conflicting concerns on a rape law based on consent.

• The discussion highlights and problematizes the ways that traditional professional understandings of legal core values such as rationality, objectivity, and individual autonomy present potential obstacles to predictable and equal implementation of consent-based rape laws.

• The theoretical framing combines the feminist legal and sociology of emotions perspectives and is the result of interdisciplinary collaboration between Sociology, Criminology, and Law.

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

This book presents the first ethnographic study into a new consent-based rape law in Sweden and shows how the implementation of this legislation challenges outdated legal frameworks and requires a shift in legal practice.

Focusing on the Swedish context, it provides insights that are globally applicable, offering lessons for other countries where consent-based rape laws are in place. By examining the limitations of the conventional legal enactment of autonomy, rationality and objectivity, the authors argue for an evolved approach to ensure fairness and effectiveness. Integrating feminist legal theory with the sociology of emotions, the book reveals how emotional and contextual factors shape legal reasoning.

Aiming to make legal processes for sexual violence more transparent, predictable and democratic worldwide, this is an urgent call for enhanced professional training in emotional reflexivity and empathy.

Part 1: Introduction

1. Background and Outline

2. Legal Framework

3. Theory and Method

Part 2: The Making of Legal Objectivity

4. The Feeling of not Knowing

5. Professional Roles in Objectivity Making

6. The Making and Breaking of Objectivity

Part 3: Autonomy and Rationality of Legal Subjects

7. Autonomy and Action Rationality of Non-Voluntariness

8. The Burden of Explanation

9. The Making and Breaking of Consent Defences

Part 4: Rationality and Autonomy in Legal Decision-Making

10. Navigating Reasonable Doubt in the Judgements

11. Pathways to Knowing

Part 5: Conclusion

12. Core Judicial Values and Beyond