Oedipus Lex: Slips in interpretation and law

Abstract

This essay addresses a perennial theme within the doctrine of common law. It is that of the Englishness of English law or alternatively, as Nietzsche once remarked, the lawfulness of being English. It is, ofcourse, a well-known and ironic historical fact that English law is a rather confused form oflocal French Law. The most obvious feature ofcommon law has been that for most of its history, it was recorded in Latin and argued and reported in a species of French. When William Camden sought to identify the most distinctive characteristic of the inhabitants of the Island Britannia, the only thing he could find about the origin of the word Britain was the ancient Gallic practice of painting the body with woad: ‘Brith… signifies anything that is painted and coloured over.’

Thinking Sexual Difference Through the Law of Rape

“…There are still public authorities where the staff have dismissive attitudes, police forces where the investigations are badly done, prosecutors who do not see the point of building a difficult case, and areas where the help and support for victims are sparse. 99 The review's conclusions make interesting reading in light of previous reviews and official government reports on the effectiveness of the criminal justice system. This is primarily because, while fulfilling the review's terms of reference, Stern's primary conclusion amounts essentially to a call to turn at least part of the focus when assessing outcomes for victims away from criminal justice measures.…”

“…In her argument, considering the very possibility of woman's sexual aggression is nonetheless important because it 'arguably shores up the possibilities of women's nonpassivity and men's vulnerability -essential possibilities for a revised form of heterosexuality in which it would be less possible to confuse rape and sex'. 99 The value for Gavey in highlighting attempts to make sense of this scene of female sexual aggression, as she does by putting the scene for comment to various lay focus groups, is to 'invite a critical understanding of the dynamics of heterosexual coercion of women'. 100 Gavey is critical of the tendency of many focus group participants to simply read the woman's actions in White Palace through reversing the genders of the participants such that the woman is simply constructed as (male) rapist and the man as (female) victim.…”

“…98 ibid. 99 ibid 196. 100 ibid 206. recognition of sexual difference and gendered power relations, a pernicious effect of the rhetoric of gender reversal can be an undermining of feminist emphasis on men's responsibility for rape (of women) and a reiteration of women's blame for (some) rapes (of women)'.…”

“…(f) any person had administered to or caused to be taken by the complainant, without the complainant's consent, a substance which, having regard to when it was administered or taken, was capable of causing or enabling the complainant to be stupefied or overpowered at the time of the relevant act. 99 The circumstances included in section 76 are as follows and are limited to cases of consent obtained by fraud: 97 (2) The circumstances are that-(a) the defendant intentionally deceived the complainant as to the nature or purpose of the relevant act;…”

Manley's “Feigned Scene”: The Fictions of Law at Westminster Hall

“…54 Renaissance law found its image of multiplicity in the feminine, "a metaphor or face which represented the plurality or creativity of thought, an other scene of reason." 55 In order to imagine itself as rational, orderly, and just, law thus repressed what Goodrich tropes as the decorative, the ornamental, and the feminine. Yet, this decorative feminine element (consult any primer on Freud) re sur faced repeatedly as a return of the repressed.…”