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‘Ourworld’: A feminist approach to global constitutionalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 October 2019

RUTH HOUGHTON  and
AOIFE O’DONOGHUE Open the ORCID record for AOIFE O’DONOGHUE [Opens in a new window]
RUTH HOUGHTON*
Affiliation:
Newcastle Law School, Newcastle University, 21–24 Windsor Terrace, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU
AOIFE O’DONOGHUE*
Affiliation:
Durham Law School, Durham University, Palatine Centre, Stockton Road, Durham, DH1 3LE
*
†Email: [email protected]
*Email: aoife.o’[email protected]
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Abstract:

Global constitutionalism offers a utopian picture of the future of international law. Its advocates suggest a governance system is emergent that will fill the gaps in legitimacy, democracy and the rule of law present in international law. Speculation about the future of international law is shaped, partly at least, by global constitutionalism aspiring to create a better global legal order, by filling these legitimacy gaps with both normative and procedural constitutionalism. But this raises the question ‘better for whom’? Feminist theory has challenged the foundations of both international law and constitutionalism; demonstrating that the design of normative structures accommodates and sustains prevailing patriarchal forms that leave little room for alternative accounts or voices. Both international and constitutional law’s structures support the status quo and are resistant to critical and feminist voices. The question is whether it is possible for constitutionalism to change international law in ways that will open it up to alternate possibilities. Building on a seven-point manifesto of feminist constitutionalism, previously proffered by the authors, which inculcated feminist concerns into global constitutionalism, this article offers an alternative starting point: feminist science fiction. Feminist utopian tracts such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland and Ursula K Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness offer valuable lessons for global constitutionalist discourses. The article uses feminist utopias in science fiction to better understand how to dismantle hierarchical structures, how to build feminist societies, and how to find approaches to governance not predicated on patriarchy. It does so by focusing on feminist alternatives for constructing communities, for understanding constituent power and constituent moments, and dismantling manifestations of the public/private divide. This article demonstrates that reading feminist utopian science fiction facilitates the reimagining of global constitutionalism.

Keywords

feminismglobal constitutionalismliteraturescience fictionutopia
Type
Articles
Information
Global Constitutionalism , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , March 2020 , pp. 38 - 75
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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References

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129 Ibid.

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131 For example, in opening of The Wanderground, Jacqua is concerned about the return of a man from the City. See The Wanderground (n 63) 2.

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133 Herland (n 39) 83.

134 See the discussion in (n 53).

135 Locke (n 53) Ch II, section 222.

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137 Ibid 178.

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139 Herland (n 39) 61.

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143 Ibid 241.

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152 Ibid.

153 The Left Hand of Darkness 80, Le Guin uses the male pronoun throughout which has been a source of criticism.

154 There is a personal anxiety around motherhood because she was criticised for sending her children to be raised by others, however in the text the characters seem perfectly at ease with collective child rearing. L West, ‘Introduction’ to Herland (Vintage, New York City, NY, 2015) x.

155 Herland (n 39) 88

156 The impact of slavery on motherhood and the devasting decisions this forces on mothers is also reflected in Toni Morrison’s Beloved which can be situated within the genre of horror, a sibling of science fiction. T Morrison, Beloved (Knopf, New York, NY, 1987).

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162 Allison (n 35) 478.

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175 Kumar (n 173).

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177 Kumar (n 173) (emphasis in the original).

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179 Ibid 840.

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186 These paragraph signs are there to acknowledge voices that are not always listened to within global constitutionalist discourse and it is impossible for us to articulate what others would say in this space.