How Can the Methodology of Feminist Judgment Writing Improve Gender-Sensitivity in International Criminal Law?

Abstract

The Feminist Judgments Project has been utilised in a number of jurisdictions, including the UK, US, Canada and Australia, to critique real-life judicial judgments and to re-write these problematic judgments using feminist judging methodologies. This paper seeks to demonstrate the utility of the application of feminist judging methodologies to judgments and decisions from international criminal law mechanisms, with a specific focus on sexual and gender-based crimes, as a means to improve gender-sensitivity in international criminal judicial decision-making. Through an analysis of feminist judgments and feminist dissenting opinions from the UK, US and International Criminal Court, the main hallmarks of feminist judging are identified. The author uses the hallmarks of feminist judging to create her own Feminist Judgment based on a decision from the Prosecutor v Ongwencase before the International Criminal Court, to display the indeterminacy of judicial decision-making in international criminal law and to demonstrate how greater gender-sensitivity can be achieved at the International Criminal Court through feminist judicial reasoning.