Introduction to the Symposium on Feminist Approaches to International Law Thirty Years on: Still Alienating Oscar?

Abstract

This symposium explores where feminism has traveled and where it has yet to travel in international law since the groundbreaking 1991 article that Hilary Charlesworth, Christine Chinkin, and Shelley Wright published in the American Journal of International Law , “ Feminist Approaches to International Law. ” 1 Their article emerged following a “ particularly frustrating conference where female voice was notably absent, ” at which point Charlesworth, Chinkin, and Wright “ retired to a pub and scribbled thoughts on a napkin that ultimately became [their 1991 article]. ” 2 At a subsequent meeting of eminent (mostly male) international law scholars, the three feminist co-authors presented this work, which generated a degree of controversy. Charlesworth humorously alludes to the controversy in Alienating Oscar , referring to Oscar Schachter, the preeminent former AJIL editor-in-chief. 3 In fact, as Charlesworth noted, even while Schachter disagreed with some of the analysis that they had advanced, he was curious and encouraging, as was characteristic of him. 4 central authors examined arrangement typical to examine discipline based on the experience of women. By challenging the system, feminist theory could identify possibilities for of international law. 5 The authors queried “ whether ” 6