About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

31 Liverpool L. Rev. 1 (2010)

handle is hein.journals/lvplr31 and id is 1 raw text is: Liverpool Law Rev (2010) 31:1-12
DOI 10.1007/s10991-010-9069-6
Socio-Legal Perspectives on Gender, Sexuality
and Law: Editorial
Chris Ashford
Published online: 29 April 2010
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010
Introduction
This special edition of Liverpool Law Review offers four articles that consider
contemporary issues in Gender, Sexuality and Law. They are united by the socio-
legal approach that they take to a range of global social phenomena and were each
originally presented as part of the Gender, Sexuality and Law stream at the 2009
Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Annual Conference in Leicester. Each
piece highlights the importance of socio-legal approaches to the examination of
gender and sexuality in both domestic and international legal discourses and this
editorial sets forth some of the issues in developing the 'field' of gender, sexuality
within a socio-legal context.
Defining Socio-Legal
Drawing a collection of work under the banner 'socio-legal' is, despite the modern
commonality of the term, not without problems.1 Philip Thomas has described the
difficulties in defining Socio-Legal Studies2 whilst Nelkin has noted the very term
'socio-legal' can be contentious amongst those who prefer the term 'Sociology of
Law'3 and who seek to draw a distinction between the two.4 This distinction, or
boundary, Banakar and Travers argue, is 'an obstacle which hinders the
Cownie (2004a): 51.
2 Thomas (1997).
3 Nelkin (1981). See more generally: Cotterrell (1995).
4 See Travers (2001).
C. Ashford (E)
University of Sunderland, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, UK
e-mail: chris.ashford@sunderland.ac.uk

_ Springer

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most