The Oxford Handbook of Women and International Law

The Oxford Handbook of Women and International Law interrogates women's interrelationship with international law's institutions, norms, and theoretical approaches. Women have made tremendous strides in international law by contributing to its development and application; wielding power as representatives and leaders in international organizations; and serving as judges, legal experts, and leaders of non-governmental organizations pushing the law in new directions. Yet, as this Handbook demonstrates, full equality remains elusive while new threats emerge. Climate change, the rise in nationalism, and anti-gender ideology pose serious challenges to multilateral institutions and norms that protect and empower women. Featuring diverse and interdisciplinary contributions from across the globe by leading scholars, international judges, and legal practitioners, this Handbook explores the ways in which international law might meet its unmet potential for achieving gender equality for women and girls, in all their diversity, and counter these emerging challenges. All the while, the book wrestles with both who "women" are and the extent to which international law's norms and institutions are effective and worthwhile spaces for emancipatory change.

J. Jarpa Dawuni is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Howard University and the Executive Director of the Institute for African Women in Law. She is the Founding Director of the Howard University Center for Women, Gender, and Global Leadership and Program Director for the Minor in Women, Gender, and Sexualities Studies. Professor Dawuni has held several prestigious fellowships, including two Fulbright Specialist Scholarships, the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship, and a Salzburg Global Fellowship. Nienke Grossman, a Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law, co-directs its Center for International and Comparative Law and serves on the OAS Inter-American Juridical Committee. She has held leadership roles at the American Society of International Law, served on an independent panel evaluating candidates for the Inter-American Human Rights System, and advised the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the DPRK and states litigating before the ICJ. Grossman has published widely on feminist approaches to international law. Jaya Ramji-Nogales is Associate Dean for Research and the I. Herman Stern Research Professor at Temple Law School. Professor Ramji-Nogales is a Counsellor of the American Society of International Law and a member of the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law. She has published extensively on global migration law. Hélène Ruiz Fabri is a Professor at the Sorbonne Law School, returning after a nine-year secondment as Director of the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for Procedural Law. She is a Member of the Institute of International Law, former General Editor of the Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law (OUP), and a former President of the European Society of International Law. Professor Ruiz Fabri holds the CNRS Silver Medal for excellence in scientific research. She also has experience in legal practice.