| Summary: | In recent years, feminist theory has turned its critical gaze to international law. By challenging
the objectivity, neutrality and universality of international law, feminist international law
theory offers a new way of thinking about the discipline.
Feminist international law theory raises numerous questions not only about the male-centered
discipline of international law, but also the scope and nature of its own feminist method. In
this thesis, I situate feminist international legal theory in the context of developments within
feminist theory generally, which demonstrate the need to ground feminist analysis in the
particular experiences of different women. I consider the ways in which feminist international
law theory employs theoretical constructs which generalize and essentialize women's
experience of oppression along Western lines. By exploring the emphasis in this literature on
the public/private divide and sovereignty, I demonstrate the ways in which gender is
constructed as the principal site of oppression, missing the complex systems of oppression
with which women interact including race/ethnicity, patriarchy, and nationalism.
The mass rape of Muslim women in Bosnia-Herzegovina is presented as a case-study for
understanding women's complex experiences of oppression and the implications this has for
feminist international law theory. During war, different discourses, including law, converge to
define particular gender identities, national character and dominant values. International
humanitarian law defines how the international community views wartime rape and violence
against women. Incorporating dominant ideologies about women, war and rape, international humanitarian law regulates, rather than prohibits, rape. In the context of mass rape in Bosnia-
Herzegovina, the applicable international law framework is limited in application to rapes
defined as an attack on a community rather than an act of violence against women. Violence
against women is constructed as unfortunate but unavoidable.
The example of wartime rape demonstrates international law's role in defining and reinforcing
gender ideologies. While I conclude that feminist international law theory must continue the
project of challenging international law, it must do so from an informed position about
international law's complicity in women's global oppression. === Law, Peter A. Allard School of === Graduate
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