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PALGRAVE SOCIO-LEGAL STUDIES
Relational
Vulnerability
Theory, Law and the
Private Family
Ellen Gordon-Bouvier
Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies
Series Editor
Dave Cowan
School of Law
University of Bristol
Bristol, UK
The Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies series is a developing series of monographs
and textbooks featuring cutting edge work which, in the best tradition of
socio-legal studies, reach out to a wide international audience.
Editorial Board
Dame Hazel Genn, University College London, UK
Fiona Haines, University of Melbourne, Australia
Herbert Kritzer, University of Minnesota, USA
Linda Mulcahy, University of Oxford, UK
Rosemary Hunter, University of Kent
Carl Stychin, University of London, UK
Mariana Valverde, University of Toronto, Canada
Sally Wheeler, Australian National University College of Law, Australia.
Relational
Vulnerability
Theory, Law and the Private Family
Ellen Gordon-Bouvier
School of Law
Oxford Brookes University
Oxford, UK
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland
AG 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse
of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and
transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar
or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
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claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
For my family
Acknowledgements
This book builds on and develops the research that I carried out for my Ph.D.
at the University of Birmingham. My supervisor, Rosie Harding, provided me
with invaluable support and guidance and I remain very grateful to her for
this and to my examiners, Anne Barlow and Lisa Webley for their helpful
comments on how my research could be taken forward.
I also want to thank my colleagues at Oxford Brookes University for their
support and friendship when writing this book. Thanks to various conversa-
tions and discussions, I have been able to develop and refine many of the ideas
in this book. In particular, I want to thank Lucy Vickers, Peter Edge, Beverley
Clack, Chris Lloyd, Scott Morrison, Tobi Kliem, Aravind Ganesh, Yue Ang,
Sonia Morano-Foadi, and Chara Bakalis for the helpful conversations that I
have had with them about my research. I also want to thank the members of
the Centre for Diversity Policy Research and Practice for inviting me to their
events and lunches, especially Anne Laure Humbert, Heather Griffiths, Kate
Clayton-Hathaway, Alexis Still, and Meike Tyrrell.
I received some very helpful feedback on the ideas that formed the basis of
this book at the SLSA conference in 2019 in a vulnerability-themed stream
organised by Jess Mant, Roxanna Dehaghani, and Daniel Newman from
Cardiff University. I have also had useful discussions about vulnerability with
Fae Garland, Jane Krishnadas, Donna Crowe-Urbaniak, and Anna Heenan,
prompting me to think about new angles to some of the issues raised in the
book.
vii
viii Acknowledgements
I had been due to spend three weeks as a visiting scholar at the Vulner-
ability and Human Condition Initiative at Emory University in April 2020.
Sadly, the COVID-19 pandemic prevented this from going ahead. However, I
would like to thank the members of the Initiative, especially Martha Fineman
and Mangala Kanayson, for their help and assistance with organising the visit.
As I hopefully make clear in this book, Professor Fineman’s work has inspired
me hugely, and I hope to be able to visit Emory at some point in the future.
Finally, I am very grateful to the series editor, Dave Cowan, for his helpful
and incredibly constructive comments on draft book proposals, and the edito-
rial support that I have received from Palgrave Macmillan, especially from
Josie Taylor and Liam Inscoe-Jones.
Ellen Gordon-Bouvier
Contents
ix
x Contents
Index 199
Table of Cases
xiii
xiv Table of Cases
Canadian Cases
Lac Minerals v Corona [1989] 2 SCR 574
Pettkus v Becker [1980] 2 SCR 834
Rawluk v Rawluk [1990] 1 SCR 70
Table of Cases xv
Australian Cases
Muschinski v Dodds [1985] 160 CLR 583
Baumgartner v Baumgartner [1967] 164 CLR 137
West v Mead [2003] NSWSC 161
Table of Legislation
Scotland
Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006
South Africa
Matrimonial Property Act No. 88 of 1984
xvii
1
Introducing Relational Vulnerability
Over the past decade, a new discourse of human vulnerability has emerged
in socio-legal and critical studies, providing a novel lens through which
to analyse law and state policy. This ‘vulnerability-theory’ is rooted in the
notion that, as humans, we all share an inherent vulnerability that is ulti-
mately grounded in our embodied nature. As the theory’s leading proponent,
Professor Martha Fineman (2008, p. 9) argues, the human condition is
susceptible to “the ever-present possibility of harm and injury from mildly
unfortunate to catastrophically devastating events”. As a result of our embod-
iment, Fineman (2017, p. 134) asserts that we are also “dependent upon,
and embedded within, social relationships and institutions throughout the
life course”. Being vulnerable, Fineman argues, is a constant and unavoid-
able state and, try as we might, we can no more escape being vulnerable than
we can escape our own bodies. Therefore, the theory does not seek to elim-
inate vulnerability (because such a thing would be impossible), but instead
calls for a more responsive and engaged state, one that will acknowledge the
reality of the embodied and embedded human condition and, through its
various institutions, provide the resources, or resilience, necessary to reduce
the risk of harm, rather than its current practice of stigmatising dependency,
regarding it as a failure to attain autonomous personhood (Fineman 2010).
It is difficult to do justice in relatively few words to the full impact that this
‘vulnerability-turn’ has had on legal scholarship, both in the UK and glob-
ally. The past five Law and Society Association annual meetings have featured
numerous paper sessions and roundtable discussions centred around vulner-
ability. Fineman’s own Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative
1 Inthis book, I use neoliberalism as a loose term to describe the prevalence of state policies that
promote personal responsibility, market freedom, and individual economic self-sufficiency (see Harvey
2007). Neoliberal policies are based on the classic liberal theories of personhood that I discuss
throughout the book.
1 Introducing Relational Vulnerability 3
Recognises that it and the institutions it brings into being through law are
the mean and mechanisms whereby individuals accumulate the resilience
or resources that they need to confront the social, material and practical
implications of vulnerability (Fineman 2013, p. 17)
1 Introducing Relational Vulnerability 5
The idea of the responsive state represents a radical departure from the liberal
models of law and citizenship that regard state power as potentially harmful to
the expression of individual autonomy (see, e.g., Mill 1869). Liberal theories
idealise a minimalist or ‘night-watchman’ state, whose role is restricted to
upholding individual freedoms but does not seek to interfere further into
the lives of its citizens (Nozick 1974). Yet, it is this restraint that has led to
substantial societal inequality, with those who are unable to live up to the
self-sufficient ideal being blamed for what is in fact an inevitable part of the
human condition.
While the universal model refutes the idea of varying degrees of vulner-
ability (in the sense that some individuals or groups are more vulnerable
than others), it very clearly recognises that not all individuals experience their
inherent embodied vulnerability the same way. This, Fineman (2010) argues,
is not due to differences in levels of vulnerability, but rather the degree of
resilience (i.e., the ability to withstand the impacts of vulnerability) that an
individual possesses. I will return to the concept of resilience in more detail
in Chapter 6 but, broadly, the universal thesis conceives of it as encompassing
access to a range of resources controlled by the state and its institutions,
including material wealth, social networks, as well as environmental assets
(Fineman 2013, pp. 22–23). Resilience is inherently relational, with the indi-
vidual’s experience of the embodied condition being directly influenced by
her place within institutional and interpersonal structures (Fineman 2014;
Lewis and Thomson 2019).
»Mutta isä…»
»Mitä?»
»Kolmekymmentä viisi vuotta sitten», alkoi isä Pifferi, »ei pyhä isä
uneksinutkaan tulevansa milloinkaan paaviksi. Hän oli erään
roomalaisen pankkiirin ainoa lapsi ja asui palatsissa tuolla
vastapäätä piazzaa. Vanha paroni tosin toivoi rikkauksiensa avulla
kasvattavansa pojastaan korkean kirkonmiehen, mutta nuo toiveet
olivat turhia eikä nuori mies kannattanut niitä. Hän ei pyrkinyt
korkeaan hengelliseen asemaan, vaan maalliseen. Hän tahtoi ruveta
sotilaaksi, ja kulkeakseen hiukan keskitietä hän pyrki paavin
ylimyskaartiin.»
»Sitten seurasi pitkä juttu. Vanha paroni kuoli, ja nuori munkki peri
ruhtinaallisen omaisuuden. Jonkun ajan perästä hänet vihittiin
papiksi. Hänen ensimmäinen työnsä oli hoitokodin perustaminen
Roomaan orporaukkoja varten. Hän kulki kaduilla hakemassa heitä
ja kantoi heitä omin käsin kotiinsa. Hänen maineensa hyväntekijänä
kasvoi nopeasti, mutta hän tiesi vallan hyvin, miksi hän noin
menetteli. Hän haki pientä, isätöntä poikaa, jonka suonissa virtasi
hänen verensä ja jolla oli hänen nimensä.»
»Viisi vuotta kului, ja lopulta hän pääsi pojan jäljille ja sai selvän,
että hänet oli lähetetty Englantiin. Onneton isä pyysi siirtoa
Lontooseen. Siellä hän teki samanlaista työtä kuin täälläkin ja käytti
suuren omaisuutensa samaan tarkoitukseen. Viisi vuotta hän vielä
turhaan haki kadonnutta lastaan, etsien häntä yöt ja päivät pienten
poikasten joukosta, jotka soittivat posetiivia kaduilla. Mutta sitten hän
luopui toivosta ja palasi Roomaan. Hänen päänsä oli valkoinen ja
hänen sydämensä nöyrä, mutta huolimatta hänen omasta
tahdostaan hän nousi arvosta arvoon, kunnes vihdoin vanhan
paronin ylpeimmät unelmat täyttyivät. Suuren armeliaisuutensa ja
vielä suuremman hurskautensa tähden hänet nimitettiin piispaksi,
sitten seitsemän vuoden perästä kardinaaliksi ja nyt hän on paavi
Pius kymmenes, pyhimys, kansansa pelastaja, tuo entinen
myrskyjen runtelema, surujen sortama mies…»
»Davido Leone?»
»Pyhä isä», sanoi Roma, »olen jo kertonut hänelle. Olin sen tehnyt
jo ennenkuin puhuin isä Pifferin kanssa, mutta ainoastaan toisten
nimien varjon alla.»
Pilvi peitti Roman kasvot. »Pyhä isä, hän ei ole vielä vastannut
mitään.»
»Eikö mitään?»
»Että kirjeeni synnyttivät hänessä sääliä, mutta nyt, kun hän tietää,
että minä olen se vaimo ja hän se aviomies, joista puhuin, hän ei voi
antaa minulle anteeksi, kuten hän sanoi aviomiehen tekevän, ja
hänen jalomielinen sielunsa tuntee tuskaa.»
»Kyllä, kyllä!»
»Ah!»
»Sitten tuo toinen tuli takaisin luokseni. Minä tiesin nyt kaikki ne
salaisuudet, joita olin lähtenyt urkkimaan, mutta minä en tahtonut
niitä ilmaista, ja kun kieltäydyin, uhkasi hän minua.»
»Voi, hän ansaitsee sen kyllä», sanoi Roma. Hän tuskin saattoi
pidättää itkuaan. Paavin ääni, kun hän puhui rakkaudesta, oli
muistuttanut hyvin paljon erästä toista ääntä, joka pani hänet
värisemään.
»Vapaamielinen, niinkö?»
»En ole koskaan nähnyt ketään niin pyhän isän näköistä kuin
hän», sanoi
Roma vienosti.