The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act (Title IV of that act – Rape Survivor Custody Act)
Background:
The law I will be telling you about is The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act (Title IV of that act – Rape Survivor Custody Act). This law has helped benefit society as well as our law system. This law states mothers of children conceived through rape to seek termination of parental rights of their rapists. The Justice for Victims Trafficking Act is a Procedural law and was put into in 2015 by the Federal Government.
It is a procedural law since this law includes legitimate guidelines administering the debate settlement process. This additionally connects to substantive law which enables rights and obligations to be authorized and protected. This law falls inside this type of law since this law must be taken care of in stages and has legitimate guidelines that should be viewed as when choosing a result. Currently, this law does not affect Canada because it has not been introduced here yet, but it benefits many Americans who have been a victim of trafficking as well as sexual assault. In America, multiple studies have been conducted and estimate that there are between 17,000 and 32,000 rape-related pregnancies in the United States each year.[1]The victims of the following rape-related pregnancies have the chance to completely terminate their rapist parental rights. This gives these victims a chance to completely get past the trauma that they have been through and giving them a chance to start a new life without a part of their past following them.
Lens:
The legal lens that I would like to apply to this law is the Feminist Jurisprudence Theory. According to the Legal Information Institute Feminist Jurisprudence Theory is defined as, “Feminist jurisprudence is a philosophy of law based on the political, economic, and social equality of sexes. It now holds a significant place in U.S. law and legal thought and influences many debates on sexual and domestic violence, inequality in the workplace, and gender-based discrimination”[2]. This legal lens believes in getting equal rights for all individuals in the face of the law. According to the feminist Jurisprudence of Philosophy, Feminist Theory believes in equality and rights among the law and to the individuals who are managing the law. The feminist hypothesis rases inquiries regarding what comprehension of correspondence will give a sufficient establishing to the idea of rights, with the end goal that ladies’ privileges can secure both their individual freedom and their way of life as female?[3] The main goal of this lens is to treat everyone equally in the eyes of the law and to get rid of gender bias against judges and courtrooms. The theory asks these questions so that our legal system can have laws that are equal to all genders and to make sure that people are deciding their outcome. As well, this theory recommends that our courtrooms take gender bias completely out of their decisions and focus specifically on the side of the cases that they are working on. This way, all decisions are based on facts of the case and not on gender rights and what they think should happen based on the person’s gender. The Feminist Jurisprudence Theory is part of making our legal system equal and fair to those it serves.
Applying the Lens:
This law is advancing female rights and has a positive outcome on the victims that are involved. A legal scholar using the Feminist Jurisprudence Lens would view this law as a step in the right direction for advancing women’s rights. One reason why I believe that a scholar looking at this article would view it as an advancement in women’s rights is because of how this law is letting the female victims are making their own choices. The female victim is choosing to terminate the rights of the father. Before, the rapist had full parental rights of the child and had equal say in the child’s future. Now, the mother has the full say of if the rapist has parental rights. This law shows that the law is putting the woman’s choice first and advance women’s rights. This proves that a legal scholar using this lens to look at the law would see it as a step in the right direction for advancing women’s rights due to the victim making their own decisions. Another reason is that this law is slowly being instituted in more states and countries. This shows that more women are getting to express their rights as they are able to make their own decisions. Thousands of victims are getting chose for themselves in open court rather than the law choosing for them. This proves that a legal scholar using this lens to look at the law would see it as a step in the right direction and advancing women’s rights due to it being instated into more states. I believe that a legal scholar using the Feminist Jurisprudence Lens would view this law as a step in the right direction for advancing women’s rights and letting them have the choice in their situation.
References
- “Feminist Jurisprudence”. 2019. LII / Legal Information Institute. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/feminist_jurisprudence.
- “Feminist Jurisprudence | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy”. 2019. Iep.Utm.Edu. https://www.iep.utm.edu/jurisfem/.
- “Parental Rights and Sexual Assault”. 2019. Ncsl.Org. http://www.ncsl.org/research/human-services/parental-rights-and-sexual-assault.aspx.
- “Procedural Law | The Canadian Encyclopedia”. 2019. Thecanadianencyclopedia.Ca. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/procedural-law.
[1] “Parental Rights and Sexual Assault”. 2019. Ncsl.Org. http://www.ncsl.org/research/human-services/parental-rights-and-sexual-assault.aspx.
[2] “Feminist Jurisprudence”. 2019. LII / Legal Information Institute. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/feminist_jurisprudence.
[3] “Feminist Jurisprudence | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy”. 2019. Iep.Utm.Edu. https://www.iep.utm.edu/jurisfem/.
