Law Fellow Professor Jonathan Herring publishes two new books
Professor Jonathan Herring, DM Wolfe-Clarendon Fellow in Law at Exeter, has published two books during Michaelmas term: Domestic Abuse and Human Rights (October 2020) and Women’s Birthing Bodies and the Law: Unauthorised Intimate Examinations, Power and Vulnerability (November 2020).
Domestic Abuse and Human Rights, written by Professor Herring and published by Intersentia, sets out a human rights approach to domestic abuse. It argues that the European Convention on Human Rights provides a powerful framework upon which to build a strong legal response to the problem of domestic abuse. ‘Our relationships are what give meaning to our lives. They are meant to be sources of love, support and comfort. They are meant to build us up, to keep us going when times are tough, to give us meaning beyond ourselves’, Professor Herring writes. ‘Yet in domestic abuse, relationships are used to tear people down, to destroy their sense of self-worth and to coerce them’. Through an exploration of the language of human rights as a legal tool, Herring concludes that human rights can and should be used to tackle domestic abuse.
Professor Herring also edited Women’s Birthing Bodies and the Law: Unauthorised Intimate Examinations, Power and Vulnerability, alongside Camilla Pickles. The book is the first to unpack the legal and ethical issues surrounding unauthorised intimate examinations during labour, and includes contributions from leading feminist philosophers, healthcare professionals, and academics in healthcare and law, including a chapter written by Professor Herring. Issues of power, vulnerability and autonomy are explored, raising important questions about consent and the status of women’s bodies during labour.
More information on Domestic Abuse and Human Rights can be found here.