Courtesy of Prof. Thomas Nadelhoffer at Leiter Reports, notice of Martha Nussbaum’s review in The Nation of Catharine MacKinnon’s latest collection of essays and articles, Are Women Human?: And Other International Dialogues. MacKinnon remains one of the most important legal scholars, advocates, and activists of our time. Nussbaum’s favorable review captures much of what has made MacKinnon so compelling and provocative, although I think she fails to make the connection between her observation that MacKinnon is a skilled lawyer and the criticism of "antiessentialism." MacKinnon is playing Samuel Johnson kicking the stone to prove it’s not merely Berkeley’s mental phantom. She’s arguing her case in legalistic, black and white terms to demonstrate that some essences are palpable and therefore unavailable to coy philosophical or theoretical finessing. I just don’t see how this rhetorical strategy–and I don’t mean "rhetorical" to be disparaging–undermines the "antiessentialist" argument. Nussbaum also neglects to mention Andrea Dworkin, who worked closely with MacKinnon on, inter alia, In Harm’s Way. That’s not a serious lapse, of course, but as a writer and activist, Dworkin was at least equally as effective as MacKinnon.
Update: See these remarks regarding Nussbaum’s review by Peter Spiro at Opinio Juris.
Accidental Blogger 
4 responses to “MacKinnon, Women, and International Law (Dean)”
I am looking for these works now. Anything Lady Paul discusses I am interested in reading. Besides, I’ve been reading a lot of fluff lately, I need to get back to something substantive before my brain rots. I have an intellectual sweet tooth.
LikeLike
Hi Matt. Lady Paul actually did not discuss this one – she hasn’t read it either. Dean, our resident librarian posted this book review. May be we’ll hear from someone else who has read the book.
As for reading fluff, that too has its advantage – especially in summer. Currently I am reading a travelogue cum history of Tibet. It isn’t fluff but not too hard on the brain either. A nice book to get me through the Houston heat.
LikeLike
Thanks for the correction! It says “posted by Dean Rowen” right there, I’m very unobservant at times.
I lived in Houston for the first seven years of my life. Heat and traffic…those are my only memories.
LikeLike
Nor have I read the new MacKinnon…yet. Anyway, to appropriate a distinction made by Richard Lanham in his recent book, a review of which I posted earlier, one person’s fluff is another’s stuff. ’nuff said.
LikeLike