Courting Gender Justice

An authoritative, rich, and vivid account of the challenges to fighting gender discrimination in Russian courts and in the European Court of Human Rights. The authors lay out the long and difficult trajectory that awaits gender discrimination cases as they wend their way through Russian courts and occasionally to the ECtHR- whose judges have also been reluctant to confront the issue-and make deft use of comparisons, both with Russian litigation on LGBT cases, and LGBT and gender discrimination cases from Turkey. The result is impressive indeed. * Peter H. Solomon, University of Toronto * Courting Gender Justice is a truly remarkable book. It is both a hopeful book that points to successful legal strategies, and a devastating account of widespread discrimination. It is one of those rare books that not only challenges your thinking, but also changes how you think about courts and legal mobilization. * Mikael Rask Madsen, University of Copenhagen * The European Court of Human Rights is often portrayed as an institution in crisis, a victim of its own success collapsing under its caseload. Refreshingly, this book tells the story of an overlooked crisis: women are struggling to find a path to the Court in order to have complaints of gender discrimination heard. The authors chart in meticulous, eye-opening detail the many obstacles that women in Russia and Turkey have to overcome in the pursuit of gender justice. It's an important read for anyone interested in women's rights and international human rights law. * Loveday Hodson, University of Leicester * Courting Gender Justice is a beacon for one of the most salient legal issues of our time. Moving seamlessly between domestic and international legal and political analysis, it provides a playbook for the pitfalls and successes of utilizing courts for legal change. Case studies of litigation strategies in Turkey, Russia, and the ECtHR are a treasure trove of comparative analysis across legal domains and jurisdictions. This book is essential reading for scholars, practitioners, and activists mobilizing to eliminate gender discrimination in Europe today. * Rachel A. Cichowski, University of Washington *