Lighting the spark: reimagining the statutory landscape through the feminist legislation project

Over a three-year period, a collaboration of Australian feminist academics has resulted in the ‘feminist legislation’ project. Drawing from the methodologies and approaches of the feminist judgments projects from jurisdictions across the globe and on an international scale, Batagol and Vijeyarasa outline a project that has moved the conversation from the theory to the practice of reimagining and rewriting key laws from a feminist perspective. Like its sister ‘judgement’ projects, this chapter reveals the extent to which the writing of law itself is neither objective nor neutral but rather highly informed by the perspectives of those who write it. The project shows that gender-responsive legislation is an achievable outcome. This chapter offers readers our experiences in writing legally plausible and technically correct laws from a feminist perspective. The ‘feminist legislation’ project’s lessons help us reimagine an Australia where laws are made specifically to benefit, rather than harm, women. These lessons may also prove relevant for comparable jurisdictions, including Canada and New Zealand.