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Law and Vulnerability (LAW-RT-LAWVUL-26)

LAW-RT-LAWVUL-26

Description

What if the legal subject imagined by traditional legal theory—autonomous, self-sufficient, and perfectly rational—were nothing more than a myth that we have mistaken for truth? This course invites us to unsettle that story and rethink law and the way we do research through the lens of vulnerability.
Vulnerability, or what legal theorist Martha Albertson Fineman calls the “primal human condition,” is often positioned in diametric opposition to liberal ideals such as agency and resistance. Through feminist and critical perspectives, this course examines the wellestablished yet often elusive concepts of “vulnerability” and “vulnerable persons”. Drawing from theoretical work on vulnerability, including the work of Fineman, Judith Butler, Adriana Cavarero, and Erinn Gilson on embodiment, precariousness, care, and dependency, we will explore the boundaries and normative limits of vulnerability as a legal frame alongside autonomy and difference. To do so, the course centers around three interconnected blocks: 1) theorizing vulnerability; 2) situating vulnerability within law and jurisprudence; and 3) reflecting on its value as a method for conducting legal research and reconsidering our own scholarly practices.

First, we will begin with a theoretical foundation, tracing the genealogical origins of vulnerability in feminist theories of relationality and the ethics of care, as well as human rights norms and universalism. We will distinguish between definitions of positive versus negative vulnerability, as well as ontological, situational, and particularized vulnerabilities. We will also examine more broadly how the vulnerability framework reshapes our understanding of law itself and its underlying assumptions.

From there, we move from theory to applications, analyzing comparative case studies from human rights bodies and diverse sub-fields of law, including maternality, gender-based violence, environmental law, deprivation of liberty, disability, technology, and poverty. Sessions will engage with the construction of vulnerability in treaties such as the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), as well as its treatment in regional human rights systems. We will also consider the implications of vulnerability for legal adjudication, including shifting the burden of proof, narrowing the margin of appreciation, and visibilizing the need for intersectionality.

Finally, we will examine how vulnerability can be more than an object of study; it can shape the very way we conduct research. We will look at how vulnerability functions not only as a 2 methodology but also as a lens that informs our own roles as researchers. Through this lens, we will examine the dynamics of care, dependency, and power that structure academic work. The seminar is geared toward researchers interested in legal and political theory, feminist and critical jurisprudence, and fundamental rights, but is equally open to those who are eager to question established ways of doing research and the structures of academia itself.

First, Second & Third Term: registration from 21 to 25 September 2026

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