ABSTRACT

Chapter 15 is on Martha Albertson Fineman’s article ‘The Vulnerable Subject: Anchoring Equality in the Human Condition’. In this chapter, Ellen Gordon-Bouvier explores the nature of Fineman’s theory of universal vulnerability, its significance for law and social justice scholarship. Fineman’s vulnerability theory has had enormous influence among law and social justice scholars over the past decade, with numerous symposiums and conference streams being dedicated to the consideration of different aspects of vulnerability, many of these organised by the ‘Vulnerability and the Human Condition’ initiative based at Fineman’s home institution, Emory University, Georgia, US. This chapter explores the nature of Fineman’s theory of universal vulnerability, its significance for law and social justice scholarship, as well as detailing how other scholars have developed parts of the theory in different directions. The chapter draws not only on Fineman’s 2008 article, but also charts how she has developed and refined vulnerability theory through subsequent works.