ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the three feminist theorists, namely, Iris Young, Elizabeth Spelman and Carol Gilligan, each of whom presents a challenge to traditional legal concepts by calling into question the soundness of certain assumptions underlying them. It explores the work of Antonio Damasio, a neurologist who demonstrates the importance of body and emotion in the process of reason and judgment. The chapter focuses on how disruptive the claims on behalf of difference and diversity are if lawyers take them seriously. It argues that while lawyers must embrace the demands to attend to difference, they must recognize how deeply they challenge concepts such as impartiality and neutrality, which have been central to the rule of law. It examines the conceptual implications for such traditional notions of Western political and legal thought as impartiality, neutrality and the rule of law.
