The law is sexless. If so, why is it a man?

  • The law is sexless. If so, why is it a man?

    Daniel Knorr, \"Stolen History\", collection of Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw

Interview with professor Monika Płatek, criminal law specialist, lecturer at the University of Warsaw, concerning the “gender”, egalitarian dimension of law, as well as the legal male domination in the making of the law, in teaching it and in enforcing it.

We will also talk about the smash of a legal state, where law is based on the constitutional principle of the neutrality of the state and its independence of the institution of the Catholic Church (and churches of other denominations) in light of the reports from meetings of the Joint Commission of the Government and Polish Bishops of 2012, disclosed owing to the activeness of Professor Płatek (the reports of 2013 are still unavailable).

What relation emerges from the records? How is presented the attitude of the Polish state towards education, violence against women and children or equal rights in partner relationships?

How to assess the activity of the Criminal Law Committee to the Minister of Justice? Does the Polish statutory law drift towards religious law, does the Polish legal practice (prosecutors’ behaviours, e.g. in rape cases) literally depart from the spirit of the applicable law in the direction of confessional environments’ expectations? Why does Poland need a transparent lecture on law? Will the law take the side of victims of violence or will it defend the ideological model of male domination, preserved and defended by the Church in the name of its own particular interests?
 

Monika Płatek – Polish university lecturer, feminist. PhD. in legal sciences, associate professor at the University of Warsaw, author of the “Jak z Płatka” blog at feministka.org, founder (1994) and long-time president of the Polish Association for Legal Education. Member of the program council of the Panoptykon foundation. Former legal representative of the Advocate for Civil Rights of the victims of violence (2002-2006) and expert on legal committees of the Sejm, Open Society Institute and the Council of Europe. In 2012 awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.

Roman Kurkiewicz - journalist, editor, activist. Author of two books with feature articles from the Przekrój weekly: "Lewomyślnie" (Krytyka Polityczna, 2011), "Klapsy polskie" (Iskry, 2009). Between 2006 and 2010 – author of the weekly broadcast: “Pod tytułem, program o książkach i czytaniu”, twice – editor of the “Przekrój” weekly.

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