Throughout Europe, legislation on sexual crimes is going through remarkable reforms. Following the increasing attention to sexism and gender-based violence, notably in the wake of the #MeToo movement, the scope of transgressive behavior sanctioned by criminal law is widening. One such example is rape law: over the past four years, nine European countries have moved from coercion-based to consent-based rape law. Street harassment is another example: it was for long regarded as a form of undesirable, yet legal behaviour, but in 2014, the first European ban on street harassment was introduced in Brussels. Since then, laws and local ordinances have been introduced in various European countries, notably in France, Portugal, The Netherlands and Britain. Another recent extension of legislation on sexual crimes relates to online sexual crimes, enabled by technological change.
These developments are taking place throughout Europe. However, notable differences exist when it comes to the details of legal reform as well as their framing of the underlying problem. These differences relate to differences in how gender-based violence has been politicized in each country, varying degrees to which the women’s movement was involved in these reforms, and the ideological orientation of the governments initiating reform. In the midst of these recent and ongoing reforms, urgent questions to be addressed are:
- What are recent and impending legal reforms of sexual gender-based violence in Europe?
- How do lawmakers frame the problem they are trying to address?
- What are the concrete effects of this legislative innovation in different European countries?
- What explains the emergence of new gender-based violence regulation in Europe?
- What explains similarities and differences in content, framing and effects of legal reform?
Our two-day workshop aims to contribute to a collective and comparative reflection on these questions from various disciplines, notably sociology, political sciences, anthropology, and law. The workshop will have a maximum of ten participants. Participants commit to distributing their papers at least 2 weeks before the start of the workshop. During the workshop participants will provide feedback on each other’s papers. There will also be ample time for more informal networking.
Program
| Sunday 15 October 2023 | |
| Afternoon + evening | Arrival participants + informal meet-up |
| Monday 16 October 2023 | |
| 9.30 – 16.30 | Workshopping of papers, lunch, workshopping of papers |
| 20.30 – 23.00 | Workshop dinner |
| Tuesday 17 October 2023 | |
| 10.00 – 15.30 | Workshopping of papers, lunch, workshopping of papers |
| 16.00 – 17.30 | Public round table |
Costs
Travel costs and accommodation need to be arranged for by the participants themselves. Costs for lunch and dinner will be covered by the workshop organizers.
Deadline Abstracts
Please send your abstract (400 words) and a short biographical note (150 words) before 15 June 2023 to h.horii@law.leidenuniv.nl. We will inform you of our selection by 5 July 2023.
Organizers & Committee Members
Annelien Bouland (Social Sciences Department, Universidad Carlos III Madrid)
Helena Soleto Muñoz (Universidad Carlos III Madrid)
Mischa Dekker (Faculty of Social Sciences, KU Leuven, Belgium)
Hoko Horii (VanVollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Society (VVI), Leiden Law School, the Netherlands)
María Bustelo (Universidad Complutense Madrid)
Magdalena Díaz-Gorfinkiel (Social Sciences Department, Universidad Carlos III Madrid)
Hoko Horii 