At Home in the Law: How the Domestic Violence Revolution Is Transforming Privacy [Hardcover]

Jeannie Suk (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 27, 2009

In the past forty years, the idea of home, which is central to how the law conceives of crime, punishment, and privacy, has changed radically. Legal scholar Jeannie Suk shows how the legitimate goal of legal feminists to protect women from domestic abuse has led to a new and unexpected set of legal practices.

Suk examines case studies of major legal developments in contemporary American law pertaining to domestic violence, self-defense, privacy, sexual autonomy, and property in order to illuminate the changing relation between home and the law. She argues that the growing legal vision that has led to the breakdown of traditional boundaries between public and private space is resulting in a substantial reduction of autonomy and privacy for both women and men.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Jeannie Suk has written an exemplary book that demonstrates law’s humanity while exploring the deep link between law and the humanities.  Her study of the concept of the ‘home’ in law, literature, and social theory is a remarkable contribution to our understanding of the needs and interests of human security.”—Homi K. Bhabha, Anne F. Rothenburg Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University

(Homi K. Bhabha )

“A deeply interesting, original, and also a troubling book.  Jeannie Suk, in a persuasive analysis that calls on cultural as well as legal understanding, shows dramatically how the law has entered the home in unexpected ways.”—Peter Brooks, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Scholar, Princeton University

(Peter Brooks )

About the Author

Jeannie Suk is a professor at Harvard Law School. A former Supreme Court law clerk and Guggenheim Fellow, she studied literature at Yale and Oxford, and law at Harvard.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (October 27, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300113986
• ISBN-13: 978-0300113983
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,977,020 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jeannie Suk, a Guggenheim Fellow, is a law professor at Harvard who specializes in criminal law and family law. Born in Seoul, Korea, she studied at the School of American Ballet and the Juilliard School. She received her B.A. in literature from Yale, and was awarded a Marshall Scholarship to study at Oxford where she received her doctorate in literature. She attended law school at Harvard, and clerked for Justice David Souter on the United States Supreme Court. Her pathbreaking book, At Home in the Law, explains how the law shapes the idea and reality of the home in unexpected ways. She also researches in the areas of art and entertainment law. Her 2009 article, The Law, Culture, and Economics of Fashion (with C. Scott Hemphill), argues in favor of legal protection for fashion design. Her writing has appeared in the Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Wall Street Journal, and Slate. She has been interviewed about her research by Dan Rather for Dan Rather Reports, and by ABC News. (photo credit Nina Subin)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating read for those interested in questions of privacy and of the roles of the state, men, and women in the home November 22, 2009

By M. Wertheim

Format:Hardcover

Despite my not having gone to law school, I still found this to be a fascinating read. Suk examines the roles of the state and of gender in the home, and the evolution of those roles alongside the last few decades of legal reform in the arena of domestic violence. The book is particularly salient in the post-9/11 era, as it also focuses on privacy, and the unintended consequences this area of legal reform has had on privacy. I would highly recommend "At Home in the Law" for anyone who works in fields that deal with domestic violence, or anyone who is interested in the evolution of gender roles and privacy as they pertain to the home.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The legal idea of home is being transformed, and it matters December 11, 2009

By ROROTOKO

Format:Hardcover

"At Home in the Law" is on the ROROTOKO list of cutting-edge intellectual nonfiction. Professor Suk's book interview ran here as cover feature on December 4, 2009.