Reframing Evidentiary Reasoning through a Gender Perspective
摘要
The concept of “gender perspective” has gained substantial recognition within the legal sphere. Nonetheless, diverse interpretations exist regarding the specific requirements associated with this perspective in the legal field. This diversity of perspectives is evident across all levels. Notably, within the realm of jurisdiction, there is no unanimous consensus on what employing a gender perspective in judicial proceedings truly entails. This lack of consensus engenders a degree of uncertainty concerning the specific measures that the judiciary must employ to be deemed to fulfil its obligations from a gender perspective. This uncertainty also hinders understanding how a gender perspective contributes to the administration of justice. With this in mind, the primary aim of this paper is to establish a conceptual framework of a gender perspective that can serve as an underlying assumption for exploring its implications in two specific phases of the evidentiary process: the collection of evidence and the admission of evidence. The emphasis on these two stages is motivated by the prevailing literature, which predominantly concentrates on the assessment of evidence, emphasising the influence of gender stereotypes on legal reasoning. Nevertheless, the gender perspective, construed as a concept encompassing aspects beyond the mere identification of gender stereotypes, may be equally pivotal in these earlier stages as it is in the subsequent assessment of evidence.