Jurisprudence (Ethics and Morality) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Jurisprudence (Ethics and Morality) - Essay Example Kautilya2 an ancient Indian scholar who's Arthasastra is famous for its depiction of instructions and advices to a king clearly required the state to provide for the maintenance of childless women. In his view moral considerations were not to occupy the politics, which should simply concentrate on victory only. The magnum opus Arthasastra fulfils the requirements of twentieth century international law for the recognition of a state. In ancient Rome, pontiffs and their sons were alone empowered to deliver judgements. Only in third century BC some eminent groups like Proculians and Sabinians produced a relevant literature. In the cultural movement during Byzantine Empire in 5th century only Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis was born.3 Feminist jurisprudence is a philosophy based on political, economic and social equality of sexes. This theory is believed to have sprung up in 1960s. Feminists strongly believe that gender is created not by biological difference but by social interpretations. Physical appearances and capacity of reproduction of women, according to them, should be considered as identity factors only. In other areas like psychological, social and moral traits, women are to be treated at par with men. Although feminists have a common ideology of women rights, they are divided among themselves in some basic thoughts. Liberal feminists are staunch in their endeavour of erasing gender-based discriminations in recognised laws against women. Cultural feminists aspire for the recognition of women's moral voice of caring and communal values. Radical feminists strongly object to simply accommodating the physiological and emotional differences of women, but they require a society to construct an equality of sex based on these differences. The practicability of feminist jurisprudence lies in accepting the fact that people live in a patriarchal society. Researchers derive at a conclusion that patriarchy emerged since the advent of agrarian societies; they are of the view that women were enjoying relatively high status in pre-agrarian societies. The role of women in this period is something more than childbearing and caring the family as they shared the production related works with males. (Patrie, 1923) Agrarian production brought importance to ploughs and consequently to males who became the breadwinners of the family and began to posses control over resources. During this era, the might of women in their family administration was tactfully recognised by men within the walls of the family making them feel 'moron' outside their family. First-wave feminism prevailed from nineteenth century up to late 1960,during when abortion and contraception were not the issues handled by the feminists, who involved in political power games behind policy making in the UK and France; they were campaigning in favour of education, employment, marital rights and rights to vote only. They began to think of contraception followed by abortion only after First World War. Feminists in France happened to realise the need for abortion after the Second World War. Technological developments in the aftermath of World War II threw light on use of contraceptives and non-surgical abortion. France still under the strong