Access to Law and Justice

Abstract

By Magna Carta, ‘no one would be sold, refused or delayed right or justice. Blackstone’s coverture doctrine denied wives justice, disadvantaging single women, too. Matrimonial Causes Acts meant UK, US, Canadian, Aotearoa/New Zealand and Australian women gained property rights and obligations. As Scutt explains, women wanting loans or credit purchasers had to find male guarantors, yet women were easily persuaded to repay defaulting husbands’ loans. Hence, banks valued wives, taking advantage when women’s signatures became important. Women sought justice for release from financial transactions not explained to them. Some courts constructed ‘special’ laws for wives. Scutt challenges courts’ understandings of women, wives and justice. Women, Scutt observes, must challenge sexist government policies too, like the UK Fawcett Society in 2010, seeking justice through judicial review.