Palestinian Women and Housing Laws in Israel: A Case Study of Legal and Epistemic Injustice

Authors

Yael Cohen-Rimer, Harvard Law School

Abstract

This Article is built on a legal metaphor. In criminal law, we discuss whether an actor has the mens rea for a crime. I argue in this paper that judicial review of cases related to rights infringements involve a similar inquiry. In applying discrimination laws, courts actually, though sometimes not explicitly, search for anything between intent and awareness. In administrative law, courts search for indications of the negligence of the administrator. I use the test case of Palestinian women and Israeli housing aid rules to show where these legal practices fall short in treating the core problem. I analyze this situation and extrapolate from it to claim that in situations of the intersectionality of gender and socio-economic status within minority groups, epistemic injustice is unavoidable. I suggest in this paper that we borrow the strict or absolute liability framework from other areas of the law and apply it to situations in which individuals within minority groups are not given access to certain benefits or rights.

Keywords

Judicial Review, Poverty, Palestinian Women, Discrimination, Evidence-Based Legislation

Disciplines

Comparative and Foreign Law | Housing Law | Human Rights Law | International Law | Law

Recommended Citation

Yael Cohen-Rimer, Palestinian Women and Housing Laws in Israel: A Case Study of Legal and Epistemic Injustice, 6 Cardozo Int’l & Compar. L. Rev. 349 (2023).
Available at: https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/ciclr/vol6/iss2/2