Letizia Coppo (Research Group 6, UCLy), Anne-Christine Fornage (Lausanne University) and Dragica Vujadinović (University of Belgrade) are issuing a call for papers for the book "Gender as a Cryptotype – Hidden Impacts of Gender on Judicial Decisions and Legislative Policies". They are planning to publish it within the Springer book series “Gender Perspectives in Law”.
Overview and guidelines for contributions to the book “Gender as a cryptotype”
Overview of “Gender as a cryptotype”
Borrowed from linguistics, in comparative law the word cryptotype refers in the legal field to an unexpressed, often unconscious, rule or mental pattern that shapes how legal actors behave, despite not being formally written or spoken. While gender is sometimes the main object of litigation or legislation, in most cases it remains latent, as an implied argument that influences or grounds a certain judicial decision or legal policy. These are the most insidious cases, for it is difficult to assess whether the gender argument is used as a corrective measure to reduce the gender gap (and whether such measure is proportionate or leads to reverse discrimination) or it is the product of a – probably unconscious but deeply rooted – gender bias and entails a discriminatory effect.
Such non-transparency is likely to lead to the non-contestability of the decisions or policies, as the proof of discrimination becomes diabolic. Failing to unearth these underground mechanisms means significantly reducing gender awareness, letting stereotypes-based decisions and policies consolidate, and, consequently, weakening the protection against whatever form of discrimination.
To reduce the mentioned risks an interdisciplinary and international dialogue reveals crucial. Not only a dialogue across disciplines and countries, but also a dialogue among legal traditions, capable of building a bridge between civil law and common law experiences. For that purpose, we invite civil law and common law scholars from any country to send us an original paper in which you analyze a case, a set of linked cases or a field in which significant hints (e.g. statistics disaggregated by gender) suggest that gender may have impliedly influenced the judicial decision or legislative policy. We welcome contributions from all legal fields and branches, including the following:
- 1. Gender as a cryptotype in disputes involving filiation and parenthood
- 2. Gender as a cryptotype in migration, asylum and family reunification disputes
- 3. Gender as a cryptotype in intra-family torts
- 4. Gender as a cryptotype in the protection of vulnerable persons
- 5. Gender as a cryptotype in personality rights disputes
- 6. Gender as a cryptotype in the law of new technologies
- 7. Gender as a cryptotype in consumer protection
- 8. Gender as a cryptotype and the quantification of damages
- 9. Gender as a cryptotype in ADR
- 10. Gender as a cryptotype and legal standards (e.g. reasonable person, average consumer…)
- 11. Gender as a cryptotype and legal excuses (self-defense, state of need, consent…)
- 12. Gender as a cryptotype in crime prevention measures
- 13. Gender as a cryptotype in rape cases
- 14. Gender as a cryptotype in the assessment of evidence (credibility of a witness…)
- 15. Gender as a cryptotype in jury selection and jury litigation techniques
Guidelines for contributing to the book 'Gender as a Cryptotype
Your paper needs to have an abstract (no more than 300 words), keywords (3 to 5), and not more than 35.000 characters of text (without spaces), approximately 16 pages (footnotes and a reference list not included). Your contribution is expected to match strict criteria of the highest academic quality. It should be original unpublished work and not under consideration for publication elsewhere, either in hard copy or online.
On a cover page, please state your full name after the chapter title, add the affiliation, institution and e-mail contact in the first footnote, and send a short CV.
Calendar
The abstract shall be submitted by September 1, 2026;
feedback will be sent until the end of October 2026.
The draft chapters shall be submitted by January 31, 2027.
Reviews will be sent until the end of March 2027.
Revisions are to be completed and sent by July 31, 2027.
The book is scheduled for release in November 2027.
Please send your abstract (up to 300 words with keywords) to the following emails:
The book co-editors: lcoppo@univ-catholyon.fr, dragicav@ius.bg.ac.rs, anne-christine.fornage@unil.ch
Please refer to the email as: Abstract/Article for.
Writing Guidelines
Title of the chapter – Font 16, Times New Roman, Bold
Name and surname of the author – bold, font 12, Times New Roman/s (in the footnote first letter of the
name and surname, below – Institution, below email contact/s)
Contents
In the Contents all titles and subtitles without bold, Time New Roman Font 12.
You will find further writing guidelines in the full document, which can be downloaded below: