The Myth of the Litigious Society: Why We Don't Sue. By David Engel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016.

• Published date: 01 December 2017
• Date: 01 December 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12304

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Unsurprisingly, access to contraception and abortion are sig-

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nificant themes. In rewriting Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479

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(1965), Laura Rosenbury tests the limits of imagination by using

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a sex positive feminist analysis to find a right for women to con-

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trol their reproduction. Such a decision would have heralded a

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different outcome in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), where the

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court again held a constitutional right to privacy in relation to

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abortion. In rewriting this decision, Kimberley Mutcherson con-

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curs with the decision, however, provides an argument based on

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the principle of equal protection and the right to bodily integrity.

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She rejects the trimester framework that established the founda-

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tion for abortion law that continues to exist, presenting a power-

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ful case for a woman’s fundamental right to terminate a

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pregnancy at any stage.

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The last, and most recent, decision is Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S.

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Ct. 2584 (2015), the landmark case deciding that the Constitution

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provides a fundamental right to marriage for same-sex couples. In

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rewriting this decision, Carlos Ball uses a variety of feminist meth-

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odologies to remove the traditional and privileged vision of mar-

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riage articulated in the court’s decision. It draws on the principle of

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equal protection as articulated in Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1

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(1967), another case included in in the collection, that overturned

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the ban on interracial marriage.

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The collection has been published under the Cambridge Uni-

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versity Press Feminist Judgment Series, indicating that we can look

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forward to further feminist judgments publications, including the

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forthcoming (2018) Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Tax Opinions, edited

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by Bridget Crawford and Anthony Infanti.

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The Myth of the Litigious Society: Why We Don’t Sue. By David Engel.

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Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016.

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Reviewed by Ren

ee Ann Cramer, Law, Politics and Society, Drake

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University

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This is a book to be grateful for. It is a joy to teach, and a well-

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argued corrective to previous ways of thinking about responses to

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injury. It is a humane and compassionate text, bringing attention to

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the embodied and emotional experiences of injury, and the role

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that these experiences play in channeling the reactions of those in

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