Feminist Constellations in Legal History

Abstract Astronomers use constellations—groups of named patterns or sets of stars—to map the galaxies around us. More than simply maps of the sky, for centuries constellations and stars within them have enabled us to look into the past, as well as to navigate pathways into the future. So much for space, but what about law? What if legal historians were to look to the constellations? What if legal historians were to apply the tools and techniques of astronomers to feminists’ relationship with law and law reform? What might feminist legal constellations look like? And how might they inform our understandings of law and feminist activism? In this article we outline a new methodology: a feminist constellations approach to legal history. We argue that if feminist legal history is to be truly transformative, it needs to be bolder, and to go further than it does at present. And to do this, it needs to locate feminists and feminist endeavour within feminist constellations in law.