The Wife as Legal Subject in Equity and Commercial Law

For a more detailed discussion of the legal position of married women see Holcombe Lee , Wives and Property, University of Toronto Press, 1983; Shanley M. , Feminism Marriage and the Law in Victorian England 1850–1895, Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ, 1989; Yalom M. , A History of the Wife, Pandora, London, 2001.

Holcombe , above, ref 1.

Holcombe , above, ref 1, p.30.

Pateman Carole , The Sexual Contract, Polity, Cambridge, 1988, p.123.

This position was somewhat eased by the Infant Custody Act of 1839.

Unless the children were illegitimate then a wife not only had custody but a legal duty to maintain that child.

Auchmuty Rosemary , ‘The Fiction of Equity’, in Scott-Hunt Susan and Lim Hilary , Feminist Perspectives on Equity and Trusts, Cavendish, London, 2001.

Conway Maggie , ‘Equity's Darling?’ in Scott-Hunt and Lim , Feminist Perspectives on Equity and Trusts, above, p.43.

Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, leading campaigner in the married women's property campaigns quoted in Auchmuty , above, p.14.

Conway , above, ref 8, p.45.

Ridge Pauline , ‘High Hopes: The Meaning and Merits of Unconscionability as the Rationale for the High Court's Decision in Garcia v National Australia Bank Ltd’, National Law Review <www.nir.com.au>.

Ridge , above, ref 11, p.3.

Mackenzie Robin , ‘Beauty and the Beastly Bank: What Should Equity's Fairy Wand Do?’ in Bottomley Anne (ed), Feminist Perspectives on the Foundational Subjects of Law, Cavendish, London, 1996, p.160.

Mackenzie , above, ref 13, p.162.

Australian Law Reform Commission, ‘Equality Before the law: Women's Equality’, ALRC Report No 69, Pt II, 1994, 13.29.

Fehlberg Belinda , ‘Women in ‘Family’ Companies: English and Australian Experiences’, (1997) 15 Companies and Securities Law Journal 348.

Fehlberg , ‘Women in Family Companies’, above, ref 16, p.364.

Fehlberg , ‘Women in Family Companies’, above, ref 16, p.356.

Fehlberg Belinda , Sexually Transmitted Debt: Surety Experience and English Law Clarendon Press Oxford, 1997.

Fehlberg , Sexually Transmitted Debt, above, ref 19, p.173.

Fehlberg , Sexually Transmitted Debt, above, ref 19, p.182.

Fehlberg , Sexually Transmitted Debt, above, ref 19, pp.37–42.

Haig and Hepburn have argued in ‘The Bank Manager Always Rings Twice: Stereotyping in Equity After Garcia’ (2000) 26 Monash University Law Review 275 that despite the stereotyping, the Garcia principle is useful because it provides the much needed protection.

Naffine N. , Law and the Sexes: Explorations in Feminist Jurisprudence, Allen and Unwin, Sydney 1990, p.22.

Naffine , Law and the Sexes, above, ref 24, p.23.

Spender Peta , ‘Women and the Epistemology of Corporations Law’, (1996) 6 Legal Education Review 196–7.

Bottomley Anne , ‘Women and Trust(s): Portraying the Family in the Gallery of Law’ in Bright Susan and Dewar John , Land Law Themes and Perspectives, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1998, p.219.

Otto Dianne , ‘Women's Inequality’, (1992) 18 Melbourne University Law Review.

Otto , above, ref 28, p.816.

Otto , above, ref 28, p.816.

Otto , above, ref 28, p.811.

Otto , above, ref 28, p.812.

Otto , above, ref 28, p.809.

Auchmuty , above, ref 7, p.18.

Mackenzie , above, ref 13, p.167.

Mackenzie , above, ref 13, p.166–7.

Mackenzie , above, ref 13, p.168.

Warner , quoted in Mackenzie , above, ref 13, p.171.

Bottomley , above, ref 27, p.228.