About my work
As an international expert on social and economic rights with a global reputation as a feminist legal scholar, I research across many areas of law with a focus on equality and discrimination law, comparative constitutional law, and human rights. I have particular expertise on the right to social security and the obligations of the state to address gender disadvantage. My work informs court decisions, law reform and policy development across jurisdictions on issues of gender, poverty and inequality. I engage with community groups to advocate for the rights of social security recipients, including sole parents, at the domestic and international levels. My broad focus on equality has led her to specific projects on topics as diverse as mining, truth commissions, climate change, basic income, child care, disability, menstruation, violence, and most recently, swimming pools!
A memorable win
As legal academics it is exciting to see our work make its way into court decisions. When scholarship is used by judges to support their justifications for legal conclusions it demonstrates that research can translate into real world outcomes that advance the law and justice. Many years ago I co-wrote an article about the right to equality in South Africa’s first democratic constitution. It argued for a transformative understanding of the right that can lead to far-reaching social change. It has been pleasing to see this article re-published in a prestigious collection of feminist legal scholarship and cited 177 times (at last count). It has also been used by judges in the highest courts in India and South Africa to advance constitutional equality rights. The Indian Supreme Court referred to the article in a landmark case that decriminalised homosexual sex, while the South African Constitutional Court cited the article in a leading judgment on the boundaries of affirmative action and another on hate speech. Our work can travel, sometimes unexpectedly, over place and time to impact on people’s lives!
Beth Goldblatt is a Professor in the Faculty of Law and a Visiting Professor in the School of Law at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. With colleagues, Beth established the Faculty’s large and active Feminist Legal Research Group in 2014. She is the inaugural co-chair of the Faculty’s Equity and Diversity Group and sits on the UTS Diversity and Inclusion Implementation Committee. Beth teaches the subject ‘Gender and Law’ which regularly includes prominent speakers from industry, politics and academia. She is also the Internship Program Head for the Faculty sourcing local and international placements for students. Before joining UTS, Beth held research and teaching positions at the University of New South Wales, the University of Sydney and the University of the Witwatersrand. She is an admitted solicitor in South Africa.