JUSTICE BETTY KING: A STUDY OF FEMINIST JUDGING IN ACTION

Our focus in this article is on a lesser-known aspect of Justice King’s judicial life, that is, her sentencing decisions in domestic homicide and domestic violence cases. During the period 2005–15 there were 61 cases in the Victorian Supreme Court (‘VSC’) in which men were convicted of killing a female intimate partner or male sexual rival, and 15 cases in which women were convicted of killing a male intimate partner or female sexual rival, a total of 76 cases. Justice King presided in 13 of these cases – more than double the number of any of her judicial colleagues.9 Although Justice King never, to our knowledge, publicly identified as a feminist, we argue in this article that her sentencing decisions in domestic homicide and domestic violence cases constitute instances of feminist judging.