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Divorce Petitions by Trafficked Women Denied: Legal Consciousness, Circuit of Commerce and the State

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2025

Xiangning Xu Open the ORCID record for Xiangning Xu [Opens in a new window]
Xiangning Xu*
Affiliation:
Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
*
Email: xiangning_xu@brown.edu
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Abstract

This paper explores the reasons that divorce petitions by trafficked women in China were denied in courts in the wake of the chained woman incident. The author collected and examined divorce verdicts involving trafficked women from China Judgements Online. Among 100 unique cases, 87 were denied in their first attempts. Most of these cases were treated in the same way as regular divorce cases, with trafficking allegations either blatantly ignored or dismissed as irrelevant. The author argues that the systematic denials and ignoring of trafficking allegations is enabled by a hegemonic legal consciousness within the Circuit of Trafficking that includes not only parties directly engaged in trafficking activities, but also state actors such as the judges and legislators who prioritise “family” preservation and social stability over the rights and well-being of trafficked women. Without addressing and changing this hegemonic legal consciousness, any reform, if it should take place, would be rendered futile in practice.

Keywords

divorce petitiontrafficked womenlegal consciousness
Type
Research Article
Information
Asian Journal of Law and Society , First View , pp. 1 - 18
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Asian Journal of Law and Society

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