Male-dominated law and legal knowledge essentially characterized the whole of pre-modern history in that the patriarchy represented the axis of social relations in both the private and public spheres. Indeed, modern and even contemporary law still have embedded elements of patriarchal heritage, even in the secular modern legal systems of Western developed countries, either within the content of legislation or in terms of its implementation and interpretation. This is true to a greater or lesser extent across legal systems, although the secular modern legal systems of the Western developed countries have made great advances in terms of gender equality. The traditional understanding of law has always been self-evidently dominated by men, but modern law and its understanding have also been more or less "malestreamed." Therefore, it has become necessary to overcome the given "maskulinity" of legal thought. In contemporary legal and political orders, gender mainstreaming of law has been of the utmost importance for overcoming deeply and persistently embedded power relations and gender-based, unequal social relations. At the same time and equally importantly, the gender mainstreaming of legal education - to which this book aims to contribute - can help to gradually eliminate this male dominance and accompanying power relations from legal education and higher education as a whole. This open access textbook provides an overview of gender issues in all areas of law, including sociological, historical and methodological issues. Written for students and teachers around the globe, it is intended to provide both a general overview and in-depth knowledge in the individual areas of law. Relevant court decisions and case studies are supplied throughout the book.

Dragica Vujadinovic is Full Professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Belgrade, teaching Political Theories, Gender Studies, Introduction to the Political System of the EU; she is also Head of Master in European Integration and the coordinator of the Erasmus+ project entitled: New Quality in Education for Gender Equality - Strategic Partnership for the Development of Master's Study program "Law and Gender" - LAWGEM. Mareike Fröhlich is a post-doc research associate at the Europa-Institut of Saarland and associated to the Jean Monnet Chair on EU Constitutional Framework for International Dispute Settlement and Rule of Law. She researches and teaches mainly in the field of European and International Economic Law as well as EU External Relations and EU Enlargement Policy. She is also Head of International Projects and Cooperation at the Europa-Institut.Thomas Giegerich is Director of the Europa-Institut, Professor of European Law, Public International Law and Public Law at Saarland University/Germany as well as holder of the Jean Monnet Chair for European Integration, Antidiscrimination, Human Rights and Diversity (2017-2020). His main fields of research are European Law (EU Constitutional Law, Fundamental Rights, Antidiscrimination Law) and Public International Law, particularly International Human Rights Law.