The Chief Justice of South Australia has hit back at an attack from author and women’s rights activist JK Rowling, who accused the courts of “state-sanctioned abuse” by endorsing the use of preferred gender pronouns among parties to a case.
The author and women’s rights campaigner late last week retweeted an article published in The Australian that referred to an edict issued by Chief Justice Chris Kourakis, saying it was a “matter of respect” to address parties by their chosen pronouns, and integral to “ensuring public confidence in the proper administration of justice”.
“Asking a woman to refer to her male rapist or violent assaulter as ‘she’ in court is a form of state-sanctioned abuse,” Rowling wrote in her tweet.
“Female victims of male violence are further traumatised by being forced to speak a lie.”
But on Monday, Chief Justice Kourakis batted away Rowling’s criticisms, saying she had “misunderstood the protocol”.
“It does no more than allow lawyers and others to inform the court of the correct pronunciation of their name and their preferred gender pronoun so that proceedings are conducted respectfully,” he said. “However, the presiding judicial officer retains control over all forms of address used in court.”
“A victim of crime would never be asked to address an accused person in a way which caused the victim distress,” he said. “I would prefer that social media commentators took the time to properly inform themselves before pressing the send button, but my only concern is to assure the South Australian public that Ms Rowling’s anxiety is completely unfounded.”
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