Feminist Legal Studies Vol.III ~o. 1 [1995] BETWEEN "TRUTH" AND "DIFFERENCE": POSTSTRUCTURALISM, LAW AND THE POWER OF FEMINISM FL~LPH SANDLAND * In the last few years feminist legal scholarship has evolved from a cri- tique of sexism in the law into an increasingly sophisticated jurispru- dence. 1 However, this development is now entering a critical phase. On the one hand law has proven largely impervious to rneaning~ul reform, by which I mean reform which materially alters the reality of gender rela- tions. 2 On the other, the claims to represent "women's truth" which underpin feminists' arguments and demands have been revealed as prob - lematic. One interesting and provocative response which conjoins these twin dilemmas has been the emergence of what Carol Smart has de- scribed as a "poststructuralist feminist" perspective on law. My aim is to interrogate Smart's position for its (law) reformist potential. The schema of the paper is as follows. Part 1 explains the basis of Smart's position on law, truth and sexuali~ty and the implications of her position for law reform. Part 2 argues that Smart's scepticism in respect of law reform does not follow inexorably from the model which she expounds, but rather from her understanding of its potential. Part 3 attempts to substantiate the claim that an approach which functions within the tensions thrown up at the interface of poststructuralism and feminism may indeed be able to produce reformist strategies. Part 4 considers how such strategies might pan out in practice. * Lecturer in Law, University of Nottingham. 1 A brief but informative overview of these developments can be obtained by reading first N. Lacey, "Feminist Legal Theory", Ox~rdJourna! of Legal Studies (1989), 383-394, and then C. Smart, "The Woman of Legal Dis- course", Social and Legal Studies 1 (1992), 29-44. 2 See for example M. Thornton, "Feminism and the Contradictions of Law Reform", International Journal for the Sociolog 7 of Law 19 (1991), 453-474; W. Brown, "Finding the Man in the State", Feminist Studies 18/1 (1992), 7-34.