This article explore the limitations of progressive and feminist legal change through a study of the development of gender-based refugee policy in Canada. I argue that the actual impact of feminist and progressive legal change is determined in interaction with the wider bureaucratic and administrative contexts of its implementation; administrative strategies and bureaucratic procedures may, in fact, capably undermine the potentially expansive effects of progressive jurisprudence. As I will show, feminist legal interventions in Canada’s refugee policy did not increase actual access to refugee protection. Not only were these interventions delivered in a decidedly limited administrative form, they occurred simultaneously with highly innovative and coordinated bureaucratic practices that limited the access of large groups of refugee claimants to protection. Thus, while the Canadian refugee system expanded jurisprudentially, access to this system was tightly restricted through administrative and bureaucratic measures.

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“无所作为”的政治：女权主义的法律变革与难民保护的官僚管理

本文通过对加拿大基于性别的难民政策发展的研究，探讨进步和女权主义法律变革的局限性。我认为，女权主义和渐进式法律变革的实际影响取决于其实施过程中更广泛的官僚和行政环境的相互作用；事实上，行政战略和官僚程序可能会削弱渐进式判例的潜在广泛影响。正如我将要展示的，加拿大难民政策中的女权主义法律干预并没有增加实际获得难民保护的机会。这些干预措施不仅以绝对有限的行政形式提供，它们与高度创新和协调的官僚做法同时发生，这些做法限制了大批难民申请人获得保护。因此，虽然加拿大难民系统在法律上有所扩展，但通过行政和官僚措施严格限制进入该系统。