Legal Recognition Beyond the Binary: Comparative Perspectives

Recent legal developments in India and the UK have brought renewed attention to the recognition of gender identity. Across jurisdictions, developments concerning the legal definition of sex have sparked renewed debates about legal gender recognition and its implications for rights of persons with gender identities beyond the binary. The discussion will explore some of these developments through a comparative lens. 

Dr. Lena Holzer  will present her ongoing research on the transformative potential of legal gender recognition beyond the binary in India, Pakistan and Germany, along with reflections on the United Kingdom. Mihika Poddar will respond as discussant based on her research on legal gender recognition in the UK and India. Mihir Rajamane will moderate the event.

This hybrid event is co-hosted with the Centre for Women and the Law, National Law School of India University, Bengaluru and is taking place in-person at Bangalore. Attendees from Oxford and beyond may join online.

Lena Holzer (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in Gender, Race and the Law in the Law Faculty at the University of Cambridge and serves as Sheila Lesley Fellow at Girton College. Her research focuses on critical feminist, queer and intersectional approaches to international law with a focus on human rights law and sports law. Prior to joining the University of Cambridge, she worked as a Lecturer in Law at Goldsmiths, University of London, and as Academic Supervisor at the Geneva Graduate Institute. She obtained her PhD in International Law, with a minor degree in International Relations, from the Geneva Graduate Institute and has acted as consultant for several European human rights NGOs aside her academic work. She is currently working on a book project tracing how international law has played a role in making binary gender categories part of people’s individual legal identity. Another project of hers examines the gendered and racialised nature of international sports regulations and global inequalities in the governance of sports.

Mihika Poddar is an Assistant Professor in Law at the National Law school of India University, Bengaluru. She is a DPhil candidate in law at the University of Oxford, where she is undertaking research on legal recognition of personal identities, including race, sex/gender and caste. Mihika obtained the Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) with Distinction on a Rhodes Scholarship. She is also a qualified lawyer and university medallist from the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS), India, where she completed her B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) in 2019. She has been a tutor and lecturer in English Criminal Law and Feminist Perspectives in Law at the University of Oxford, University College London, and Catholic University of Lille, Paris.

Mihir Rajamane is a DPhil Candidate in Socio-Legal Studies, currently conducting fieldwork on the legal recognition of gender minorities in South India, with a focus on schemes of affirmative action. 

Attendees outside Bangalore can join via Microsoft Teams.