SEXUALITY AND TRANSSEXUALITY UNDER THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS . A QEER READING OF HUMAN RIGHTS LAW

This book undertakes a critical analysis of international human rights law through
the lens of queer theory. It pursues two main aims: first, to make use of queer
theory to illustrate that the field of human rights law is underpinned by several
assumptions that determine a conception of the subject that is gendered and sexual
in specific ways. This gives rise to multiple legal and social consequences, some of
which challenge the very idea of universality of human rights. Second, the book
proposes that human rights law can actually benefit from a better understanding
of queer critiques, since queer insights can help it to overcome heteronormative
beliefs currently held. In order to achieve these main aims, the book focuses on
the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, the leading legal authority

in the field of international human rights law. The use of queer theory as the theo-
retical approach for these tasks serves to deconstruct several aspects of the Court’s

jurisprudence dealing with gender, sexuality, and kinship, to later suggest potential
paths to reconstruct such features in a queer(er) and more universal manner.