University of Cambridge, Faculty of Law

Wednesday 29th February 2012, 14:00

Comparative Law Discussion Group: 'Changing Gender: Current Approaches to Legal Recognition of Gender Identity in Australia and the UK'

Katie O'Byrne will be speaking and leading discussion on "Changing Gender: Current Approaches to Legal Recognition of Gender Identity in Australia and the UK" on Wednesday February 29, 2-3.30pm in G26 of the Faculty.

The Comparative Law Discussion Group group meet a few times a term to discuss comparative research and methodology. This year the group is expanding a little to welcome LLMs and particularly interested undergraduates in addition to the PhD students and faculty members who attend. It is not a teaching forum, its focus is on substantive research and research methodology. There are substantive presentations at points in the year, led by established academics, but for the rest of the year everyone is encouraged to present comparative work in progress and discuss it with the group. All are welcome here is no need to book. For more information or to offer a paper contact Dr Matt Dyson on mnd21@cam.ac.uk

"Katie O'Byrne is an Australian LLM student at Jesus College, Cambridge. She completed her undergraduate degree in Melbourne and has worked in Canberra, London and The Hague. She is interested in gender issues in both domestic and international law."

Brief abstract: "This paper examines the preconditions to legal recognition of gender change in Australia and the UK, and asks what those preconditions reveal about the law's construction of gender. Australia and the UK are selected for comparison because both have strong common law systems and relatively well-developed gender recognition regimes, with sufficient points of difference to throw light on one another and illuminate options for reform. The paper begins with some observations about the meaning of "gender" and "gender identity", about the role of law in identifying and categorising its subjects on the basis of gender, and about the legal challenges posed by transgender subjects. The range of approaches to recognition in Australia and the UK reveal that the legal concept of gender itself is changing. Paradoxically, however, gender recognition laws tend to reinforce rather than break down traditional male/female categories. The paper argues that the recognition regimes expose areas of incoherence in the law's construction of gender, with implications for individuals, governments and social institutions.

Finally, the paper suggests how the law should be reformed in order to construct more principled and coherent gender law in Australia and the UK."

Faculty of Law