A Critical Legal Perspective on the Recent Czech Transgender Case

(Pl. ÚS 2/20)

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46282/blr.2022.6.1.288

Keywords:

Transgender rights, PL ÚS 2/20, Ideological critique of law, Critical legal theory

Abstract

The purpose of this short commentary is to present a critical legal analysis of the recent Czech Constitutional Court’s judgment on trans rights. The paper puts forward an external legal perspective characteristic for critical jurisprudence and it aims to show the presence of antagonistic interests and the extra-legal (ideological) factors that permeates and influences the judicial decision-making. It outlines some of the theoretical assumptions of critical jurisprudence which are, subsequently, applied to the Court’s judgment. More specifically, it follows the theoretical project of agonistic jurisprudence and attempts to show how it could be utilised in the context of judicial decision-making.

Author Biography

  • Nikolas Sabján, Comenius University

    Assistant Professor
    Comenius University Bratislava, Faculty of Law,
    Department of Theory of Law and Philosophy of Law
    Šafárikovo námestie č. 6
    810 00 Bratislava, Slovakia
    nikolas.sabjan@flaw.uniba.sk

References

Arnauld, A., von der Decken, K. and Susi, M. (2020). The Cambridge Handbook of New Human Rights. Recognition, Novelty, Rhetoric. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108676106.002

Asteriti, A. and Bull, R. (2020). Gender Self-Declaration and Women’s Rights: How Self Identification Undermines Women’s Rights and Will to an Increase in Harms: A Reply to Alex Sharpe, „Will Gender Self-Declaration Undermine Women’s Rights and Lead to an Increase in Harms?“ Modern Law Review Forum, 003. Retrieved from: https://www.modernlawreview.co.uk/asteriti-bull-sharpe/ (accessed on 20.06.2022).

Barša, P., Hesová, Z. and Slačálek, O. (eds.). (2021). Central European Culture Wars: Beyond Post-Communism and Populism. Praha: Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Filozofická fakulta.

Bassetti, E. M. (2020). Human Rights Bodies‘ Adjudication of Trans People’s Rights: Shifting the Narrative from the Right to Private Life to Cruel and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment. European Journal of Legal Studies, 12(2), 291-325, DOI:10.2924/EJLS.2019.033

Batka, Ľ. (2021). Rodová dysfória pri adolescentoch. Etické otázky spojene s informovaným súhlasom. Ostium, 17(4).

Bohman, J. (2016). Critical Theory. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/critical-theory (accessed on 20.06.2022).

Continental Europe Enters the Gender Wars (2021). The Economist, Jun 12th 2021.

Douzinas, C., Gearey, A. (2005). Critical Jurisprudence. The Political Philosophy of Justice. London: Hart Publishing.

Duffy, S. (2021). Contested Subjects of Human Rights: Trans and Gender-variant Subjects of International Human Rights Law. Modern Law Review, 84(5), 1041-1065, DOI: 10.1111/1468-2230.12633 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12633

Eagleton, T. (2007). Ideology: An Introduction. London: Verso. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470756683.ch

Europa-Kolleg Hamburg, Institute for European Integration (2019). Queering European Union Law: Sex and Gender Beyoned the Binary and Cisnormartivity, Study Paper No 04/19.

Haefele-Thomas, A. (2019). Introduction to Transgender Studies. New York: Harrington Park Press.

Horkheimer, M. (1972). Critical Theory. Selected Essays. New York: The Continuum Publishing Company.

Horvat, M. (2021). Zmena mena, priezviska a pohlavia. Analýza judikatúry ESĽP a slovenskej právnej úpravy. Comenius, 2. Retrieved from: https://comeniuscasopis.flaw.uniba.sk/2022/01/10/comenius-casopis-2-2021/ (accessed on 20.06.2022).

Hunt, A. (1987). What is ‘Critical’ about Critical Legal Theory. Journal of Law and Society, 14(1), 5-19, DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1410293 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1410293

Jain, D. and DasGupta, D. (2021). Law, gender identity, and the uses of human rights: The paradox of recognition in South Asia. Journal of Human Rights, 20(1), 110-126, DOI: 10.1080/14754835.2020.1845129 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2020.1845129

Kennedy D. (2002). The Critique of Rights in Critical Legal Studies. In: Brown, W. – Halley, J. Left Legalism/Left Critique. Durham: Duke University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11hpn4c.9

Kennedy, D. (2007). Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy. New York: NYU Press.

Kennedy, D. (2008). A left/phenomenological critique of the Hart/Kelsen theory of legal interpretation. In: Kennedy, D. (ed.) Legal reasoning: Collected essays. Aurora: Davies Group. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5771/0023-4834-2007-3-296

Kennedy, D. (2015). The Hermeneutics of Suspicion in Contemporary American Legal Thought. Law and Critique, 25(2), 91-139, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-014-9136-6 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-014-9136-6

Klare, K. (2015). Critical Perspectives on the Social and Economic Rights, Democracy and Separation of Powers. In: García, A., H., Klare, K. and Williams, A. L. (Eds.), Social and Economic Rights in Theory and Practice. Critical Inquiries. New York: Routledge.

Koskenniemi, M. (2010). Human Rights Mainstreaming as a Strategy for Institutional Power. International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism and Development, 1(1), 47-58, DOI:10.1353/hum.2010.0003 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/hum.2010.0003

Leiter, B. (2004). The Hermeneutics of Suspicion: Recovering Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud. In: Leiter, B. (Ed.), Future for Philosophy. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Mańko, R. (2018). Critique of the ‘Juridical’: Some Metatheoretical Remarks. Journal of the University of Latvia, 11, 24-37. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22364/jull.11.03

Mańko, R. (2021). Judicial Decision-Making, Ideology and the Political: Towards an Agonistic Theory of Adjudication. Law and Critique, 33, 175-194, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-021-09288-w DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-021-09288-w

Mańko, R., Łakomy, J. (2018). In search for the ontological presuppositions of critical jurisprudence. Krytyka prawa, 10(2), 469-486, DOI:10.7206/kp.2080-1084.215 DOI: https://doi.org/10.7206/kp.2080-1084.215

Marks, S. (2001). Big Brother is Bleeping Us – With the Message that Ideology Doesn’t Matter. European Journal of International Law, 12(1), 109-123, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ejil/12.1.109 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ejil/12.1.109

Marx-Engels Correspondence. (1893). Engels to Mehring. Retrieved from: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1893/letters/93_07_14.htm (accessed on 20.06.2022).

Meteňkanyč, M. O. (2021). Nútená kastrácia ako povinná podmienka pri prepise rodu v podmienkach Slovenskej republiky. Comenius, 2. Retrieved from: https://comeniuscasopis.flaw.uniba.sk/2022/01/10/comenius-casopis-2-2021/ (accessed on 20.06.2022).

Mouffe, Ch. (2013). Agonistics. Thinking the World Politically. London: Verso.

Pape, M. (2022). Feminism, Trans Justice, and Speech Rights: A Comparative Perspective. Law and Contemporary Problems, 85(1), 215-240.

Sharpe, A. (2020). Will Gender Self-Declaration Undermine Women’s Rights and Lead to an Increase in Harms? Modern Law Review, 83(3), 539-557, DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12507 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12507

UN Human Rights Council (2018). Report of the Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, A/HRC/38/43.

UN Human Rights Council (2021a). Report of the Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity: Practices of exclusion, A/76/152.

UN Human Rights Council (2021b). Report of the Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity: The law of inclusion, A/HRC/47/27.

Vikarská, Z. and Ouředníčková, S. (2022). Evasive, Insensitive, Ignorant, and Political. The recent Czech transgender case. Verfassunsblog. Retrieved from: https://verfassungsblog.de/evasive-insensitive-ignorant-and-political/ (accessed on 20.06.2022).

Zanghellini, A. (2020). The Philosophical Problems With the Gender-Critical Feminist Argument Against Trans Inclusion. SAGE Open, 1-14, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244020927029 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244020927029

Žižek, S. (2012). The Spectre of Ideology. In: Žižek, S. (ed.). Mapping Ideology. London: Verso.

Downloads

Published

30-06-2022

How to Cite

A Critical Legal Perspective on the Recent Czech Transgender Case: (Pl. ÚS 2/20) . (2022). Bratislava Law Review, 6(1), 125-136. https://doi.org/10.46282/blr.2022.6.1.288

Funding data

Similar Articles

41-50 of 213

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.