BinaryTech in motion : The sexgender in the European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence




Aalto Juho

PublisherCambridge University Press

Cambridge

2024

Leiden Journal of International Law

LJIL

37

3

630

648

0922-1565

1478-9698

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1017/S0922156524000141

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/leiden-journal-of-international-law/article/binarytech-in-motion-the-sexgender-in-the-european-court-of-human-rights-jurisprudence/EE6A9E6740B69CEAB42B7918F5479F41

https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/404628238



Sexgender has become politicized by neo-conservative and populist movements in Europe and elsewhere. This article explores how the sexgender binary is foundational to the social and material construction of the non-heterosexual legal subject and unveils binary hierarchies embedded therein. Furthermore, it develops a new materialist methodology called BinaryTech, which exposes the binary formulas of inequality and difference in the Court’s jurisprudence. This new materialist approach, based on Karen Barad’s agential realism, is used to critically examine how differences are produced as stable features of subjects and objects. The human of the Convention being heterosexual is thereby the result, constructed on material-discursive differentiation of non-heterosexuals. The article concludes by describing how new materialist interventions and Nordic feminist perspectives on law can offer valuable insights within the emerging material turn.


I am grateful for research grants from Suomalainen Lakimiesyhdistys ry (Finnish Lawyers’ Association) and Turun yliopistosäätiö (Turku University Foundation) and part-time employment by the University of Turku Faculty of Law.


Last updated on 2025-17-03 at 12:34