Stefano Osella (Halle): The Legal Regime of Gender Categories: Autonomy, Family, Community, the Making of the Gendered Subject in Italy

Abstract

In this lecture, I address why the Italian Constitutional Court requires trans people to transform their physical, psychological and behavioral characteristics in order to obtain the legal recognition of their gender identity. Furthermore, I discuss how such a doctrine is implemented. Examining the case-law of the Constitutional Court and of the Court of Cassation in light of queer theory, I argue that such requirements are intended to benefit the “certainty of legal relations”, which, in this context, has a paramount connection with the preservation of the heterosexual matrix of family law. Through a Foucauldian analysis of a consistent sample of decisions by courts of first instance, I then contend that the application of such requirements amounts to the exercise of disciplinary power, which defines and regulates binary gendered subjects. The argument presented is that, in order to preserve the stability of gender categories – which, in turn, is central to upholding the heteronormative matrix of family law – an anatomo-political control over individual bodies is exercised: Sexed subjects are shaped in order to maintain (what is perceived as) a community and constitutional value. I also highlight how this legal mechanism presents significant human and constitutional rights concerns. In conclusion, I offer some comparative remarks to underline how ‘gender recognition Italian-style’ represents a telling case-study which might be enlightening on how individuals are classified, categorized, and, ultimately, carved into acceptable and intelligible forms of existence.

Dr. Stefano Osella

Zoom Link: https://uni-bonn.zoom.us/j/97268564276?pwd=Y0Z4Nnd2WTFNd0RSeHNqOHZlV29FZz09
Meeting-ID: 972 6856 4276
Kenncode: 041216

Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Stefano Osella was a Research Fellow in the Law & Anthropology Department of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle. Previously, he was a Post-Doctoral Global Fellow at NYU Law School in New York. He holds a Magister Juris from the University of Oxford, and an LLM and a PhD in Law from the European University Institute in Florence. His doctoral dissertation is a theoretical and comparative study of legal gender categories in the law and how such categories are imposed on individuals. He has published in the fields of human rights and comparative constitutional law, with a focus on queer theory and LGBT rights.

Stefano Osella’s main research interest relates to how individual identity is constructed in and through the law. Inspired by his academic and activist experience and personal interests, his investigations focus on how the law defines discrete gender and sexual identities, and how such definitions impact, practically and emotionally, the lives of people for whom such definitions are coined, primarily LGBTI+ people. Geographically, he concentrates on continental Europe, specifically Germany, Austria, France, and Italy. In light of the constitutional developments taking place in Latin America, however, he is developing a keen interest in the area – especially in Colombia.

Since April 2021, Dr. Stefano Osella has been a Fellow at the Käte Hamburger Center “Law as Culture” in Bonn.