This June we are marking Pride month at IALS Library with a display called - 'Trans People and the Law: a Long Road to Equality'. You can see the display at the library entrance on your next visit to IALS library.
We’ve also created a display website which you can access remotely.
The library display explores the legal journey of trans people in the UK. This journey towards legal recognition and protection has been marked by challenges and achievements.
Legal milestones on this journey
Legal Cases and Acts
For additional information on landmark cases and legislation that have shaped the legal status of trans people in the UK, check the online timeline we’ve created on the display website.
For those interested in researching the legal journey of trans people, we have compiled a list of books and e-books from the library collections. These books include a range of perspectives on trans experiences and legal challenges in various areas such as employment, marriage, parenthood, healthcare, privacy and more. Some books focus on the UK, while others explore trans people and the law in other countries. A likely reform of gender recognition in the UK is also explored, as the Gender Recognition Act has not been updated since 2004, despite numerous calls for reform.
Print books are displayed at the library entrance, while e-books can be accessed via the library display website here- list of books and e-books from the IALS library collections.
Books/E-books from the IALS Library Collections
A Selection of Books/E-books on Display
| A practical guide to transgender law This book has introductory sections on the facts and language related to trans, and then substantial sections on the relevant parts of the Equality Act 2010 as related to transgender individuals, and the Gender Recognition Act 2004. Specialist sections then follow, dealing with Associations, Asylum, Criminal Justice, Data Protection, Education, Employment, Family, Healthcare, Media, Name and Gender Marker Change; Politics and Parliament, Prison, Services, Sport, Gender-critical views, Example Policies and Reform. |
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Gender recognition and the law : troubling transgender peoples' engagement with legal regulation The Gender Recognition Act (GRA) has often been described as a groundbreaking and progressive legal framework for allowing people to legally change their gender. This book seeks to challenge this representation by drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with trans people about the GRA. Overall, the book contends, the GRA does not accurately reflect many trans people's own understanding of their gender identity or their sexuality. It is designed to create subjects that govern their behaviour and self-expression in a way that aligns with a purely binary model of sex/gender and sexuality. |
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| Protecting trans rights in the age of gender self-determination A small but rapidly growing number of (mostly European and South American) States have recently reformed their legal frameworks of gender recognition by allowing trans persons to change their official sex registration on the basis of gender self-determination. Against that background, this book brings together international experts to discuss questions and challenges relating to the legal articulation of the emerging right to gender self-determination and its consequences for law and society. Particular attention is given to the national contexts of Belgium, Germany and Norway. |
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| Self-declaration in the legal recognition of gender This book examines the impact of legislation premised upon the principle of ‘self-declaration’ of legal gender status. It presents research conducted in Denmark, which became the first European state to adopt self-declaration in June 2014. By analysing Danish law through a Foucauldian framework which brings together socio-, feminist, and trans legal scholarship on embodiment and jurisdiction, the book offers the first empirically based and theoretically informed analysis of self-declaration. |
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| Trans rights and wrongs : a comparative study of legal reform concerning trans persons This book maps various national legal responses to gender mobility, including sex and name registration, access to gender modification interventions, and anti-discrimination protection (or lack thereof) and regulations. The book advocates the dissemination of a model for the protection of rights that not only focuses on formal equality, but also addresses the administrative obstacles that trans persons face in their daily lives. In addition, it underscores the importance of courts in either advancing or obstructing the realization of individual rights. |
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The transgender exigency: defining sex and gender in the 21st century Increased transgender rights and visibility has been met with increased opposition, controversy, and even violence. Who should have the power to define the meanings of sex and gender? What values and interests are advanced by competing definitions? In this timely intervention, Edward Schiappa examines the key sites of debate including schools, bathrooms, the military, sports, prisons, and feminism, drawing attention to the political, practical, and ethical dimensions of the act of defining itself. |
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While progress has been made in advancing the legal rights of trans people in the UK, there remain many challenges to achieving full legal equality for trans people. As history has shown, society evolves and attitudes shift, and so the legal journey of trans people in the UK continues.