Introduction – transnational legal feminism

Recent events remind us of the grave extent to which gender inequalities still persist across the world. Whether in the form of the political targeting of LGBTQ+ persons in the United States,1 the ongoing oppression of Afghan women by the Taliban,2 the police-sanctioned violence against women from Latin America to the United Kingdom,3 veil bans targeting Muslim women from Switzerland4 and France5 to India,6 or the ongoing struggle against sexual harassment and violence against women and marginalised genders as brought to public attention by the #MeToo movement.7 When examining these injustices, it becomes clear that the ‘law’ plays a crucial role in perpetuating and reinforcing gender inequalities. As a result, feminist critiques retain their crucial significance in exposing how ‘gendered’ power asymmetries are made invisible, reinforced, or ignored by the law. The increasing cross-border nature of not only feminist ideas, but also legal actors, norms, and processes in this context calls for a consideration of the transnationalisation of both feminism and law.