Date: 17 September 2026 (Thursday), 12:30 – 1:30 PM
Venue: Room 901, 9/F Cheng Yu Tung Tower, The University of Hong Kong
Registration: please visit https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?guest=Y&ueid=109103
Abstract
How does international law shape domestic law? How does domestic law shape international law in turn? And how do different jurisdictions shape one another? This talk explores these questions of cross-border legal entanglement through a study of gender identity law in India, Germany, and Pakistan. It examines how domestic courts have engaged with international law in distinct ways, and how developments in domestic law have influenced legal change on gender identity elsewhere, both in other domestic jurisdictions and within international bodies. The analysis offers insights into the role of legal pluralism and transnational norm diffusion in current shifts in legal understandings of gender.
Speaker
Dr Lena Holzer
Assistant Professor in Gender, Race and the Law
at the Law Faculty of the University of Cambridge
Lena Holzer is an Assistant Professor in Gender, Race and the Law in the Law Faculty at the University of Cambridge and serves as Sheila Lesley Fellow at Girton College. Her research focuses on feminist, queer and intersectional approaches to international law and sports law. Prior to joining the University of Cambridge, she worked as a Lecturer in Law at Goldsmiths, University of London, and as Academic Supervisor at the Geneva Graduate Institute. She obtained her PhD in International Law, with a minor degree in International Relations, from the Geneva Graduate Institute.
Chair
Professor Ying Zhu
Associate Professor
Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong
For inquiries, please contact Serene Chang at