Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>What is the relevance of sex characteristics and gender identity in public law? Why do these personal characteristics matter for the legal relations between individuals and between individuals and the state? What happens when people do not fit the legal assumptions about sexual anatomy and gender identity? Are these ‘unruly’ personal characteristics erased or protected? How is the understanding of sex characteristics and gender identity evolving in public law, and how does this development change the relationship between the person and the legal system? This book addresses these questions through an extensive analysis of jurisdictions from Europe, Latin America, and Asia. By combining comparative law with gender and constitutional studies, the volume examines how gender diversity is recognized and controlled within different jurisdictions. The monograph demonstrates that sex characteristics and gender identity matter for public law. It reveals that the legal order is not grounded solely in the existence of men and women, but also depends on the existence of men, women, and nonbinary people with specific physical and identity characteristics. When individuals differ from the norm, public law actively shapes the subjects that it requires. At the same time, legal systems are gradually opening to gender diversity, and this book explores how emerging models of recognition are changing public law to include gender-diverse people.</jats:p> <jats:p>Ultimately, the monograph examines the complex relationship between gender diversity and public law in a comparative context and illuminates a central aspect of this legal field, which has remained understudied until now.</jats:p>