Introduction to special issue: queer/feminist internationalisms

This special issue brings together seven articles addressing international law and international relations through queer/feminist lenses. It originates from the inaugural workshop of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law (ANZSIL) Interest Group on Gender and Sexuality in International Law held in February 2020 at Deakin Law School. The special issue explores how queer and feminist frameworks dislocate normative approaches to, and propose alternate conceptions of, issues at the heart of the international. The special issue aims to continue the dialogue between feminist and queer scholars (and queer feminist scholars) that started in earnest with the 2017 publication of Dianne Otto’s edited collection Queering International Law. It takes up Gina Heathcote’s call in her 2019 book, Feminist Dialogues on International Law: successes, tensions, futures, for feminist (international) legal scholars to engage fully with queer (international) legal scholars, as queer scholars already embrace feminist scholarship. By publishing both queer and feminist engagements on key international concerns, we hope to deepen and expand intersectional and inclusive queer/feminist scholarship in Australia and internationally. Further, the special issue applies the insights of socio-legal, interdisciplinary research to the international. Its theme is built on socio-legal approaches that bring the human back into law and analyse how binary distinctions – such as masculine/feminine, straight/queer and cisgender/transgender – structure society and law. These insights depend on critical and theoretical developments in feminist and queer theory that the authors apply to aspects of international law and international relations. It includes contributions from authors trained as international lawyers (Coscini, Vijeyarasa, Dehm, Paige, Stagg, Simm), as international relations scholars (Biddolph, Sapiano) and historians (Silverstein). The topics addressed-human rights, international criminal justice, asylum, war and peace – all raise questions about how the international is intertwined with the domestic. While adopting a range of perspectives, the papers nevertheless cohere around a shared interest in highlighting what queer and feminist approaches to the international reveal about law and society.