This chapter will examine the impact which law’s changing conception of corporeality has had on people with intersex bodies.
Historically, the law recognised three types of bodies as conferring legal status: male, female and hermaphrodite. Contemporaneous to increased specialisation in medical knowledge about hermaphroditic conditions, the laws governing the registration of persons were introduced: intersex is notable in its absence from these legal provisions. This coincidence of events is analysed and it is argued that it signals the beginning of the erosion of intersex from legal consciousness. Such a contention is further strengthened by an examination of the case law which has directly addressed the categorisation of bodies as either male or female. The results of this consideration reveal the disappearance of ‘intersex’ from legal consciousness.
The continuing importance of the dual role of the birth certificate as both a historical ‘snapshot’ of events at a particular moment and as a crucial and current identification document becomes apparent. It is argued that adherence to a binary understanding of gender actively discriminates against intersex people. Finally, the chapter considers the re-emergence of the historical paradigm of self-declaration of gender identity for intersex people.