Identity Politics and Legal Recognition

Abstract

The article gives an overview of the different definitions of identity, sources of identification and approaches to the issue of identity, with a special focus on culture as a source of identification. The article also presents the issue of identity as it appears in essentialist, constructivist and dialogical theories. Using the concept of identity politics and various political, legal and philosophical approaches, the article gives an array of possible ways to treat the need for social and legal recognition of different identities, as well as ways in which law recognises individual and collective identities within a heterogeneous social community.

Keywords: identity, identity politics, culture, legal recognition, liberal multiculturalism, individual and collective rights