This paper presents the MSCA project RELIEF (REsearching Legal Implementation of an Intersectional Framework: a feminist sociolegal analysis of opportunities and obstacles), which investigates intersectionality as an anti-discrimination framework in Spanish legislation, legal practice and public policy after the adoption of Law 15/22. Intersectionality is approached as an analytical tool for understanding how the interplay of power relations shapes individual and collective conditions, thus developing more inclusive laws and policies capable of addressing social complexity and structural vulnerability (Engeli and Mazur 2024, Coll-Planas et al. 2023, Boulos and La Barbera 2022).
The first phase of RELIEF focuses on the legal analysis of Law 15/2022 within the national and EU framework, investigating how the integration of intersectionality reflects Spain's evolving legal and political landscape. Parliamentary debate around the law reveals a shift from an individual to a community-based understanding of intersectionality, emphasizing structural vulnerability and the historical discrimination of specific groups. This evolution owes much to civil society and activist movements, which played a crucial role in bringing intersectionality onto the legal agenda. However, a collective understanding of discrimination, while promising, introduces ambiguities that continue to limit intersectionality's transformative potential in judicial settings.