ABSTRACT
Structural violence gained popularity as an explanatory tool for health inequalities due to systemic oppression in society through capitalism, racism, gender bias, transphobia, class divide, and so on. Anthropologists in healthcare were the first to advance structural interventions to address the root causes of health disparities. This chapter moves this discussion of structural interventions forward and explores the application of structural violence in shaping claims for structural remedies in strategic litigation. In a structural approach to legal mobilisation, courts can play a role in publicly renouncing tacit and widespread forms of violence within healthcare policymaking and delivery. As an example of such mobilisation, the article discusses Brazilian Supreme Court's declaration of the entire health system as unconstitutional within the context of transgender rights movement in the country. This chapter indicates that a combination of legal opportunities, including litigants’ understanding of structural violence, may enable judicial interventions that surface pervasive causes of injustice neglected in society.
