Intersectional Vulnerability in Strasbourg Case-Law: Refugees and Gender Amid the Cost-of-Living Crisis

This article examines the concept of vulnerability as it has developed in the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights and the European Committee of Social Rights, focusing on refugees and asylum seekers, as well as women affected by the cost-of-living crisis, highlighting the disproportionate impact of income inequality, energy poverty, and unpaid care work. Although the European Court of Human Rights has not articulated a formal definition of vulnerability, the concept has acquired increasing normative significance as a means of identifying individuals and groups in need of enhanced protection. Through a selective analysis of relevant case-law, the article argues that vulnerability functions, in practice, as an implicit substitute for intersectionality. It demonstrates how refugees, asylum seekers, irregular migrants, and women affected by economic hardships are constructed as particularly vulnerable legal subjects. The article concludes by arguing that vulnerability arises from the interaction of legal status, gender, poverty, and social exclusion, and that the concept of “intersectional vulnerability” provides a more analytically precise and normatively effective framework for promoting substantive equality and social justice in European human rights law.