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Journal of Private International Law Volume 8, 2012 - Issue 2
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Original Articles

The Principled Imperative to Recognise Same-Sex Unions in the EU

Justin Borg-Barthet
Pages 359-388 | Published online: 07 May 2015

  • Art 81(3) TFEU provides that measures concerning transnational family law shall be adopted by unanimous decisions of the Council, following consultation with the European Parliament.
  • Council Regulation (EU) 1259/2010 implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of the law applicable to divorce and legal separation [2010] OJ L343/10; Council Regulation (EC) 2201/2003 concerning jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in matrimonial matters and the matters of parental responsibility, repealing Regulation (EC) No 1347/2000 [2003] OJ L338/1. For academic commentary on the development of European family law, see eg M Ni Shuillebhain, “Ten Years of European Family Law: Retrospective Reflections from a Common Law Perspective” (2010) 59 International and Comparative Law Quarterly 1021, 1021–53; K Boele-Woelki, “To Be, or Not to Be: Enhanced Cooperation in International Divorce Law within the European Union” (2008) 39 Victoria University of Wellington Law Review 779, 779–92; E Caracciolo di Torella and A Masselot, “Under Construction: European Family Law” (2004) 29 European Law Review 32, 32–51; A Fiorini, “Rome III–Choice of Law in Divorce: Is the Europeanisation of Family Law Going Too Far?” (2008) 22 International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family 178, 178–205; C McGlynn, Families and the European Union: Law, Politics and Pluralism (Cambridge University Press, 2006), 152–75.
  • A noteworthy exception is the possible introduction of a forum necessitatis jurisdiction in respect of divorce where the laws of the otherwise prescribed fora do not provide for divorce, or where they do not contemplate the existence of valid union between the spouses: Council (EU), Proposal for a Council Regulation implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of the law applicable to divorce and legal separation–General approach JUSTCIV 214 JAI 1008, 5. Nevertheless, it is to be noted that this is more pragmatic than principled in respect of same-sex unions since the law will merely allow for the termination of a relationship which the laws of some Member States did not recognise to begin with.
  • Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union [2010] OJ G83/02 (hereinafter “Charter of Fundamental Rights”), Art 21; TFEU, Arts 10 and 19.
  • See A Dashwood et al, European Union Law (Hart Publishing, 6th edn, 2011), 470–71.
  • Directive 2004/38/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the right of citizens of the Union and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States [2004] OJ L158/77 (hereinafter “Citizens' Rights Directive”).
  • TEU, Art 3; TFEU, Arts 20, 21 and 45.
  • Charter of Fundamental Rights, Art 45.
  • Citizens' Rights Directive, Recital 3. This was reaffirmed by the Court of Justice in Case C-127/08 Metock and others v Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform [2008] ECR 1–6421, para 59.
  • Case 370/90 The Queen v Immigration Appeal Tribunal and Surinder Singh, ex park Secretary of State for Home Department [1992] EGR 1–04265, para 23.
  • 11 Citizens' Rights Directive, Art 2(2).
  • Case 75/63 Hoekstra v Bestuur der Bedrijfsvereniging voor DetailhandelAmbachten [1964] EGR 177; Case 66/85 Deborah Lamrie-Blum v Land Baden-Wiirttemberg [1986] EGR 02121.
  • Case G-184/99 Rudy Grzelczyk v Centre public d'aide sociale d'Ottignies-Louvain-la-Meuve [2001] EGR 1–6193, para 31.
  • See RA Elman, “The Limits of Citizenship: Migration, Sex Discrimination and Same-Sex Partners in EU Law” (2000) 38 Journal of Common Market Studies 729, 730.
  • H Muir Watt, “European Federalism and the ‘New Unilateralism’” (2008) 82 Tulane Law Review 1983, 1987-88.
  • 16 See Section G below.
  • See K Boele-Woelki, “The Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Relationships Within the European Union” (2008) 82 Tulane Law Review 1949, 1971.
  • McGlynn supra n 2, 128–29.
  • Commission (EG), Amended proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the right of citizens of the Union and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States COM(2003) 199 final, 10–11.
  • Ibid.
  • Joined Gases C-122/99P and G125/99P D and Sweden v Council [2001] EGR 1–4319, para 34.
  • Citizens' Rights Directive, Art 2(2)(b).
  • Case 59/85 State of the Netherlands v Anns Florence Reed [1986] EGR 1283, paras 24–29.
  • 24 Citizens' Rights Directive, Art 3(2).
  • The situation may be readily distinguishable from that in ZJiu and Chen where the Court found that the immigrant parent of a child who had EU citizenship could benefit from parasitic free movement rights. The judgment appeared to turn on the fact that the child's rights would be deprived of any useful effect if she could not be accompanied by her primary carer: Case C-200/02 Kunqian Catherine ZJiu and Man Lavette Chen v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2004] ECR 1–9925, para 45.
  • ILGA-Europe, “ILGA-Europe's contribution to the Green Paper. Less Bureaucracy for citizens: Promoting free movement of public documents and recognition of the effects of civil documents” (2011) www.ilga-europe.org/media_library/ilga_europe/publications/policy_papers/ilga_europe_s_contribution_to_the_green_paper (accessed 29 June 2012), 14–24.
  • Website of the European Commission http://ec.europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/family/couple/registered-partners/index_en.htm?profile=0 (accessed 29 June 2012).
  • ILGA-Europe, supra n 26, 16.
  • Ibid, 22.
  • Ibid, 20–21.
  • Ibid.
  • Ibid, 15; “British Civil Partnerships—Worthless in Spain?”, Round Town Mews, 22 April 2010. www.roundtownnews.co.uk/index.phpPoption-com_content&task=view&id=2 3182&Itemid=3 8 (accessed 9 June 2011).
  • The problem of portability of civil statuses is pervasive, and is not limited to same-sex relationships: see European Commission, “Green Paper. Less bureaucracy for citizens: promoting free movement of public documents and recognition of the effects of civil status records” COM(2010) 747 final.
  • Decreto 61/2002, de 23 abril. Aprueba el Reglamento de desarrollo de la Ley 1/2001, de 6–4-2001 (LCV 2001X137), de la Generalitat Valenciana, por la que se regulan las uniones de hecho (LCV 2002X170), Arts 1 and 11.
  • Decreto 250/1994, de 7 de diciembre, del Gobierno Valenciano, de creacion del registro de Uniones de Hecho (LCV 1994X389).
  • Decreto 61/2002, supra n 34, Art 6(4).
  • Ibid, Art 14(1).
  • See ILGA-Europe, supra n 26, 15; Round Town Mews, 5Mj&ra n 32.
  • 39 Art 2(2).
  • European Parliament Report on the proposal for a European Parliament and Council directive on the right of citizens of the Union and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States (GOM(2001) 257. C5–0336/2001. 2001/011 l(GOD)): A5 0009/2003, 23 January 2003.
  • 4l Ibid, Amendments 14–15.
  • Commission (EC) supra n 19, 10–11.
  • Ibid.
  • A Fiorini, “New Belgium Law on Same Sex Marriage and its PIL Implications” (2003) 52 International and Comparative Law Quarterly 1039, 1049.
  • Ibid. See D and Sweden v Council supra n 21, para 34.
  • Commission (EG) supra n 19, 10–11.
  • MP Maduro, “So Close and Yet So Far: The Paradoxes of Mutual Recognition” (2007) 14 Journal of European Public Policy 814, 820.
  • For a critical view of the Parliament's concession to the Council and Commission, see McG-lynn supra n 2, 128.
  • C Barnard, The Substantive Law of the EU: The Four Freedoms (Oxford University Press, 3rd edn. 2010), 223–25.
  • S Cretney, “Breaking the Shackles of Culture and Religion in the Field of Divorce?” in K Boele-Woelki (ed), Common Core and Better Law in European Family Law (Intersentia, 2005). 3–4.
  • Ibid.
  • See A Fiorini, “Harmonizing the Law Applicable to Divorce and Legal Separation—Enhanced Cooperation as the Way Forward?” (2010) 59 International and Comparative law Quarterly 1143. 1144–45.
  • Ibid.
  • 55 TFEU, Art 263.
  • 56 Charter of Fundamental Rights, Art 51.
  • R Michaels, “The New European Choice-of-Law Revolution” (2008) 82 Tulane law Review 1607, 1636.
  • A Williams, The Ethos of Europe: Values, Law and Justice in the EU (Cambridge University Press. 2010), 110–35.
  • Ibid, 128.
  • JHH Weiler, Un' Europa Cristiana: Un saggio esplorativo (Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli, 2003),44–45.
  • lautsi and others v Italy (2011) ELR 176.
  • Contrast the views expressed by Weiler, supra n 60, and the criticisms of those views, which are articulated in L Zucca and S Gvijic, “Does the European Constitution Need Christian Values?” (2004) 24 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 739.
  • Weiler, supra n 60, 47.
  • Lautsi, supra n 61. Prof Weiler intervened on behalf of eight Contracting States, namely Armenia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Russian Federation, Greece, Lithuania, Malta and the Republic of San Marino.
  • See TEU, Art 2; Weiler, supra n 60, 55.
  • Weiler, supra n 60, 55–56. Art 151 of the Treaty of Rome declared that the Community was to bring Europe's “common cultural heritage to the fore”. Many understood the reference to the ethos of the Community to be a veiled reference to the Christian heritage of Europe: see I Ward, A Critical Introduction to European Law (Cambridge University Press, 3rd edn, 2009). 202–03.
  • K Moller, “Two Conceptions of Positive Liberty: Towards an Autonomy-based Theory of Constitutional Rights” (2009) 29 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 757, 761.
  • See MP Maduro, We the Court: The European Court of Justice and the European Economic Constitution. A Critical Reading of Article 30 of the EC Treaty (Hart Publishing, 1998), 126–29.
  • lautsi, supra n 61.
  • Ibid, para 66.
  • lautsi and others v Italy (2011) ELR 176 per Judge Bonello, para 2.5.
  • lautsi and others v Italy (2010) 50 EHRR 42, para 57.
  • Constitutional pluralism in the context of the European Union presupposes the coexistence of numerous autonomous legal orders, the limits and interactions of which are arbitrated by the supranational order. See Maduro, supra n 48, 6–7.
  • See lautsi, supra n 61, paras 62–70.
  • McGlynn, supra n 2, 28–29.
  • Ibid, 23.
  • A Diduck, Law's Families (LexisNexis, 2003), 1.
  • McGlynn, supra n 2, 28–29.
  • Indeed, in a referendum which was held in Malta on 28 May 2011, 53.2% of valid votes supported the adoption of divorce legislation. This followed a campaign that was characterised by conflict between traditional Catholic views of the family and the pluralistic view that prevailed. Official results are available at the website of the Department of Information—Malta: http://doi.gov.mt/EN/elections/201l/Referendum/final_result.asp (accessed 29 June 2012).
  • McGlynn, supra n 2, 28–29.
  • Case 11/70 Internationale Handelsgesellschaft [1970] EGR 1125, para 4.
  • Case G-214/89 Powell Duffryn pic v Petereit [1992] EGR 1–01745, paras 10–19. See also the Opinion of AG Tesauro at para 4.
  • Reed, supra n 23, paras 9–13.
  • ILGA-Europe, supra n 26, 7.
  • Ibid.
  • Ibid, 11.
  • Ibid.
  • W, Mjfra n 23.
  • TEU, Art 6(3); Case 4/73 J Mold, Kohlen- und Baustoffgrojlhandlung v Commission of the European Communities [1974] EGR 491, para 12.
  • See Michaels, supra n 57, 1634–35.
  • McGlynn, supra n 2, 9.
  • Weiler, supra n 60, 44.
  • S Ghoudry and J Herring, European Human Rights and Family Law (Hart Publishing, 2010), 144.
  • Commission (EU), Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on guidance for better transposition and application of Directive 2004/38/EC on the right of citizens of the Union and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States, COM(2009) 0313 final, para 2.1.1.
  • Commission (EU), “Commission Staff Working Document: Accompanying document to the Report from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: 2010 Report on the Application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, COM(2011) 160 final, SEC/2011/396 final, 23.
  • Salgueiro da Silva Mouta v Portugal (2001) 31 EHRR 47.
  • J Finnis, “Law, Morality and ‘Sexual Orientation’” (1993-94) 69 Notre Dame Law Review 1049.1052 (emphasis added). To a similar effect, see Justice Scalia's dissenting judgment in Lawrence v Texas 123 SCt 2472 (2003) per ScaliaJ, 20–21; AE Morris and SM Nott, “Marriage Rites and Wrongs: Challenges to Orthodoxy” (2006) 27 Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law 43. 49–56.
  • Finnis, ibid, 1055.
  • Ibid, 1069.
  • Schalk and Kopf v Austria (2011) 53 EHRR 20, para 108.
  • Dudgeon v United Kingdom (1982) 4 EHRR 149, para 62.
  • Ibid.
  • J Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (Routledge, 1999), 5. See also MA Fineman, “The Neutered Mother” (1992) 46 University of Miami Law Review 653, 655–62.
  • Ibid, 11.
  • See J Rivers, “Law, Religion and Sexual Equality” (2007) 9 Ecclesiastical Law Journal 24. 24–34.
  • RG Friedman, “The Issue of Homosexuality in Psychoanalysis” in P Fonagy et al (eds), Identity. Gender and Sexuality: 150years after Freud (Karnac, 2009), 82; see also S Gretney Same Sex Relationships: From ‘Odious Crime’ to ‘Gay Marriage’ (Oxford University Press, 2006), 1.
  • “Malta ‘discriminating’ against same sex couples–Commission”, Times of Malta, 10 April 2011 www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110410/local/malta-discriminating-against-same-sex-couples-commission.359131 (accessed 29June 2012).
  • Fineman, supra n 103, 662.
  • Scalia J, supra n 97, 17 (original emphasis).
  • See eg Morris v Ireland (1991) 13 EHRR 186.
  • Salgueiro da Silva Mouta, supra n 96, paras 34–36.
  • In Frette v France the Court found that the Contracting States retained a wide margin of appreciation to determine whether a single homosexual man could adopt a child. This was motivated by the lack of scientific consensus on the effects of homosexual parenthood on children, as well as a lack of consensus regarding the same among the States Party to the Convention. The Court did not, however, exclude the possibility of adopting a different view in future: Frette v France (2004) 38 EHRR 21, paras 40–42. For academic commentary see Rivers, supra n 105. 31. The Court did, in fact, adopt a different view in its later judgment in EB v France (2008) 47 EHRR 21, paras 91–96.
  • See Schalk and Kopf, supra n 100, paras 27–30; ILGA-Europe, supra n 26, 6–9.
  • See R Probert, Cretney and Probert's Family Law (Sweet & Maxwell, 7th edn, 2009), 11–12.
  • Boele-Woelki, supra n 2, 1968-69.
  • See Petrovic v Austria (2001) 33 EHRR 14, para 22.
  • Ibid.
  • 118 Charter of Fundamental Rights, Art 45.
  • 119 EGHR, Art 8; Charter of Fundamental Rights, Art 7.
  • 20 ECHR, Art 12; Charter of Fundamental Rights, Art 9.
  • Petrovic, supra n 116, para 30.
  • Finnis, supra n 97, 1065-69; S Girgis, RP George and RT Anderson, “What Is Marriage?” (2010) 34 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 245, 246–62.
  • Ibid.
  • The Editors of the Harvard Law Review, Sexual Orientation and the Law (Harvard University Press, 1990), 98. In support of a distinction between infertility in opposite-sex marriages, which may be a matter of chance, and the impossibility of fertile same-sex relationships, see Finnis supra n 97, 1065-69; Girgis, George and Anderson, supra n 122, 265–69.
  • McGlynn, supra n 2, 23.
  • Ibid, 23–26.
  • Ibid, 23–29.
  • Ibid, 23.
  • B v UK (2005) 42 EHRR 195.
  • Goodwin (2002) 35 EHRR 447.
  • Ibid, para 100 (emphasis added). In support of this interpretation of the innovation in the Charter, see Fiorini, supra n 44.
  • Goodwin, supra n 130.
  • For a critical view of the interpretation of the Charter by the Court of Justice, see McGlynn. supra n 2, 151.
  • Grzelczyk, supra n 13; Case C-34/09 Ruiz Zambrano v Office National de I'Emploi (ONEm) [2011] All ER (EC) 491.
  • See eg Marckx v Belgium (1979-80) 2 EHRR 230; InZe v Austra (1988) 10 EHRR 394; Berrehab and Koster v The Netherlands (1989) 11 EHRR 322; Boughanemi v France (1996) 22 EHRR 228; Kroon and Others v The Netherlands (1995) 19 EHRR 263.
  • H Stafford, “Concepts of Family under EU Law—Lessons from the ECHR” (2002) 16 Journal of Law, Policy and the Family 410, 413.
  • 137 See Section R above.
  • Sheffield and Horsham v UK (1998) EHRR 163; Smith and Grady v UK (1999) 29 EHRR 493; Lustig-Prean and Beckett v UK (1999) 29 EHRR 548; Goodwin, supra n 130; Karner v Austria (2004) 38 EHRR 24; Schalk and Kopf, supra n 100, para 105.
  • Karner v Austria, supra n 138, para 42.
  • Schalk and Kopf, supra n 100, para 105.
  • Ibid.
  • Case G-147/08 Romer v Hamburg [2011] EGR-0000, para 28.
  • Ibid, para 52; Case G-267/06 Tadao Maruko v Versorgungsanstalt der deutschen Buhnen [2008] EGR 1–01757, para 73.
  • Lawrence v Texas 123 SCt 2472 (2003) per O'Gonnnor J, 7.
  • Ibid.
  • Ibid. The opinion of the Court expresses similar views regarding the distinction between crim-inalisation of private conduct and a positive obligation to grant formal recognition to adult relationships, albeit less elaborately articulated: Lawrence v Texas 123 SCt 2472 (2003), 18.
  • GA Ball, “This Is Not Your Father's Autonomy: Lesbian and Gay Rights from a Feminist Relational Perspective” (2005) 28 Harvard Journal of Law and Gender 345, 346.
  • This ideological conflict is comparable to that relating to the establishment of companies, where a similar discussion regarding private and public aspects is to be had. For both companies and marriage, it is axiomatic that private, contractual aspects amount to nought in the absence of an official act. Yet the situations are distinguishable. A company is a business vehicle whose core features are legal fictions. The establishment of companies is not considered to be a core fundamental right that requires protection. Nor is there any question of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation in the matter of the establishment of companies. In contrast, marriage is a public institution which is principally symbolic of the most private sentiment. Indeed, companies are exposed to public scrutiny whereas the conduct of central aspects of marriage in public is often punishable under the criminal law. For an overview of the doctrinal controversy in the private international law of companies, see S Rammeloo, Corporations in Private International Law: A European Perspective (Oxford University Press, 2001), 11–20; E Rabel. The Conflict of Laws: A Comparative Study, vol 2 (University of Michigan Press, 2nd edn, I960). 31–46.
  • Finnis, supra n 97, 1065-69; Girgis, George and Anderson, supra n 122, 246–62, Scalia J, supra n 97.
  • Ibid.
  • See Fineman, supra n 103, 662–66; McGlynn, supra n 2, 25. This is notwithstanding the etymology of the term ‘matrimony’, which means the ‘regime of maternity’: Fiorini, supra n 44. 1043.
  • McGlynn, supra n 2, 26.
  • See B Dempsey “Strange Bedfellows in the Pro-marriage Campaigns” [2011] SCOLAG 162, 162–64, and the references therein.
  • See K Norrie, “Sexual Orientation and Family Law” in J Scoular (ed), Family Dynamics: Contemporary Issues in Family Law (Butterworths, 2001), 171.
  • McGlynn, supra n 2, 35.
  • N Polikoff, “We Will Get What We Ask For: Why Legalizing Gay and Lesbian Marriage Will Not Dismantle the Legal Structure of Gender in Every Marriage” (1993) 79 Virginia Law Review 1535, 1536; K Norrie, “Marriage is for Heterosexuals: May the Rest of Us Be Saved From It” (2000) 12 Children and Family Law Quarterly 363; Norrie, supra n 154, 170–73.
  • R Robson, “Assimilation, Marriage, and Lesbian Liberation” (2002) 75 Temple Law Review 709. 717. To the same effect, see Norrie, supra n 154, 170–73.
  • McGlynn, supra n 2, 115–16.
  • See K Norrie, “Would Scots Law Recognise a Dutch Same-Sex Marriage?” (2003) 7 Edinburgh Law Review 147, 172.
  • See generally ILGA-Europe, supra n 26. For a critical view of LGBT advocacy for the right to marry see Dempsey supra n 153, 162–64; Polikoff, supra n 156, 1535–50; Norrie, supra n 156. 363–69; Norrie, supra n 154, 170–73.
  • Dempsey, ibid, 162–63.
  • Reed, supra n 23, paras 9–13.
  • See MP Maduro, “Interpreting European Law: Judicial Adjudication in a Context of Constitutional Pluralism” (2007) 2 European Journal of Legal Studies 1, 5.
  • Internationale Handelsgesellschaft, supra n 81.
  • Gases G-402/05P and G-415/05P Yassin Abdullah Kadi and Al Barakaat International Foundation v Council of the European Union and Commission of the European Communities [2008] EGR 1–6351.
  • AT Williams, “Taking Values Seriously: Towards a Philosophy of EU Law” (2009) 29 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 549, 575. McGlynn forwards a similar thesis with regard to the Court of Justice's approach to family law: McGlynn, supra n 2, 120.
  • N Walker, “Legal Theory and the European Union: A 25th Anniversary Essay” (2009) 29 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 581, 592.
  • See J Weiler, “The Community System: The Dual Character of Supranationalism” [1981] Yearbook of European Law 267, 292–93.
  • See eg two recent French judgments concerning public policy objections to the registration of parents of the same-sex on the birth certificates of adoptive children: Cour de Cassation. Premiere Chambre Civile, Arret n° 755 du 7 juin 2012 (11–30.261), Le procureur general pres la cour d'appel de Palais/M. X; M.Y; Cour de Cassation, Premiere Chambre Civile, Arret no 756 du 7 juin 2012 (11–30.262), Le procureur general pres la cour d'appel de Paris/MX; MY

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