Paths to the Recognition of Homo-Parental Adoptive Rights: a QCA Analysis, Contemporary Politics 22(1): 40-56 (original) (raw)
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Journal of Law and Society, 2009
This article analyses two judgments by the ECHR on granting authorization to adopt to non-heterosexual people. E.B. v. France overturned Frette  v. France, establishing that refusing to grant adoption licences to gay, lesbian, and bisexual applicants is against the provisions of Article 14 (in conjunction with Article 8) of the European Convention. In Frette Â, an adoption licence was not granted to a single gay man due to, notably,`lack of scientific consensus' on the advisability of child rearing by non-heterosexuals. In E.B., it was established that prejudice against sexual minorities had`contaminated' the reasoning of the French administrative courts. The cases are considered from a sociological viewpoint, stressing that it is of vital importance to look at the non-legal expertise, knowledge, and theories referred to. Because of the politicized nature of the issue, scientific consensus or lack of it cannot be considered the final yardstick, and judges and decision-makers are faced with an inevitable political choice.
Social Attitudes toward Adoption by Same-Sex Couples in Europe (2016)
Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2016
By examining social attitudes on same-sex adoption in 28 European countries, we highlighted individual and country-level factors that can determine the level of social acceptance or rejection of this specific kind of adoption. This article contributes to the literature on social acceptance of lesbian women, gay men, and their adoption practices in Europe and directs attention to several previously under-researched aspects of social attitudes on same-sex parenting rights. The empirical base of this study was the fourth round of the European Values Study, conducted in 2008–2010. Using ordered logistic regressions, we examined the impact of several individual and country-level characteristics on the agreement level with the statement that “Homosexual couples should be able to adopt children.” We found strong relationships between social attitudes towards adoption by same-sex couples and the existence of legislation permitting same-sex adoption practices at the country-level, as well as some individual attitudes, including those related to traditional family formation practices, “justification of homosexuality,” and (non-) preference for homosexual neighbors. Our findings indicate a shift within the potential interpretational contexts of adoption by same-sex couples from a narrow sexuality-based framework to a different and possibly much wider context of family and parenting practices.
International Sociology, 2013
The process of policy diffusion is gaining increasing attention among social scientists. Following world society theory, a burgeoning literature reports a positive relationship between national linkages to global cultural norms and the diffusion of public policies. However, previous analyses do not simultaneously control for time-varying domestic cultural orientations. In order to conduct a stricter test of this theory, this paper examines the wave of same-sex union (SSU) laws in Europe. While in the mid-1980s, no European country provided explicit recognition to gay and lesbian couples, by 2009, sixteen European countries had legalized these unions. Using event history models, we test predictions of the world society theory and Inglehart’s (1997) domestic-cultural theory. Results provide strong support for the world society and domestic-cultural theories. Countries with a higher level of value secularization and stronger links to the global cultural order are more likely to introduce legal protections for SSUs.
Current Explanations for the Variation in Same-Sex Marriage Policies in Western Countries
Comparative Sociology, 2012
Over the last ten years, several western countries have recognized gay marriage either by providing gay couples the same rights as heterosexual couples, or by allowing civil unions. Other western countries have not. What accounts for this variation? This paper reviews and analyzes the key demographic, institutional and cultural arguments found in the literature on the legalization of gay marriageespecially as these pertain to cross-national comparison -and raises questions about assumptions regarding the extent to which there is variation on these variables across western countries. I argue that institutional and cultural explanations are only meaningful in explaining legalization when their combinations are specified in order to shed light on favorable (or unfavorable) circumstances for policy outcomes.
CKS 2013- Challenges in the knowledge society
Sexual orientation discrimination has been recently outlined within the Plenary Session of the European Parliament that took place in Brussels, on 24th May 2012 as a priority in the fight against discrimination of all kind, making a “call on EU member states to consider giving access to cohabitation, registered partnerships or marriage to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people”. Taking this statement as a starting point, this paper aims first to briefly analyse the European Union’s legislation defending sexual orientation discrimination and its limits. After that, a comparison between the Spanish and Romanian legislations will be made, choosing thus two countries within the EU that have very different paths and views in this matter, finally assessing the recent Tribunal Constitucional judgment regarding the constitutionality of same-sex marriage. In the same line our analysis will also focus on giving an overview of the EU panorama focusing on those countries that have extreme and opposite views about the matter. This study would not be complete without taking into account the contrary situation that is taking place in certain non-Member States of EU such as: Ukraine, Russia or Moldova. This fact was also highlighted by the European Parliament in the last Plenary Session saying that “in the European Union [and in other European states, referring to the recent situations occurred in Ukraine, Russian Federation or Moldova], the fundamental rights of LGBT people are not yet fully upheld”. CITE AS: 2011, ISSN-e 0719-1669, Universidad Viña del Mar, Chile, págs. 71-116. Jone Itxaro Elizondo Urrestarazu and Oana-Mariuca Petrescu "New tendencies regarding same-sex marriage in the Member States of the European Union: A brief inside and outside perspective", The International Conference– CKS 2013 –Challenges of the Knowledge Society E-book, Bucharest, 17th -18th May 2013, 7th Edition, ISSN 2068-7796, indexed by EBSCO Database and Index Copernicus Database, pag. 1192- 1207.
European Private Law eJournal, 2015
The European “backyard of rights” is enlarging and Member States face a new period of acknowledgment of human rights. The guarantee of the new rights occurs both through national legislation and through the jurisprudence of international or supranational courts. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) became the “fourth judge” called to intervene when the domestic legislation is not guardian of new rights regarding the recognition of the same-sex couples but also the adoption of a child by these couples. In this sense, recently the ECtHR ruled that the impossibility of second-parent adoption in a same-sex relationship is discriminatory when such adoption is possible for unmarried heterosexual couples, although the exclusion of the biological parent. Thus, the decision of the ECtHR established the principle that the adoption of children by same-sex partners should be possible, as it is for heterosexual unmarried couples.
Developments in European Law and European Union Policy on same-sex couples: An Overview of judicial, legislative and policy developments in the recognition of same-sex couples in Europe. This paper examines one development in one aspect of European Family law, the Legal recognition of same-sex couples. It provides an overview of the legislative, judicial, and policy background over the past two decades that have affected and effected the legislation, judicial and policy direction with regards to same-sex marriage and registered partnerships in European states. The granting of legal recognition to same-sex couples in Europe and the associated rights and obligations. In addition the paper examines the European Union’s position on these developments in regards to these development in the European Union. As such the paper examines and discusses a number of salient cases as well as various national acts and Conventions. The paper also seeks to identify the various impetuses behind the various forms of legal recognition of Same-Sex Couples in European States. Part one traces developments of within the national and the EU context via legislative, judicial and policy developments. It discusses the different elements and approaches that European states have taken towards granting legal recognition and protection of same-sex couples. This involves examining what was the impetus behind each change: National or extra national jurisprudence, national or EU legislation or policy. Part two examines the position that the European Union has taken on this issue particularly through the conventions, the courts and policies. The paper shows how the main impetus for change has come from national legislatures. This has in turn impacted other national legislatures as well as influenced the courts. The paper raises some issues about the impact of enlargement both in regards to the development of a common trend with regards to the legal recognition of same-sex couples and the attitude of the European courts in this respect.