The recent development of family relations has created doubts on the reliability of the concepts of family law. Today, family law has become a controversial field in nearly every country. Contraception, abortion, new modes of procreation, same-gender cohabitation, and the specter of same-gender marriage have muddled the waters of family law. The difficulty consists of finding new concepts that are able to pacify family relations.
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References
1.
For the references, see François Rigaux, Les Personnes, vol. 1 of Les relations familiales (Brussels: Larcier, 1971), nos. 1333-60.
2.
Hyde v. Hyde, LR 1 P and M 130 (divorce court) (1866). Later on, Nachimson v. Nachimson, P 217 (AC) (1930); Argyll v. Argyll, 1 Ch 302, 322 (1967). Comp. on the customary union concluded in China after May 1931: Chan Shin Sui Ping v. Chan Ding Tsang, HKLR 283 (1958). The same notion of Christian marriage is also paramount in the United States: Reynolds v. United States, 98 US 145 (1878); Davis v. Beason, 133 US 333, 343 (1890).
3.
BverfG, July 29, 1959, BVerfGE 10, 59, 66.
4.
BverfG, October 4, 1993, Zeitschrift für das gesamte Familienrecht (1993): 1419.
5.
Hoge Raad, October 19, 1990, Nederl. Jurisp. (1992), no. 129.
6.
Layland v. Ontario, OJ 375 (Div. Ct.) (1993); Canada (AG) v. Mossop, SCJ 20 (1993).
7.
Since Baker v. Nelson, 191 NW 2d 185 (Minn. 1971), appeal dismissed, 409 US 810 (1973), to Dean and Gill v. District of Columbia, 21 Family LR 2001 (1995).
8.
Hoge Raad, October 19, 1990, above note 5.
9.
BVerfG, above, note 4.
10.
Ibid.
11.
Baker v. Nelson, above note 7, at 186.
12.
Adams v. Hoverton, 486 F Supp. 1119 (CD Cal. 1980), at 1123, aff'd, 673 F 2d 1036 (9th Cir.), certiorari denied, 458 US 1111 (1982).
13.
See, for instance, Andrée Lajoie, Roderick A. MacDonald, Richard Janda, and Guy Rocher, eds., Théories et émergence du droit: pluralisme, surdétermination et effectivité (Montréal: Les Editions Thémis ; Brussels: Bruylant, 1998).
14.
Rees v. United Kingdom, EHRR 56 (1987). That decision was undoubtedly influenced by a former English case, Corbett v. Corbett, P 83 (1971). It was reiterated in Cossey v. United Kingdom, series A, no. 184 (1990); B. v. France, 16 EHRR 1 (1992).
15.
Magnus Hirschfeld, Berlins drittes Geschlecht (Berlin: Leipzig, 1904), French translation: Le troisième sexe. Les homosexuels de Berlin (Paris: Roussel, 1908). Marcel Proust took notice of Hirschfeld's doctrine and adhered to it.
16.
For more developments, see François Rigaux, Plaisir, interdits et pouvoir, Une analyse des discriminations fondées sur le sexe, l'orientation sexuelle et la race (Universiteit Gent, Gandaius: Kluwer, 2000).
17.
Those three notions encompass different attitudes, which will not be distinguished in the present context.
18.
St. Augustine, De bono coniugali (401), III, 3, VII, 6, XVI, 18, XXIV, 32.
19.
Bowers v. Hardwick, CJ Burger concurring, 478 US 186 (1986), at 197. The text of Blackstone appears in its Commentaries of the Laws of England (1st ed. 1765-1769, 14th ed. with the last corrections of the author) (London: Straham, 1803), bk. IV, chap. 15, III-IV, pp. 215-16.
20.
Dudgeon v. United Kingdom, series A, no. 45 (judgment of October 22, 1981); Norris v. Ireland, series A, no. 142 (judgment of October 22, 1988); Modinos v. Cyprus, series A, no. 259 (judgment of April 22, 1993).
21.
BGH, December 14, 1994, FamRZ 1995, 344, 345. See also BverfG, November 17, 1992, BVerfGE 87, 234, 264-67.
22.
CJEC, 17 February 1998, case C-249/96, Grant and South-West Trains Ltd., Reports I-636. The case was decided against the conclusions of Advocate General Michael B. Elmer.
23.
See Andreas Wacke, "Die Registrierung homosexueller Partnerschaften in Dänemark," Zeitschrift für das gesamte Familienrecht (1990): 347-51; Linda Nielsen, "Family Rights and the `Registred Partnership' in Denmark," International Journal of Law and the Family 4 (1990): 297-307; Deborah M. Henson, "A Comparative Analysis of Same-Sex Partnership Protection: Recommendation for American Reform," International Journal of Law and the Family 7 (1993): 282-313.
24.
See Catherine Mecary and Gérard de la Pradelle, Les droits des homosexuels(les), 2d ed. (Paris: Puf, 1997), 107-12. For a broad survey of comparative law, see Caroline Forder and Silvana Lombardo, Civil Law Aspects of Emerging Forms of Registered Partnership (Ministry of Justice of the Netherlands, 1999); Jürgen Basedow, Klaus J. Hopt, Hein Kötz, and Peter Dopffel, eds., Die Rechtsstellung gleichgeschlechtlicher Lebensgemeinschaften (Tübingen: Mohr, 2000).
25.
Act of December 23, 1998, instituting legal cohabitation (instaurant la cohabitation légale), effective January 1, 2000. The new institution is inserted into articles 1475 and 1476 of the Civil Code.
26.
Act no. 99-944 of November 15, 1999, concerning the civil covenant of solidarity (pacte civil de solidarité, known as PaCS), Journal officiel de la République française, no. 265, November 16, 1999, 16959.
27.
Cheshire Calloun , "Denaturalizing and Desexualizing Lesbian and Gay Identity," Virginia LR79 (1993): 1859-75.
28.
BverfG, December 16, 1958, BVerfGE 9, 20, 32-33; November 17, 1992, BVerfGE 87, 234, 268-69.
29.
Contra in the case of transsexuals: ECHR, April 22, 1997, X.Y.Z. vs. United Kingdom, Revue trimestrielle des droits de l' homme, 1998, 117.
