Is Article 12 of the European Convention on Human Rights applicable to same-sex couples?

I published an article recently in the European Law Review about the history of the ‘right to marry’ enshrined in Article 12 of the European Convention on Human Rights. 

In that article I made the claim that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has consistently held that Article 12, which provides that ‘[m]en and women of marriageable age have the right to marry and to found a family…’,  is applicable only to marriage between persons of the opposite sex. This claim has caused some interesting discussion among colleagues who take the different view that the ECtHR has established that Article 12 is applicable to same-sex couples. 

In light of this, I have written a guest post for the European Courts website on the applicability of Article 12 to same-sex couples. The post can be found here:

http://europeancourts.blogspot.nl/2015/05/is-article-12-of-european-convention-on.html

I am very grateful to Marc de Werd, Professor of European law (Maastricht University) and judge in the Amsterdam Court of Appeal, who edits the European Courts website.