New article on "gay" family life and the ECHR

Sabrina Ragone and Valentina Volpe have published an article in the German Law Journal titled "An Emerging Right to a 'Gay' Family Life? The Case Oliari v. Italy in a Comparative Perspective". 

Here is the abstract: 

This Article analyses, through the lens of comparative law, the Oliari and others v. Italy judgment,which was issued by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in July 2015. The Oliari case is important for being the first judgment in which the ECtHR established the granting of legal "recognition and protection" to same-sex couples as a positive obligation for the Member States of the Council of Europe on the basis of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In order to understand the role of judicial bodies in the progressive protection of homosexual rights, thisArticle combines an analysis of European case law with the national perspective. As it concerns the supranational facet, the authors illustrate Oliari's reasoning and situate the case in the jurisprudence of the ECtHR. Elements of both continuity and innovation emerge from the analysis, as well as a relevant dimension of judicial dialogue supporting the incremental recognition of gay rights inEurope. As it concerns the national facet, this specific case was initially dealt with at the domestic level and was the object of judgment 138/2010 by the Italian Constitutional Court. The judgment is critically put into perspective through the examination of the jurisprudence of other EuropeanConstitutional Courts (France, Portugal and Spain) that were called on to decide similar cases in the same period. Therefore, the Article offers a comparative analysis of the Oliari judgment clarifying its relevance and speculating on the potential value of this case for the future recognition of the right to a "gay" family life in Europe.

The article can be downloaded here:

http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/germlajo17&div=26&id=&page=