The EU Top Court Rules that Married Same-Sex Couples Can Move Freely Between EU Member States as “Spouses”

Case C-673/16, Relu Adrian Coman, Robert Clabourn Hamilton, Asociaţia Accept v Inspectoratul General pentru Imigrări, Ministerul Afacerilor Interne

Bibliographic Data

ID12290529
AuthorsAlina Tryfonidou (0000-0003-0639-0356, University of Reading, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume27
Issue2
Pages211-221
Publication date2019-04-23
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Legal Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0966-3622 • E-ISSN: 1572-8455
PublisherSpringer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1007/s10691-019-09397-z
OpenAlexW2942373927
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited3

In the Coman case, the European Court of Justice was asked whether the term “spouse”—for the purposes of EU law—includes the same-sex spouse of an EU citizen who has moved between EU Member States. The ECJ answered this question affirmatively, holding that a refusal to recognise a same-sex marriage and the resultant refusal to grant family reunification rights to a Union citizen who moves to another Member State, would constitute an unjustified restriction on the right to free movement that Union citizens enjoy under EU law. This case comment analyses the judgment, arguing that the Court’s pronouncement is a very welcome first step towards marriage equality at a cross-border level in the EU. At the same time, following the delivery of this ruling, a lot of questions have arisen and gaps in the protection of same-sex couples persist, and these are also analysed in this piece

Economic Justice · Economics · European union · Member state · Member states · Political science · Sociology · Spouse · State (computer science · Conflict of Laws and Jurisdiction · Discrimination and Equality Law · European and International Law Studies · Law

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