Strasbourg Observers

View posts from: Article 12

  • Carmen Draghici

Fault-Based Divorce for Breach of Conjugal Duties: Reassessing Privacy and Sexual Freedom within Marriage 

April 15, 2025

by Carmen Draghici The Strasbourg Court has been notoriously reluctant to interfere with the domestic regulation of divorce, both as regards its availability (Johnston v. Ireland) and the grounds on which it may be obtained (Babiarz v. Poland, discussed here). Nonetheless, in H.W. v. France, issued in January 2025, it has shown willingness to review […]

  • Ignatius Yordan Nugraha

Consolidating the Legal Recognition and Protection of Same-Sex Couples: Koilova and Babulkova v. Bulgaria

November 07, 2023

by Ignatius Yordan Nugraha In today’s globalised world, a marriage contracted abroad is not a peculiar phenomenon. Same-sex couples from countries such as Bulgaria or Romania may decide to tie the knot in a country where same-sex marriage has been legalised to start a family life. These couples, however, face a major legal hurdle not […]

  • Claire Poppelwell-Scevak

‘Until social norms say I do’: How the Grand Chamber taketh and giveth away in Fedotova and Others v. Russia

April 12, 2023

By Claire Poppelwell-Scevak As we continue 2023, with the rise of the far right, the war in Ukraine and Russia’s absence at the Council of Europe, it may be difficult to be optimistic. However, I think that with the Grand Chamber’s judgment in Fedotova and Others v. Russia, there can be, at least, a sense […]

  • Guest Blogger

The Challenges of Saying ‘I do’ for same-sex couples: The Human Rights Centre submits a Third Party Intervention in transnational same-sex marriage case

November 20, 2020

By Claire Poppelwell-Scevak (PhD Researcher at the Human Rights Centre, Ghent University) and Sarah Den Haese (PhD Researcher at the Human Rights Centre, Ghent University) The Human Rights Centre of Ghent University[1] (Belgium) recently submitted a third party intervention (TPI) before the European Court of Human Rights in the communicated case of Szypuła v. Poland and […]