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发帖数: 29846 | 1 August 26, 2014 - 11:53 AM
By Lynne Marie Kohm
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that the European
Convention on Human Rights does not require nations to recognize same-sex
marriage.
This is a significant decision that could have a major impact here in the
United States. Our Supreme Court is expected to take up a marriage case in
the coming term, and several Justices look to emerging trends in
international law in forming their jurisprudence.
The case arises from a Finnish law that restricts marriage to one man and
one woman. When a married man had sexual reassignment surgery to become
female, Finland declined his attempt to change his legal status to female as
a violation of their national domestic relations law on the definition of
marriage. On appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, the marriage law
of Finland was under review. The Court held by a 14-3 vote that under the
European Convention on Human Rights, no country is required to recognize
same-sex marriage, affirming an earlier similar decision.
One reason the European Court said it reached its decision was based on the
fact that there is no ‘European consensus’ regarding same-sex marriage.
Ten countries recognize it, while 37 European nations do not, and the Court
concluded that the debate should continue, rather than for it to impose a
standard on all 47 nations in Europe. This is a ground-breaking decision
from Europe that has largely escaped the notice of the mainstream media.
Read more about it at LifesiteNews.com "European Court: Gay Marriage is Not
a Human Right," or at Breitbart.com "European Court Says No Right to Same-
Sex Marriage."
This decision supports an international position that same-sex marriage is
not a fundamental right. The Supreme Court of the United States would be
wise to follow the ECHR lead and should not try to impose a fifty-state
solution on the American people. Families are strengthened and restored by
stable marriage law, in Europe, in the United States, and around the world.
To read more about why this is good policy, read about how federalism works
in the context of marriage law, how state domestic relations law on marriage
can strengthen states and societies, and how expanding the definition of
marriage affects and impacts marriage.
Lynne Marie Kohm is Professor and John Brown McCarty Professor of Family Law
at Regent University School of Law, and is the author of a series of books
entitled Estate Planning Success and contributor to many other books, her
seminal work is Family Manifesto: What went wrong with the moral basis to
the family and how to restore it (W.S.Hein Co. 2007), and Estate Planning
Success for Women (Barron Pub. Co. 2005). |
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