In Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court extended the reach of the U.S. Constitution to the area of same-sex marriages. Europe, seen as a whole, seems to fall behind. While, in some countries, a right to same-sex marriage is acknowledged at the statutory level, its constitutional status remains unclear. And in many other countries legislation is less open towards same-sex couples. This is also seen at the supranational level, particularly in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights.

On the one hand, the European Court developed a sound jurisprudence protecting human rights independently on the sexual orientation of their holders. At first (1981), it held that the European Convention on Human Rights forbids imposition of criminal sanction on homosexual activities. Later (since 1999), it included sexual orientation into its list of “suspect classifications” under Article 14 of the Convention. In effect, distinctions based on sexual orientation are, in principle, regarded as violating of the prohibition of discrimination.

At the same time, however, the European Court is not ready to confirm that the right to marry (guaranteed in Article 12 of the Convention) applies to the same-sex couples. While the Court continues to strike down discriminatory regulations, it also invokes the concept of “margin of appreciation” to abstain from entering into such sensitive areas like same-sex partnerships or adoptions. It was only in 2015 (Oliari and Others v. Italy) when one of the chambers of the Court held that there is a “positive obligation” to introduce a specific legal framework providing for the recognition and protection of same-sex unions.  Whether and how it would be continued in the future remains still unknown."

Judge Lech Garlicki was born in 1946 in Warsaw, Poland and is a Polish jurist and constitutional law specialist. Since 1968 he has worked at the Warsaw University where he became a full professor in 1987. From 1980 to 1993, he was a member of the Warsaw bar. He became a Judge of the Constitutional Court of Poland in 1993 and worked in that position until 2002 when he became a Judge of the European Court of Human Right. He worked there until 2012 and was the president of the 4^th Section of the ECHR in 2011-2012. He is vice-president of the International Association of Constitutional Law and one of the Founding Members of the European Law Institute.

Judge Garlicki has lectured at numerous universities in Europe, the United States, Israel, Japan, China and Hong Kong. He served recently, as visiting professor, at the Tel Aviv University, Hong Kong University, New York University and is currently Visiting Professor of Law and Gruber Global Constitutionalism Fellow at Yale Law School (Spring term 2014 and Fall term 2015). He will be 2016/17 Pozen Visiting Professor in Human Rights at the Univerisity of Chicago.

Judge Garlicki is author or editor of over 300 publications in different languages, including a five-volume Commentary to the 1997 Constitution of Poland and two-volume Commentary to the European Convention on Human Rights.

This event is sponsored by The University of Chicago Law School International Programs, The University of Chicago Pozen Family Center for Human Rights, Human Rights Law Society, International Law Society, and Outlaw.

This event is free and open to the public, but seating may be limited.