ABSTRACT
In the United States and in Canada, same-sex marriage has been mainly introduced through landmark Supreme Court cases declaring the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage an unconstitutional violation of fundamental rights. In Europe, constitutional courts have usually been more deferent to national legislators and same-sex marriage has been mainly introduced by ordinary statutes. In this chapter, I aim to demonstrate that Europe and North America share many similarities in the synergy between national legislators and constitutional courts on the recognition of marriage equality. Both in Europe and North America, constitutional courts have helped to dismantle prejudice and forged constitutional arguments for the recognition of equal marriage. Furthermore, I argue that the relationship between constitutional courts and legislators also depends on the peculiar procedural and institutional arrangements governing the judicial review of legislation in each jurisdiction, and that ordinary courts should not be assimilated to supreme courts.
