ABSTRACT

Homosexuality and the European Court of Human Rights is the first book-length study of the Court’s jurisprudence in respect of sexual orientation. It offers a socio-legal analysis of the substantial number of decisions and judgments of the Strasbourg organs on the wide range of complaints brought by gay men and lesbians under the European Convention on Human Rights. Providing a systematic analysis of Strasbourg case law since 1955 and examining decades of decisions that have hitherto remained obscure, the book considers the evolution of the Court’s interpretation of the Convention and how this has fashioned lesbian and gay rights in Europe. Going beyond doctrinal analysis by employing a nuanced sociological consideration of Strasbourg jurisprudence, Paul Johnson shows how the Court is a site at which homosexuality is both socially constructed and regulated. He argues that although the Convention is conceived as a ‘living instrument’ to be interpreted ‘in the light of present-day conditions’ the Court’s judgments have frequently forged and advanced new social conditions in respect of homosexuality. Johnson argues that the Court’s jurisprudence has an extra-legal importance because it provides an authoritative and powerful discursive resource that can be mobilized by lesbians and gay men to challenge homophobic and heteronormative social relations in contemporary societies. As such, the book considers how the Court’s interpretation of the Convention might be evolved in the future to better protect lesbian and gay rights and lives.

chapter |16 pages

Introduction

part |45 pages

Making the homosexual of human rights

chapter |22 pages

Emerging voices

Homosexuality and the Commission 1955–1980

chapter |21 pages

An ontological struggle

The Court and the homosexual since 1981

part |27 pages

Methods and morals

chapter |25 pages

Homosexuality in the judicial laboratory

Instruments, interpretations and evolutions

part |119 pages

Existing jurisprudence and potential future developments

chapter |28 pages

‘An essentially private manifestation of the human personality'

The limitations of Article 8

chapter |25 pages

The anti-discrimination provisions of the Convention

Article 14 and Protocol 12

chapter |17 pages

A right to marriage?

Same-sex relationships and Article 12

chapter |29 pages

Expression, assembly and association

Articles 10 and 11

chapter |18 pages

Humiliation and debasement

Degrading treatment and Article 3

chapter |5 pages

Conclusions