ABSTRACT
When considering the “respect for family life” right of Convention Article 8, the ECtHR has adopted a concept of family that takes into account the effective existence of an affective and personal relationship derived from kinship and life in common, and not only from legally formalized ties. The Court has repeatedly affirmed that the existence of family life in the terms of Article 8 “is essentially a question of fact depending upon the existence of close personal ties”.1 It has reiterated that the notion of “family” in Article 8 is not confined solely to marriage-based relationships and may encompass other de facto “family” ties where the parties are living together outside of marriage.2 The Court accepts, in certain situations, the existence of a de facto family life between an adult and a child without their being bound by biological ties or a recognized legal relationship, provided that there are effective personal ties.3 Among these de facto relationships the Court has included not only situations of life in common between persons of different sex, but also situations of same-sex relationship. In X. v Austria4 the Court stated that the relationship of a cohabiting same-sex couple living in a stable de facto relationship falls within the notion of “family life” just as the relationship of a different-sex couple in the same situation would. Furthermore, the Court found in its admissibility decision in Gas and Dubois v France5 that the relationship between two women who were living together
and had entered into a civil partnership, and the child conceived by one of them by means of assisted reproduction but being brought up by both of them, constituted “family life” within the meaning of ECHR Article 8.
