Historical Institutionalism and Same-Sex Marriage: A Comparative Analysis of the USA and Canada

This article provides a comparative analysis of the situation of sexual minorities and their legal rights in Europe, the USA and Russia, as well as their differences, and the attitude of society to people of non-traditional orientation. In addition, the article considered the main problem of modern society is the inability of people to perceive non-traditional relations in military service, in employment at work and much more. Even many liberal countries still do not fully approve of this kind of relationship. Many same-sex couples are prohibited from adopting children, and there are real problems in the field of inheritance law. The article addressed the problem of discrimination of these relations in Russia. This article also examined court practice regarding the underreporting of the rights of sexual minorities.

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Liberty, Equality and the Right to Marry under the Fourteenth Amendment

British Journal of American Legal Studies ◽

10.1515/bjals-2017-0012 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 241-262

Author(s):

Ian Loveland

Keyword(s):

Due Process ◽

Fourteenth Amendment ◽

Federal Courts ◽

State Courts ◽

Same Sex ◽

Same Sex Marriage ◽

Same Sex Couples ◽

The Supreme Court ◽

The Usa ◽

The Right

Abstract The legitimacy of recent judgments in the Supreme Court, lower federal courts and State courts which have extended the scope of the Due Process and/or Equal Protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment has been a fiercely contested controversy in legal and political circles in the USA. The controversy has been especially sharp in relation to the question of same sex marriage, and specifically whether it is within State competence to refuse to allow same sex couples to marry under State law. This paper explores that legitimation controversy through a multi-contextual analysis of the Supreme Court’s starkly divided judgment in Obergefell v Hodges (2015), in which a bare majority of the Court concluded that a State ban on same sex marriage was incompatible with the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This paper critiques both the majority and dissenting opinions, and suggests that while one might applaud the substantive conclusion the Court has reached, the reasoning offered by the majority suffers from several obvious weaknesses both in narrow doctrinal terms and from the broader perspective of safeguarding the Court from well-founded criticism that it is overstepping the bounds of its legitimate constitutional role.

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Status of same-sex marriage in the USA as of 4 December 2014

Trusts & Trustees ◽

10.1093/tandt/ttu222 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 21 (1-2) ◽

pp. 30-50

Author(s):

Frank S. Berall

Keyword(s):

Same Sex ◽

Same Sex Marriage ◽

The Usa

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Rethinking the Secular in Feminist Marriage Debates

Studies in Social Justice ◽

10.26522/ssj.v4i1.1008 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 47-66

Author(s):

Ada S. Jaarsma

Keyword(s):

Comparative Analysis ◽

Critical Theory ◽

Religious Freedom ◽

Discourse Ethics ◽

Religious Right ◽

Same Sex ◽

Same Sex Marriage

The religious right often aligns its patriarchal opposition to same-sex marriage with the defence of religious freedom. In this article, I identify resources for confronting such prejudicial religiosity by surveying two predominant feminist approaches to same-sex marriage that are often assumed to be at odds: discourse ethics and queer critical theory. This comparative analysis opens to view commitments that may not be fully recognizable from within either feminist framework: commitments to ideals of selfhood, to specific conceptions of justice, and to particular definitions of secularism. I conclude by examining the "postsecular" turn in feminism, suggesting that we can see the same-sex marriage debate not in terms of an impasse between differing feminist approaches, but in terms of shared existential and ethical affinities.

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